Highlands Way North and Perth Drive - Traffic and Active Transportation Improvements

How safety improvements are prioritized:

The District receives a number of requests each year for safety improvements on municipal roadways. These requests are reviewed and prioritized based on measured traffic volumes, speeds and nearby amenities such as schools and shopping.

Why Highlands Way North:

Highlands Way North was identified in 2020 as a top priority for traffic calming measures to be introduced, in order to lower traffic speeds and/or volumes. In May 2020, District staff prepared a report to Council outlining potential short and long-term options to address speed concerns.

Improvements to Highlands Way North may also impact traffic on Perth Drive and therefore Perth Drive has been included in the assessment.

Public Engagement and Next Steps: 

District staff received feedback from the public on the options for traffic calming measures in the Highlands Way North and Perth Drive area.

District staff will use feedback from the survey, along with design, cost and timing considerations, to propose one or more capital projects in this area. 

Survey results will be aggregated and summarized before being made public or provided to Council. Individual responses will not be shared.

Active Transportation and Traffic Calming in Squamish:

The District of Squamish road network was originally built with the automobile in mind, and efforts are being made to retrofit these roads to match a modern, active community of the 21st century. This takes time, and is costly, considering the many areas of the community that need retrofitting.

The goal is to improve safety and comfort for all users throughout the community – pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. There are a number of ways to approach these improvements, all of which can contribute to success. These include:

• Building new sidewalks and bike lanes/paths: While extremely important, this approach can sometimes be very expensive, particularly where new storm water infrastructure is needed, and considering the number of areas where sidewalks are desired. Some bike and pedestrian improvements are built as part of new developments (paid for by the developer), while others are part of the District’s capital projects program.
•  Implementing traffic calming measures: The intention of traffic calming is to encourage drivers to slow down or take alternate routes and can include features like speed humps, curves in the roadway, narrowing of drive lanes and many others. Traffic calming measures are typically better suited to roads with lower traffic volumes (local and minor collector roads).
•  Reducing speed limits: The default municipal speed limit is set by the provincial Motor Vehicle Act at 50 km/hr, however local governments can choose to set alternate speed limits using signage. A sign is required at the start and end of each segment of road where the new speed limit applies. Enforcement of speed limits is a responsibility of the RCMP.

May 12, 2021