President ...................Tony Richmond

Vice President .........Grant Thompson

Treasurer............... Marilyn Richmond

Secretary..................Sarah Vantnsdal

Director at Large...............Don James

BOARD OF THE SOCIETY

Helpful links

Bus schedules, fares and more on the Sunshine

Coast Transit System website

Write to us at:

Route 101 Safety Society

43-1413 Sunshine Coast Hwy

Gibsons, B.C.

V0N 1V5

Phone 604 886-0289

(Tony or Marilyn Richmond home)

e-mail

More than 50 tips provide important information

about driving techniques and road safety issues

Traffic safety in B.C.

Your teenager isn’t too old for a reminder

about the proper use of cross walks.  There are

many students who run across Route 101 near

Elphinstone Secondary, most of them within a

few feet of the pedestrian activated street light at the Mall.

PRESS RELEASE

Upper Gibsons and the new traffic pattern   April 13, 2009

The recent changes to the traffic pattern between Pratt and North Roads in Upper Gibsons gives us

pause to wonder just WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

How on earth did the powers that be come up with the notion that eliminating an entire lane of traffic in

each direction could do anything other than cause congestion?  What ever happened to the idea of

government transparency?  The public should have been asked for input well before the decision to

proceed had already been made.

These changes were supposed to ensure the smooth and efficient flow of traffic through this area.  What

it has done is slow traffic, created serious driver frustration and it will impede emergency vehicles during

critical incidents.  This is a recipe for more accidents.  The term used by the Department of Highways is

called "traffic calming".  We think a more appropriate term would be traffic gridlock. During "ferry traffic"

hours traffic becomes seriously bottled up and slowed to a virtual crawl through this area.  With the onset of

the tourist season traffic snarls will last longer and become more frequent. This could result in discouraging

visitors from coming to our area.  In that event, the financial stability of some of our businesses could be

threatened.

Early last fall highways officials held a forum to present this plan.  Approximately 100 local residents

attended this meeting.  Their response to this proposal was vocal and overwhelmingly against it.  Obviously

the Department did not listen to the concerns of our citizens.  It is hard to figure why this meeting was held

in the first place.  Minds had already been made up.  Now it seems that we are paying for increased traffic

congestion.  Something is wrong with this picture!

Just a few years ago more than one million dollars was spent widening much of this portion of the

highway.  Now it has been torn up and replaced.  This is a blatant waste of taxpayer dollars.  

The Route 101 Safety Society recently received two letters from Transportation Minister Falcon in

response to our ideas regarding the need for a new highway between Gibsons and Sechelt.  The Minister

advised us to contact Mr. Don Legault, Area District Manager for the Sunshine Coast for future discussions

and communications regarding Highway 101.  The Society has been against the Upper Gibsons project

from the very beginning..  Therefore we strongly recommend that everyone expresses their concerns to:

Mr. Don Legault, Area District Manager

Sunshine Coast Department of Highways,

Phone:  604-740-8987,

Email: Don.Legault@gov.bc.ca

mailto:Don.Legault@gov.bc.ca

If the public would start complaining and keep it up, the right things may start to happen.

We'll keep you all posted.

Nick Proach, President,

Route 101 Safety Society