EDITORIAL – New signals at Highland intersection but what about Vicars?

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THE INTERSECTION at Highland Road and Valleyview Drive got a new traffic signal yesterday.

It features a red flashing light in all four directions for 72 hours before going into full effect with the signal.

It’s part of a larger upgrade along Valleyview Drive and will, according to the City, “enhance the safety and capacity” of the intersection. Time will tell if it’s worth the expense. Some residents who regularly use the intersection say the current four-way stop works just fine.

Others say a roundabout would make a lot more sense.

But it’s a done deal now. So could we please do something about a genuinely dangerous intersection not far from Highland and Valleyview?

I’m talking, of course, about the intersection of Vicars Road and the Trans Canada Highway. It is, without question, the worst one in the city.

The multiple intersections of the frontage road with the highway and Vicars, in close proximity to each other, have been a disaster waiting to happen for decades. The only upgrade — if you can call it that — was to the traffic lights a couple of years ago.

Early this year, Coun. Bill Sarai asked staff for a study on what can be done to make sure transport trucks stopping on the frontage road can do so safely.

Well, of course, there’s not much point in providing better parking for big trucks without dealing with the bigger issue of how they get there safely.

So what’s become of Sarai’s request? That intersection, of course, involves a federal-provincial highway so it’s up to the senior levels of government to fix the problem, but the City needs to get them to the table to talk about it.

Vicars is one of those things that governments will ignore as long as nothing truly disastrous happens. But logic suggests it definitely will, and it should be resolved before it does, not after it’s too late.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, former TNRD director and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.