A brush with tragedy is elevating the issue of pedestrian safety on Marine Avenue, but changes to lower current speed limits on Powell River’s main street may only happen if the city is able to convince the provincial government to reroute Highway 101. Currently, Marine Avenue is designated as the provincial highway.
City of Powell River councillor Russell Brewer raised the issue at a committee of the whole meeting on August 30 after learning a five-year-old girl was hit by a car while crossing Marine last month. The girl sustained scrapes and bruises, but the incident serves as a reminder about road safety a decade after another five-year-old girl was killed near the corner of Marine and Joyce avenues.
“The number of times folks come up to those crosswalks and lock up on the brakes seems to be a lot higher,” Brewer told the committee. “We really need to reduce the speed limit down there; 50 kilometres per hour just does not make sense.”
According to Powell River RCMP constable Kerri Chard, on August 19 a five-year-old girl was struck by a car travelling at low speed while she crossed the street with her father on Marine near Base Camp Coffee.
The girl and her father were crossing in front of a southbound car that had temporarily blocked traffic as it parallel parked on the street, said Chard.
“The young girl was walking ahead of her father and stepped out as a northbound vehicle was travelling by,” said Chard. “The driver attempted to stop in time but the young girl was bumped by the vehicle. She fell to the ground and sustained minor scrapes on her arm and leg.” Chard estimates that the vehicle was travelling between 20 and 30 kilometres per hour.
Though the girl was not severely injured, it is a grim reminder of the 2006 incident, when that five-year-old girl, who was supervised and using a crosswalk at the time, was struck near the old Thunder Bay Store. According to a BC Coroners Service report, the vehicle involved in that incident was estimated to be travelling between 44 and 57 kilometres per hour.
Brewer said he has heard stories from Marine Avenue business owners of increasing numbers of incidents where drivers are travelling under the speed limit, but are forced to make sudden stops along the stretch of road between Alberni and Duncan streets. Brewer said he would like to see the 50-kilometre limit reduced.
Mayor Dave Formosa said part of the problem is the limited visibility of the crosswalks for drivers. Due to the tightness of the road and cars parked on both sides, drivers do not always see pedestrians trying to cross at the crosswalk, said Formosa.
“That’s the reason why we’ve gone to these crosswalks with flashing lights,” he said.
With the completion of Westview Elementary School, the city installed a controlled crossing with flashing lights on Joyce Avenue near the school. In response to the 2006 death, BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure installed a controlled crossing at Marine and Joyce avenues in 2008.
Marine Avenue crosswalks near Base Camp and in front of MLA Nicholas Simons’ office are not controlled. The estimated cost of the controlled crossings is $100,000, said Formosa.
Marine Avenue, considered Highway 101 through town, is under the ministry’s jurisdiction. It is also the designated truck route, so with increases in summer tourism traffic there has been growing worry about the mixing of industrial traffic with cars, pedestrians and cyclists.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway, who works at Simons’ office, said there is increased traffic danger with Marine also serving as the truck route through town.
“When you see a fully loaded logging truck coming through at 50 kilometres per hour, you know they are not going to be able to stop,” she said.
Hathaway said that in the past it took considerable lobbying to have the ministry reduce speed limits from 60 to 50 kilometres per hour on Marine. She said the city does not currently have the ability to set a lower speed limit on the road.
One potential solution to Marine’s increased traffic may be to move commercial trucks to another route, an idea that has been considered for at least the past three decades. The ministry has confirmed it is willing to at least entertain the idea.
Transportation ministry spokesperson Kate Mukasa said the province will be initiating a planning study to evaluate if a business case exists for rerouting the highway through what is known locally as the “Manson Divide,” the unfinished stretch of Manson Avenue between Kemano Street and Thunder Bay Road.
Once linked, Manson could then also be connected to Townsite and the barge terminal near the mill along the logging road.
According to the ministry, the business case would compare the cost of constructing the bypass with any anticipated savings for maintenance, travel time and safety improvement, among other factors. The ministry and city would be involved in the evaluation to determine impacts and benefits for the city and province, said Mukasa. Results of that study will be released in 2017, she said.
If the business case can be made, Marine would become a city road and Manson would become the provincial highway, said Formosa. In that situation, the city would be able to lower the speed limit, a move that may help further develop the Marine area as a more pedestrian-friendly shopping district.
Formosa said he is happy the ministry is preparing to conduct the assessment. He said he and Hathaway brought the idea up previously in a meeting with transportation minister Todd Stone.
“We were happy they actually took us seriously,” said Formosa. “Somebody needed to start this and push this agenda. Why shouldn’t it be us?”
City staff have been working over the years to purchase property along the road’s proposed path and only one or two parcels have yet to be bought, he said.
Formosa added that the aim is to establish “a proper truck route.” He said there has been growing worry Marine Avenue between Duncan and Penticton streets could be further destabilized by the continual traffic of loaded down trucks.
“That road can’t take the weight of trucks anymore,” said Formosa. “It’s a problem.”
