Salt Spring Islanders have spoken, and now their feedback — about which of our crosswalks need to be made safer, sooner — has helped planners come up with functional designs for six island intersections.
And after multiple public engagement events, online polling and several on-the-ground data collection efforts, Watt Consulting Group’s Steve Martin told Salt Spring’s Local Community Commission (LCC) they were able to prioritize several intersections that kept coming up — and propose solutions for each that hopefully won’t break the bank.
Martin said among dozens of comments received at various events, the “absolute top” complaint was around vehicles speeding through areas with high pedestrian traffic and poor visibility of crosswalks — leaving walkers feeling unsafe when trying to use them.
It’s an issue exacerbated, he said, by the number of vulnerable users on the island that might need a little more time to get across a road. Martin said flashing lights at crosswalks were consistently found effective in helping pedestrians feel “safe and seen” when crossing traffic, as were better pavement markings and flashing lights.
“There were just a lot of safety concerns out there with sight lines and high speeds,” he said. “There are a lot of residents using these crosswalks at all times of the day.”
The intersection of Lower Ganges and Upper Ganges roads topped the list, as high speeds and the failure of drivers to yield to pedestrians in intersections prompted multiple complaints — borne out, Martin said, by their in-person site review. While a roundabout was the “top recommendation” — both from the consulting team and the public who responded — the study was limited to crosswalks, so the consultants produced a design incorporating relocating the crossing to the pedestrian-preferred east side, adding better signage and striping, putting in flashing lights and creating a pedestrian refuge island halfway across.
“The pedestrian refuge island was pretty well-received during the open house,” said Martin. “It allows pedestrians to cross one half of the road at a time, and they stand within a kind of protected curb area before crossing the next half.”
Next on the list were Lower Ganges and Atkins roads, where the north-south trail along Atkins produced a lot of pedestrian volume; Lower Ganges at Blain Road, where conflict between vehicles and people crossing for the grocery store produced safety concerns; Fulford-Ganges Road at the Canco and the parking lot across the street, where 47 per cent of Saturday Market visitors exiting the park simply wandered across toward the Pharmasave/Creekhouse/Salt Spring Coffee parking lot after shopping; Lower Ganges at the Purvis Lane and Hereford Avenue intersection; and Lower Ganges at Village Terrace.
“Our speed study was done right beside that [Village Terrace] crosswalk, and we found that 95 per cent of people were going faster than the speed limit,” said Martin. “They’re going fast there.”
Not included in this study was Fulford-Ganges at Seaview Avenue, where a crosswalk was added as part of the larger road project uphill and reportedly may be targeted by the province for further improvement. Also not “in scope” was the intersection of Lower Ganges and Fulford-Ganges roads — already identified as a priority by both the 2022 Salt Spring Island Cycling Safety Strategy and the 2023 Active Transportation Network Plan.
Cost estimates for each of the intersection improvements are still being put together, Martin said, pending some feedback from both the CRD and the Ministry of Transportation and Transit, after which he expected the full analysis would be back to the LCC by the beginning of January.
And while the notion of specifically securing funding for the crosswalks was still a ways off — there may be help from the ministry or ICBC, according to staff, as some or all are added to capital planning in 2027 — the sense from the consultant was that the projects were, at least, aligned with provincial goals.
“The idea has been to make these projects as feasible as possible for the ministry, while also improving safety for all the users here,” said Martin. “My general take from our meeting was very positive with the ministry, and that they’re happy to see some improvements going forward.”
“Civilization comes to Salt Spring,” quipped LCC member and CRD director Gary Holman. “Possibly.”
If both the consulting team and responding Salt Spring Island residents favoured a traffic circle over crosswalks for the intersection at Lower and Upper Ganges roads, why on earth was this option not included in the study? Another example of a study skewed to come up with a predetermined solution?