No changes expected at dangerous Saanich intersections

Don’t look for changes at twoSaanich intersections listed in ICBC’s Top-11 most perilous road junctions, including the area’s most dangerous.

The intersection with the most crashes on Vancouver Island last year was Douglas, McKenzie, and the Pat Bay Highway, the scene of 86 crashes—an increase (26) of almost 50% over 2022.

The crossings at Blanshard Street (Highway 1) and Saanich Road ranked #5 with 63 crashes.

Because they merge with highways, these convergences fall under the auspices of the provincial government, which said it’s “monitoring these intersections” but not looking to make any modifications.

“There are no plans for changes at either location at this time,” a Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure spokesperson tells Capital Daily.

Saanich Road Safety Action Plan: A crash occurs in Saanich every four hours, an injury-causing crash happens every 10 hours, and a road death twice a year

The draft plan, which goes to council vote in the fall, says Saanich and its partners will “continue to pursue infrastructure solutions with demonstrated positive safety performance through long-term planning, capital projects and pro-active changes to standards and guidelines.”

Some of those include looking at protected intersections and left turns, roundabouts, the removal of right-turn channels, and the possible elimination of right turns on red lights.

But a move to ask for changes to the two troublesome intersections doesn’t seem to be in the offing.

“The draft Road Safety Action Plan (RSAP) has a primary focus on addressing Saanich-controlled infrastructure,” a district spokesperson said in an email to Capital Daily.

“However, we will continue to work with them on shared projects and we will continue to advocate for safety improvements on their roads.”

ICBC said one-quarter of the Island’s 40,343 total reported Island crashes—10,985—came at intersections. Injuries occurred in more than half (5,180) of those collisions, which is in the ballpark with the five-year average of 10,329 crashes and 5,715 injuries.

After Douglas and McKenzie, pegged by ICBC as Greater Victoria’s most dangerous intersection according to 2018-22 data, the three most hazardous intersections on the Island were in Nanaimo. The four Nanaimo appearances in the Top 10 (really the Top 11 due to a tie) came along the two main highways through town: the Island Highway and Nanaimo Parkway.

Just behind them, with 63 crashes, comes the Trans-Canada at Millstream in Langford, including the on- and off-ramps.

The remaining Victoria-core intersections in the Top-11 list were all along the stretch of highway between downtown Victoria and Saanich:

• Both the Blanshard and Douglas intersections below Uptown shopping centre
• Douglas and Finlayson below Mayfair
• The convergence of Government, Douglas, Hillside, and Gorge.

2023 data from ICBC

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High-volume highways out of downtown are set to get even busier

Unsurprisingly, many of the region’s highest-crash intersections are also simply its highest-volume intersections. For several of the Victoria-Saanich sites on the crash list, the number of people moving through those corridors is set to rise in the coming years.

Both Victoria and Saanich are planning significant densification for that Uptown-Douglas corridor over the next 15 years, and Saanich intends to make the area its new core. In addition to zoning the blocks surrounding Oak Street for high-rises, this process would include, according to Saanich planning, reducing the “highway-like features” of the wide Douglas and Blanshard arteries which bookend that narrow strip.

Saanich hopes to shift toward “complete streets” that emphasize sidewalks and crosswalks and phase out slip lanes. But that will require help from the province; as again, the Ministry of Transportation, not the District of Saanich, has control over those highways. So far the province has focused on improving public transit in the area, with a new hub slated to be built on a plot on Harriet adjacent to Uptown.

Island crash stats, by type of crash

Here are some of the 2023 ICBC stats broken down by crash type :

1 in 6 crashes were hits-and-run

Of the 40K+ total crashes reported on the Island, 16% involved drivers who fled. No statistic was available for fatal hits-and-run last year, but the five-year average is one.

‍ 2023 numbers: 6,589 incidents reported, 255 people injured.

Five-year averages: 6,485 incidents, 262 injuries.

Crashes with cyclists rose in 2023

Those numbers were up about 20% from 2022, and it was the first year since 2019 that the Island tallied 500+ cyclist crashes or 300+ injuries.

2023 numbers: 521 reported incidents, 342 injuries

Five-year average: 477 incidents and 301 injuries

Vehicle-pedestrian collisions

2023 was down slightly from recent years.

2023 numbers: 356 incidents, 254 injuries.

Five-year average: 397 incidents, 286 injuries

Vehicle-animal collisions

About average last year.

2023 numbers: 2,281 incidents, 182 (human) injuries

Five-year average: 2,207 incidents, 185 (human) injuries

There were no statistics available on human fatalities in crashes where an animal was involved last year. But there were none in 2022 and there haven’t been any reported over the last five years, ICBC said.