How many provincial bureaucrats, working how many years, does it take to install a light bulb on a highway in Pouce Coupe?
It sounds like a bad joke. Which it is, if you live in the tiny 800-person village in northeastern B.C. near the Alberta border.
For 15 years, successive town councils and mayors have been begging the B.C. government to install flashing pedestrian lights at the two crosswalks on provincial Highway 2 alongside Pouce Couple Elementary.
They say it’s a critical safety need for the kids who have to dart across the highway to get home, and for the seniors who use the school’s integrated community centre for classes and need to risk it across two lanes of blaring semi-trailer trucks destined for the oil patch.
“People come ripping through and my kids have almost been hit,” said councillor Marcel Woodill.
The town even offered to install the lights itself, but was told no because it’s a provincial highway. Instead, ministry staff ordered study after study, spanning a decade and a half.
“I bet the ministry has spent more on studies, flying people up from the Lower Mainland every year, than it would actually cost to build the thing, that’d be my guess,” said councillor James Wall.
“We’re just asking for the button to make it flash.”
A miracle on Highway 2
Fifteen years of requests.
That’s not counting the half a dozen traffic studies. The innumerable meetings. The fact four councils have made direct appeals to transportation ministers spanning three premiers.
“One intersection in Victoria has more infrastructure for pedestrian-activated crosswalks than all of Pouce Coupe does,” said Woodill.
Finally this month, a miracle: the Ministry of Transportation, some 1,300 kilometres away down in Victoria, actually agreed.
Yes, it’s only approval for flashing lights at one of the two crosswalks.
But still. The village is pretty stoked.
“We have the one approved, up by the school, which is great,” said Woodill. “There is a crossing guard there supplied by the school during school hours. But at least one part of the community gets safe access now.”
The flashing lights and button will also come with an audio warning, improving accessibility for Pouce Coupe residents.
MLA pushes for Pouce behind-the-scenes
Wall credits George Anderson, the Parliamentary Secretary for Transit, for pushing the issue behind the scenes, after council met with him and Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth at the Union of BC Municipalities annual convention in Victoria last September.
“He’s been a great help,” said Wall.
Anderson, who is one year into his first term as MLA, took a look at the issue with a fresh set of eyes and said it just made sense to have the added safety for kids and seniors crossing the road to go to the ice rink, community centre or skate park.
“As a former city councilor myself, I understand the challenges that local governments face, and I said, I want to be able to help deliver this for people,” said Anderson, who served on Nanaimo city council before becoming an MLA.
“I know Minister Farnworth and I both found it to be a priority, and here we are delivering results.”
George Anderson
Pouce Coupe had put aside $80,000 in this year’s budget to help pay for the work if the ministry didn’t have the money (an enormous budgetary commitment for a tiny village).
But Anderson said the province will foot the bill.
The second crosswalk light is currently undergoing an engineering study. But if it passes, Anderson said the ministry will pay for that one too.
A win for Pouce Coupe. Even if it took an awfully long time.