Rather than try and tie together many comments in disparate places around this site, I will make a topic here about the Capital Regional District Integrated Road Safety Unit (CRD IRSU) and the Malahat Drive portion of Highway 1 for user Phil:
I contacted the CRD IRSU via their Twitter account (@CRDIRSU) and learned the following about speed enforcement activity on the Malahat by them:
We are an Integrated Unit that serves 13 municipalities around the CRD. We have 14 members and share ourselves around the CRD as often as we can. We understand the importance of policing the main arterial roadways. Part of the Malahat Drive falls within the Municipality of Langford and is therefore in our dedicated policing area. We commit part of our time to enforcing the excessive speeding we have seen on that portion of the highway.
We had intended to highlight the need to pursue a sustained and focused period of enforcement to drive down the average speed of motor vehicles in support of the current highway improvement projects. This project was not supported by Police Services. We will continue to enforce as part of our rotating deployments.
Baseline enforcement refers to routine enforcement commitments for all areas within a patrol district. Once this requirement is satisfied, the unit devotes its time to focus on high collision areas which is distributed by need. Speed enforcement is only a part of the mandate.
In my own experience, it is difficult to interest the media in routine policing activity and only high profile incidents are publicized, and even then only as their space and time permits. In short, TV, radio and newspapers publish based on what they identify as being appropriate for their business.
Thanks again for working on "Canada Day" . Many police are working today to try to prevent more accidents on BC roads.
So- it seems there is no political will to fund regular IRU radar campaigns on the Malahat.It would seem though , to be a good case for speed monitoring technologly, since we know that police resources are stretched with the many priorities that are listed.
What do you think -should we ignore the Excessive Speeding /Accident problem on the Malahat because there is no funding for enforcement?
What about the victims?
- Log in to post comments
Thanks for digging into the lack of RCMP IRU enforcement activity on the Malahat.
It seems that road safety is largely a political issue in BC.
The BC NDP over- regulated in the nineties.The BC Liberal have under-regulated in the past decade or so, Surely -there is a balance and British Columbians should expect to be safe driving the limit on BC roads.
Following the rules of the road will save lives. Incompetent drivers need reminders.
BC has a road fatality rate higher than the Canadian average-why should we accept this?
- Log in to post comments
- Log in to post comments
Policing the Malahat