70 Mile House and area residents would like to see the speed limit reduced along a 2.5-kilometre stretch of Highway 97 that runs through their community.
Currently, the speed limit is 100 kilometres per hour (km/h) and folks would like to see it reduced to 70 km/h for safety reasons.
Noting there have been accidents in that particular corridor in the past, residents fear not only for their personal safety, but also for motorists travelling through the community.
There are long sweeping curves at the south end of the community and for motorists heading north there is a short distance before the traffic congestion where North Bonaparte Road intersects Highway 97.
This intersection serves as an entrance to the business centre of the community.
On the west side, there is the motel and cafe, but there is no left-turn lane.
The east bound exit, which has a short right-turn lane, leads to the general store, post office and pub. It also provides the entrance to the nearby cottages and provincial parks, so there is a lot of congestion with motorhomes and trucks hauling trailers carrying boats, ATVs and the like.
Folks wanting to turn on to the highway from either side of the intersection are faced with waiting patiently until there is no traffic in sight or trying to gauge how much time they have to turn before a vehicle bears down on them at 100 km/h.
At the north end of the 2.5-km stretch, traffic travelling south has to merge into one lane from two lanes and often there are races to get ahead of slow-moving traffic with vehicles going well over the 100 km/h limit.
Furthermore, there are 16 residential and business accesses that connect directly with Highway 97 in that 2.5-km two-lane stretch of road – most of them have limited visibility.
It's especially dangerous in the winter when folks are trying to either turn on to or off of the highway.
Local residents have formed a committee and met with the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure (MOTI) in hopes of getting changes.
They have been told MOTI is developing draft engineering plans that may help address the residents safety concerns, but reducing the speed limit is not in the plans.
The residents are circulating a petition to grab Transportation Minister Todd Stone's attention.
A speed reduction would be the best and cheapest option – it would only add 35 seconds to the motorists' time to get through that 2.5 kilometre stretch at 70 km/h.
Widening the highway shoulders to provide safer accesses for residents and businesses would help, and an amber light at the North Bonaparte Road intersection is a must.