The following letter is from Jennifer Mansour’s class at Learning Connections.
Over the past few years, Squamish B.C. has become well known. The number of tourists, visitors, and outdoor enthusiasts who have stopped in Squamish or have just driven through, has majorly increased. On the weekends alone, it is very difficult just using the highway between the downtown area, and the Garibaldi Highlands or Brackendale. What this means, is that our roads have become very busy and even more dangerous. Due to an increase of traffic on our highways, many intersections have become even more dangerous to drive through.
One intersection in particular is the intersection that allows you to turn toward downtown Squamish. It also leads out of Squamish toward Vancouver southbound, and leads on towards Whistler northbound. The intersection that I am speaking about is the intersection of Highway 99 and Cleveland Avenue.
This intersection has been known as the most dangerous intersection in the regional district. Between 2,800-4,000 vehicles drive through there everyday. In the past, the intersection of Highway 99 and Mamquam Rd. was Squamish’s most dangerous intersection. There was a total of 61 crashes over a period of five years .
However, studies have shown that over 186 vehicle crashes have occurred at the Highway 99/ Cleveland Ave. intersection in a period of five years. In the Squamish Lillooet Regional District area, 186 crashes is three times higher than any other intersection. When you compare the Highway 99/Cleveland Avenue intersection to Highway 99 and Lorimer Rd. (which is another well known intersection in Whistler), in the same five year period, has had a total of only 51 crashes.
After looking into various solutions, it has come to my attention that public trains would be a good fix to this issue. There could be a number of trains that would run between Vancouver and Whistler. They could run as early as 5 a.m. and go as late as 11 p.m..
This would decrease the amount of traffic build-up on our highway everyday, as people could commute by train. This would help lower the amount of vehicle crashes at the Highway 99 and Cleveland Avenue intersection.
