According to the number crunchers at ICBC, some of the major intersections on Highway 99 in Squamish are accident magnets. In fact, the Cleveland Avenue/Highway 99 interchange has one of highest crash rates of any intersection along the Sea to Sky Highway.
Officials from the Squamish RCMP detachment attribute most of those collisions to speeding, distracted driving, or failure to obey traffic control devices. As much as that reasoning makes sense, what is rarely mentioned as a contributing factor is the built-in design flaw afflicting not just the Cleveland Avenue/Highway 99 southbound intersection but Garibaldi Way northbound to Highway 99 as well.
As it turns out, the roads scholars from the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure neglected to install merge lanes at those key junctions. In an effort to make it the safest thoroughfare in the province, the provincial government spent $775 million on the Sea to Sky Highway upgrades, but it looks like corners were cut right here in our backyard to save money.
And the potential for mishaps at those crossroads will not lessen anytime soon. The building boom in town has already increased vehicular traffic volume significantly. In the next few years that trend will accelerate dramatically with Squamish becoming the go-to location as housing prices on the Lower Mainland reach the stratosphere.
Speaking of accidents waiting to happen, last summer, after energetic lobbying from higher speed limit activists, the B.C. Minister of Transportation ratcheted up the speed parameters on major provincial highways. It’s hard to understand the reasoning behind a limit of 90 kilometres an hour south of Squamish, where there are extended four-lane sections with cement lane dividers, while on the twisting passage through the Cheakamus Canyon, with few median barriers, the limit is 10 kilometres per hour higher.
And despite what the signs say, 100 is merely a suggestion. The de facto speeds are in the 110-120 kilometres an hour range on a stretch of highway that can get downright nasty in a hurry. Luckily, this past winter serious and prolonged weather-related challenges were rare. Next year could be a different story.
Still, there may have been a foreshadowing of things to come after a sudden snow storm blanketed the highway in early January. Excessive speed, inadequately equipped vehicles and too many drivers paying little heed to changing conditions became a formula for mayhem. Eventually traffic was halted for hours until the mess got sorted out on a busy main road that, given the situation, could easily have been referred to as the Sea to Circus Highway.
Overall, according to ICBC, accidents have declined significantly since the upgrades were completed. But let’s wait for the publication of the latest statistics to see how the higher speed limits have impacted traffic-related injury and fatality rates so far.
