Dear Editor:
I am providing an update to the communities of Invermere and Windermere of the petition initiated last Summer to reduce the maximum speed limit on Highway 93/95.
The online petition I initiated in WWW.Change.org last Summer got 386 signatures.
Doug Clovechok’s – MLA Constituency Assistant advised to send the petition to the Office of the Premier; this I did via email on Jan. 13, 2021, including 18 pages of signatures.
On Feb. 5, 2021, the Premier’s Office responded informing that the petition was forwarded to the Honourable Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
On March 29, 2021 Rob Fleming- MLA, Minister of Transportation responded to the petition. For publishing constraints, I am editing the Minister response.
298233 – Highway 93/95 speed limit. Dear Edward Mayer and co-signers: Thank you for your email of January 13, 2021 regarding safety on Highway 93/95 in the Windermere and Invermere areas.
Ministry staff are going to review the speed limit along this section of Highway 93/95. The review will take place during the peak summer season to ensure it considers the highway at its busiest. In addition to reviewing the speed limit, staff will explore opportunities to better facilitate access on and off the highway and assess the most recent collision data for this area to inform their work.
Ministry engineers consider many factors when setting speed limits, including the intended use of the road and its design speed, adjacent land use, intersections, accesses, traffic volumes, road characteristics such as curves and sightlines, and the route’s safety history.
From experience, we know most drivers will travel at a speed that they feel is safe for a road, regardless of the posted speed limit. Speed limits that drivers perceive as being set artificially low tend to be ignored and can create more dangerous conditions for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, who may wrongly expect vehicles to be travelling more slowly.
You may be interested to know that, according to RoadSafetyBC, the number of fatal motor vehicle incidents across the Southern Interior region has been trending downward for 10 years. Speed-related collisions and all collisions involving injuries or fatalities are down by at least 20 per cent over previous years. Sincerely,
Rob Fleming – Minister; Copy to: Premier John Horgan; Honourable Mike Farnworth – Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General MLA, Port Coquitlam; Cory Schmidt, Area Manager, Roads Cranbrook Office
Edward Mayer, Invermere
