WHEREAS the Council of the District of Houston has a concern regarding general highway safety for vehicle traffic throughout the whole northern region of the Province of British Columbia; AND WHEREAS this concern may be alleviated by additional highway safety enhancement in various areas of the northern region of the Province of British Columbia, where presently such enhancement is non-existent; AND WHEREAS it is believed that, if every effort is made to increase highway safety, the physical harm, emotional and mental stress, and resulting medical and insurance costs of highway traffic accidents may all be reduced; AND WHEREAS an initiative to increase highway safety is timely, considering the volume of vehicle traffic on highways in the northern region of the Province of British Columbia: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities petition the Province of British Columbia, through the Ministry of Transportation, to install rumble strips on the outside edge and center line where needed on each paved highway, where they do not presently exist in British Columbia; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this should be accomplished by establishing provincial policy that these rumble strips be installed whenever repair work or construction is undertaken.
MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION Safety is the Ministry of Transportations top priority and provincial highways currently as of June 2004 have approximately 1,400 km of shoulder rumble strips and 75 km of centreline rumble strips. The Ministry revised its shoulder rumble strip policy in April 2004. Shoulder rumble strips are now considered in the following cases: - constructing new rural highway sections - re-paving, rehabilitating or reconstructing existing highway sections which include the shoulders - on other rural sections of highway, subject to funding availability, where it is believed they would be effective in reducing single-vehicle off-road crashes The Ministry issued a new centreline rumble strip policy in May 2004. Centreline rumble strips are to be considered on rural highways in no passing zones i.e. a double solid painted centreline in the following cases: - constructing new undivided, rural two-lane, three-lane, or four-lane highway sections - re-paving, rehabilitating or reconstructing existing undivided, rural two-lane, three-lane, or four-lane highway sections - on other undivided rural two-lane, three-lane, or four-lane highway sections, subject to funding availability, that would benefit in terms of decreasing the number of crossover centreline crashes The Ministry estimates that shoulder rumble strips may reduce off-road crashes by 20 per cent or more. It is estimated that centreline rumble strips may reduce the number of head-on, sideswipe, off-road-left and overtaking crossover crashes by 32 per cent.