Richmond city staff have looked into two intersections, at No. 1 and Francis roads and No. 2 Road and Steveston Highway, after a resident spoke to council about traffic safety concerns at these locations.
In a report to council’s public works and transportation committee this week, city staff outlined the number of crashes and how the lights — particularly left turns — work.
The Steveston Highway intersection isn’t considered a high priority for improvement, but the Francis Road one is in the top-20 for road safety improvements.
At the Steveston Highway and No. 2 Road intersection, there is a left turn lane on Steveston Highway. There are also protected left turn signals in the westbound, eastbound and southbound directions.
The protected left turn signals are online between 7 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. on weekdays, when three to five cars are lined up in the left turn lane, according to the city report. On average, the southbound left turn arrow is activated 236 times a day, while the westbound is activated 65 times a day and the eastbound, 32.
There are no left turn lanes at the No. 1 and Francis Road intersection, but there are left turn signals installed in the northbound, southbound and westbound directions.
The southbound and northbound left turn arrows are active between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., while the westbound left turn arrow is active between 9:30 a.m. and 8 p.m., if there are cars lined up. On average, the southbound left turn arrow is activated 286 times a day, the westbound 93 and the northbound 40.
The city looked also at ICBC crash data for the five-year period from 2016 to 2020 — the most recent data available — for the two intersections.
At No. 2 Road and Steveston Highway, there were 106 crashes during that five-year period, including 73 crashes that resulted only in property damage and 33 casualty crashes resulting in injuries but no fatalities.
The No. 1 Road and Francis Road intersection saw a total of 162 crashes, including 96 property damage only crashes and 66 that resulted in injury, but again no fatalities.
According to the report, city staff will continue to monitor these two intersections to make sure “adequate signal timing” is in place.
