A Bastion Elementary student's request to make a city crosswalk safer was well received by Salmon Arm council.
In their letter, received at the Oct. 28 council meeting, Grade 5 student Luka Mae Larson explained they walk to school every morning, and find that sometimes cars don't stop at the crosswalk where the Turner Creek Trail crosses 20th/21st Street NE.
"I think it would be a good idea to put a crossing light there so that cars know that pedestrians are waiting to cross," wrote Luka, who thanked council for all the hard work being done to make the city better and safer.
Coun. Sylvia Lindgren said "these are the kinds of letters we like to get."
"I don’t know if this student is extremely astute or has some very good coaching from somebody, but this is a very well written letter with a very good introduction about who they are and what the problem is, a suggested solution and an acknowledgement of the other hard work that city council and staff do," said Lindgren. "This is the best kind of letter that we ever get here."
Lindgren asked if staff had any other information to provide and if the letter should be recommended to the city's Traffic Safety Committee.
Coun. Kevin Flynn said he supported the letter going the committee, and agreed with Luka on the crossing light.
"There’s a flashing light at Okanagan that seems to work fairly well – not saying it always works – but I’ve seen people standing at this one waiting and people just ignore them, so I think, I don’t know if we play a role in traffic safety or if it’s meant to be an amendment, but I would suggest this is probably a good location for one of the flashing lights that is started by a pedestrian," said Flynn.
Before supporting a motion to refer the letter to the committee through staff, city engineering and public works director Rob Niewenhuizen explained that in 2020, a study was done by the city in partnership with ICBC to "investigate all of our crosswalks and which ones would be warranted for these types of apparatus…"
"This location was actually identified for a proposed rapid flashing beacon, so we are also preparing a report in regards to the BC Vision Zero road safety grant, and this is one location we’ll be looking at recommending to council," said Niewenhuizen.
