Saanich council has adopted its new road safety plan, the first on Vancouver Island, which will cost $21 million over 10 years and sets a goal to eliminate fatal crashes.
Council was unanimous in endorsing the plan, which has been just over two years in the making and stems from council’s adoption in February 2022 of Vision Zero, a goal to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities on roads.
“For me, this one is particularly important and was one of the main motivations for me to run for mayor,” said Mayor Dean Murdock. “I’ve got kids and I see what folks deal with as they make their way around the community — navigating infrastructure or a lack of infrastructure that doesn’t allow them to feel safe or be safe on our roads. No parent should be worried about their kid not making it home at the end of the school day. We’re committed to making our roads safer for everyone.”
According to Saanich staff, there were 12 fatal crashes in the district between 2016 and 2022, and every 10 hours there’s an injury crash on district roads.
Vision Zero, first adopted in Sweden in 1997, aims to reach zero road fatalities through better road design, speed reduction and other measures.
Saanich has already started down this path by reducing speeds on nine of its traffic corridors and some of its busier residential streets.
The road safety plan identifies 30 actions that align with the goal of zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries.
Among the actions are improving sightlines at intersections and driveways, installing more sidewalks, providing better access to transit stops, improving safety at crosswalks with signs and lighting, providing left-turn lanes and left-turn lights, and considering roundabouts when intersections are redesigned.
It identifies 20 priority locations — 13 intersections and seven corridors — that are the most crash-prone locations, and will be the focus of most safety improvements.
Top priority for attention are the intersections of McKenzie and Quadra and McKenzie and Shelbourne, identified as the highest crash-prone intersections. While rear-ending was the most common crash type at Quadra and McKenzie, there were a high number of crashes at Shelbourne and McKenzie in wet weather.
Also on the priority list are building multi-modal streets that include emphasis on transit and infrastructure for walking and cycling, improving safety at high-crash locations on highways, encouraging transit ridership to reduce private vehicle usage and developing education and awareness campaigns.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure our roads are safe. But you’ve got a council and an organization in the district of Saanich that’s committed to road safety and a vision to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our roads,” said Murdock.
Coun. Teale Phelps Bondaroff said safety is a barrier holding people back from choosing active transportation options.
“I’m really excited to have the first road safety action plan on Vancouver Island,” he said. “The approach we have here is a really good start to getting us towards Vision Zero.”
The plan comes with a hefty pricetag.
Council directed staff to bring forward a request for a $250,000 to pay for non-infrastructure items in the action plan, and a $2 million request to pay for short-term infrastructure items.
“It’s resource intensive because a lot of the work involves infrastructure upgrades,” said Murdock. “The reality is road improvements are costly and there will be resources required in order to do this work.”
Council endorsed district staff’s plans to develop a long-term funding strategy that includes both taxation measures and borrowing to pay for the rest of the plan over the next decade.
The total cost is estimated at $21 million, $5 million of which might be found in existing municipal resources and existing projects.
“There’s a commitment from myself and from council that we’re prepared to provide the resources to support this work because we view it as important,” the mayor said.
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