Errant drivers and cyclists are attracting the attention of the City of Richmond on two of the city’s busiest roads.
Similar to the four-foot high, on-road signs placed outside Maple Lane and Anderson elementaries last year — which are designed to completely bend over and then spring back should they be clipped or, at worst, run over — the city, last Friday, planted a new one on Saunders Road, about 50 yards to the east of Garden City Road.
It’s purpose is to pre-warn drivers travelling west on Saunders that they’re approaching the stop-sign at the intersection with Garden City, one of Richmond’s busiest roads.
And over on the popular Railway Greenway, at its intersection with Blundell Road, the city is about to erect a couple of the bendy signs warning cyclists to only cross when permitted to do so.
According to the city, residents in the area just north of Garden City and Williams roads, were witnessing numerous, single-vehicle accidents at the Saunders Road intersection, which were causing property damage.
“There has been a lot of accidents there, people coming around the bend and running the stop sign,” said City of Richmond spokesperson Ted Townsend.
“(At Railway and Blundell), for safety reasons, we are trying to alert cyclists that there is a major crossing coming up.
“Cyclists have perhaps been getting speed up on the greenway and often going straight out onto the road, without realizing it’s a major arterial.” Townsend said the cyclists’ bad habits have been a concern since the greenway was opened more than two years ago.
“We put bollards up, but it’s quite clear we need more than that,” he added.
Both the warnings on Saunders Road and at the Railway Greenway are pilot projects and their success will be analysed over time.
The city, said Townsend, is nearing the end of the Maple Lane and Anderson elementary projects and it will be decided soon whether or not those signs will become a permanent fixture.
Ken Thibault — the B.C. distributor for the Montreal-based technology solution company which makes the road signs, already being used in Eastern Canada and the U.S. — said Richmond is still the only Lower Mainland municipality to test the product, although Delta and White Rock have expressed interest but want to see how Richmond fares first.
