Kelowna

Photo: Contributed

Initiatives aimed at making Springfield Road safer don't seem to be working.

City Council will hear Monday that, despite several engineering improvements implemented at key locations targeting specific collision issues, the overall frequency of collisions has not decreased.

In 2007, a Safety and Operational Study of Springfield Road, between Rutland Road South and Durnin Road, was undertaken by the city and ICBC.

Numerous safety issues were identified as were recommended mitigation measures.

Since 2008 the city, in partnership with ICBC, has completed improvements to several intersections along Springfield including at Leckie (2008), Graham (2008), Rutland Road South (2009) and Gerstmar (2009).

At those four intersections there were more crashes (158) between 2006 and 2010 than there were between 2002 and 2006 (147).

Plans are underway, subject to funding, to complete intersection improvements at Ziprick and Durnin roads.

In a report to be presented Monday, council will be told that the '3E' approach (Engineering, Education and Enforcement) is the recognized approach to take in order to change driver behaviour when it comes to speed.

Several initiatives are being recommended to begin in early December.

These include what is known as the 'Green Wave.'

The 'Green Wave,' slated to start December 5 will result in traffic lights along Springfield between Hollywood and Ziprick roads synchronized to allow vehicles doing the speed limit to hit a progressive cascade of green lights.

Other initiatives planned for the beginning of December include speed reader boards, increased signage, an awareness campaign on RCMP and city websites and increased RCMP enforcement.

The goal is to reduce the collision rate on Springfield Road by 15 per cent over three years and decrease in 85th percentile speeds by 15 per cent over three years.