By Steve Hubrecht
Before someone is injured or killed, a group of Invermere residents concerned about speeding wants to see stop signs and a crosswalk on a street that sees plenty of pedestrians and vehicles jostling for position.
The residents live along or near 5th Street at the north end of Upper Invermere. Over the past few years as Invermere’s population leapt dramatically (exploding from just under 3,000 to just under 4,000 in a decade), so too did the volume of traffic using 5th Street as a conveniently stop-sign free artery to get between 10th Avenue and 13th Avenue.
“There’s too many people that just race up 5th Street,” resident Barry Wiseman told the Pioneer. “Some seem to feel it’s a quarter-mile drag strip.”
The speeders come from a wide demographic; teenagers, younger adults, middle aged adults, and even some seniors too, said Wiseman, adding that while most are driving private vehicles, some are driving business and commercial vehicles.
Many of these vehicles are hitting speeds up to and even in excess of 80 kilometres per hour, he estimated. This on a street that has no sidewalks and is heavily used by all sorts of pedestrians: cyclists; seniors out for a stroll; families walking to and from downtown; preschool groups out for a walk; kids on skateboards and on foot going to primary, elementary and high schools; and others.
“We really feel there is an accident waiting to happen. We want to do something before that occurs,” said Wiseman.
He pointed to statistics in reports in several Canadian municipalities (including Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto) that outline widely varying survival rates for pedestrians struck by vehicles travelling at different speeds: 90 per cent survival rate for pedestrians struck by vehicles travelling at 30 kilometres per hour; 50 per cent for vehicles travelling 45 kilometres per hour; 15 per cent for vehicles travelling 60 kilometres per hour; and virtually no chance at all for vehicles travelling 80 kilometres per hour.
“A lot of people (living on 5th Street) are fearful,” said Wiseman, adding one new neighbour “told me ‘I didn’t realized I’d moved to a speedway’.” Wiseman noted other neighbours pointedly always reverse into their driveway so that they are facing forward when they next drive out on to 5th Street. They do so because “backing out is just too dangerous,” he said.
Wiseman and other residents have asked the District of Invermere for solutions to the issue. They gathered signatures on a petition, representing almost every resident on or near 5th Street. Eventually the district did install two temporary stop signs at the intersection of 5th Street and 12th Avenue.
That has helped a bit (Wiseman said traffic has calmed somewhat, both in speed and in sheer volume). But one of the temporary stop signs was recently stolen (and then later replaced). Residents on 5th Street feel more can — and should — be done.
“We’re fighting for the temporary stop signs put in to be made permanent. We’re fighting for new stop signs (at the intersection of 5th Street and 13th Avenue). We’re fighting for a crosswalk (also at the intersection of 5th Street and 13th Avenue),” said Wiseman. The 5th Street residents also plan to ask the RCMP to do spot checks in the area to catch speeders, and to ask the district to at least consider permanently lowering the un-posted speed limit on 5th Street, if not all residential streets in Invermere, to 30 kilometres per hour.
Several municipalities in Canada, including Vancouver, Victoria, Canmore, Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto have already adopted or are considering adopting reduced un-posted speed limits of either 30 kilometres per hour or 40 kilometres per hour on residential streets.
Wiseman outlined that 5th Street is hardly the only street in Invermere with a speeding problem, saying “this issue is happening in many other places in the district.”
“The increase in traffic in Invermere as a whole is horrific, which of course increases traffic everywhere. I have never ever experienced traffic in this town as it is now,” added longtime 5th Street resident Diane Cote.
The 5th Street residents were scheduled to meet with Invermere officials at the committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 13.
