OPINION
It’s time for a review of how commercial highway traffic flows through our urban/residential areas.
Recent collisions along downtown Salmon Arm’s Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) corridor suggest there’s an incongruity to the province’s desire to move traffic through the community as quickly and as safely as possible.
It was this motive that, in 2013, led to a recommendation from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and ICBC to co-ordinate highway traffic signals through Salmon Arm, so that traffic, particularly semi-tractor trailers, “won’t be racing through town to make the green lights.”
Despite the subsequent syncing of green lights, or maybe because of it, the race continues. This is evident in public video footage of a Dec. 24 collision at the Shuswap Street/TCH intersection in which a semi collided with a municipal transit bus.
City of Salmon Arm council fought a long battle with the ministry to have a red light traffic camera placed at the Alexander Street/TCH intersection, with the hope it would help slow traffic and make the corridor safer for pedestrians.
MOTI argued a camera wouldn’t slow traffic, but instead result in more rear-end collisions – such as what occurred at the Ross Street/TCH intersection on Jan. 18, when a semi rear-ended one vehicle and pushed it into another.
The tragic result of this incident can be seen on this week’s front page.
Columbia Shuswap Regional District directors have shared their concerns with the ministry regarding commercial vehicle traffic on the TCH.
South Shuswap Area C director Paul Demenok said he’s been forced off the road twice by transport trucks.
Perhaps traffic cameras need to be considered, or reconsidered, along with other options that prioritize the safety of community over the need for speed.