A delegation went to the 100 Mile House and District council meeting on Sept. 25 to bring up what they called an ongoing safety concern on the Cariboo Trail that hasn’t been solved in the past 20 or so years.
“Do we have to wait until someone is dead there before anything is done?” inquired Ted Shields, a member of the delegation. “The biggest reason we’re here is that I think we’ve been neglected as citizens up our way due to the speeding issue.”
Shields and the delegation said that the average speed of vehicles going through the Cariboo Trail is 50 kilometres per hour but can go as high as 110. He went on to describe how residents, especially seniors, are afraid to walk up the road because of the cars brushing past behind them,
“I find it very concerning to see someone who is 75 years old, who wants to walk but can’t because they are too scared to,” he said. “One day, a little girl across the street and she’s just learning how to ride the bicycle and went right to the edge and he [a driver] went flying by and if he had to stop he couldn’t have. There’s just no way he could have stopped. He would have killed that little girl.”
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He said it has been an ongoing concern for at least 20 years and has been brought to the attention of council and staff multiple times. This was verified by Mayor Mitch Campsall.
It was also mentioned that to install sidewalks on the road would be a $1 million or more project, due to digging up storm drains and the road and repaving the road.
“Staff and I have been looking at something that will work, but we are also looking at priorities and I’m not saying that’s not a priority, it’s background,” said Campsall. “You got to realize we tax only $2.6 million a year, so a $1 million project isn’t something we can just pick up and do. But, I would say, and I’m going, to be honest with you guys, it’s something we got to look at.”
Roy Scott, the CAO, said staff have been looking at the problem and a permanent solution.
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“We incorporated it into a sidewalk plan a number of years ago and our staff came up with priorities for these sidewalks. Cariboo Trail is not number one, it was the most expensive,” he said. “At the time, years ago, we didn’t have any money. We just didn’t have the money to do half the stuff we are doing today. Today, we do. We have a good war chest [and] we can pay as we go. We don’t need to borrow any money.
“There’s a new program they announced last week that would qualify this project because it’s so big and we’ll apply for it. In the meantime, I suggest to council to turn it over to staff and let us come up with solutions one way or another; whether it be sidewalks, whether it be speed bumps, whether it be turnarounds. We will bring it back to you with costing and all of that and you can make an informed decision.”
The delegation invited the 100 Mile House Council and the RCMP to hang out at the Carefree Manor to see for themselves how many people speed and how fast the speeding gets through the Cariboo Trail. Campsall accepted the invitation.
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