Squamish resident Allan Rutherford is fed up with feeling held hostage in his own town. Rutherford, a volunteer driver for Better at Home and MediCar, is one of numerous Squamish residents who avoid travelling on the Sea to Sky highway on the weekends. The reason? The recent number of incidents.
In July, for example, there was at least one incident every weekend. The five-day span between July 19 and 23 saw four separate accidents. In the first week of August, there were incidents on the 2nd, 4th, and 5th.
Since Rutherford chooses not to leave Squamish between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, he says his weekends have become “incredibly boring.”
While ICBC data for 2024 will not be available until spring or summer 2025, Cpl. Melissa Jongema, BC Highway Patrol media relations officer, says this year to date, there has been one fatality on the Sea to Sky based on their records.
It may not seem like it, but according to their data, collisions resulting in damages of more than $10,000 are down compared to previous years.
However, crashes on the highway have felt particularly frequent over the summer for those who travel it often or live in the corridor. The popular Sea to Sky Road Conditions Facebook group has become a digital hub for quick alerts of near-live-time collisions, construction, and delays. Commiseration over safety concerns is commonplace among the 73,000 group members.
The man currently at the group’s helm is tourism and transport expert Matthew Paugh. Paugh is president of the Canadian Tour Guide Association of British Columbia. As a former airport transfer driver and, more recently, a trainer of commercial drivers, he is uniquely qualified to moderate the forum.
Paugh believes Rutherford is not extremist for staying put in Squamish during the weekends; he says it’s a comment he sees constantly. While some residents steer clear of the highway for fear of safety, Paugh believes most of the avoidance is rooted in anticipation of lengthy road closures caused by someone else’s collision.
“People understand the odds, they won’t be involved in the accident itself ... but when that two- or three-vehicle incident does occur, thousands of vehicles are affected,” he says. “The convenience factor is gone when they have to sit in hot summer afternoon traffic.”
Available technology
In speaking with Pique, Paugh and Rutherford both described a phenomenon they incessantly observe: drivers speeding up before merges but shaving off mere minutes by the time they arrive at their destination. The contrary approach of “slower can be faster” is explained in a book Paugh frequently references: Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do by Tom Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt discusses how a Variable Speed Limit System can mitigate traffic by reducing speed limits. He notes England’s M25 motorway, which alters speed limits on a digital sign according to weather conditions and traffic. We have this same system on a 30-kilometre stretch of the Sea to Sky from Squamish to Whistler.
A key difference is the system across the Atlantic encourages drivers to comply with the updated limit beyond just a merit system or occasional patrol; license-plate cameras punish speeders.
It may seem counterintuitive to reduce the speed of vehicles upstream when there is congestion, but studies show the Variable Speed Limit System works. Vanderbilt cites a study of the M25 that discovered drivers spent less time in stop-and-go traffic, their trip times declined, and the crash rate reduced by 20 per cent.
More than complaints
Three incidents caused hours-long delays between April 29 and May 2 last year. During those delays, Paugh saw people writing online that they were running out of insulin or needed formula for their infant. His frustrations culminated in that moment, and he felt urged to direct his frustration beyond the void of complaints.
“We’re all going to complain about things, because it’s easier to complain than it is to do ... but don’t complain as the only thing,” he says.
With his platform and expertise, Paugh launched a petition to increase Sea to Sky highway safety. In the same vein as enforcement cameras used on the M25, one of the petition requests is average-speed-over-distance cameras. The technology uses two cameras installed at separate points along a highway to capture a car’s average speed. Their average speed is then compared to the posted speed limit.
This technology will be employed in a pilot project on Highway 5 between Kamloops and Avola in the fall. However, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure wrote via email that the project’s mandate is data collection rather than enforcement, and thus no tickets will be issued.
Unfortunately for proponents of these cameras on the South Coast of B.C., the ministry informed Pique there are currently no plans to launch the pilot project on the Sea to Sky highway or elsewhere in the province.
Additional infrastructure requests
There is a plethora of physical infrastructure demands, too. Some are calling for barriers where making a left turn onto the highway is prohibited. For example, vehicles returning to the highway from Cat Lake Road cannot turn left to head southbound, yet many still attempt to do so because there is nothing to block them.
Where vehicles can turn left onto Highway 99 at high-traffic intersections, concerned residents and commuters see a need for development. Eric Barry—a longtime resident of the corridor who commuted from Squamish to Whistler for 15 years—says the intersection of Highway 99, Alice Lake Road, and Squamish Valley Road is a prime example of a place needing crucial adjustments.
Barry’s opinion is supported by ICBC data from 2020 to 2023, which shows the intersection consistently had one of the top-10 collision counts for Squamish intersections.
An accident at the location on July 28 garnered many comments from people saying they have been requesting amendments such as traffic lights, an under or overpass, or prohibiting left-hand turns but implementing a U-turn route.
When asked whether the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure plans on addressing these appeals, a public affairs officer replied in an email, “While there are no specific plans for upgrades on Highway 99, the ministry continues to monitor the corridor to plan for future improvements, such as enhanced signage or intersection upgrades.”
Lack of accountability
Paugh’s petition has received more than 2,600 signatures to date. Still, he says that number is relatively low proportional to the population of communities along the Sea to Sky and how many people have complained.
“People want to complain, but they don’t want to be held accountable. They think everyone else is the problem,” says Paugh. “This [camera technology] would hold everybody equally accountable, and they don’t want to be a part of that solution.”
Like Paugh, Jehan Jiwa believes a large part of the solution lies in more responsibility for drivers. Jiwa was involved in a life-altering collision on the Sea to Sky in January 2023, and has felt the impact of low-stakes penalties.
“I just read that if a person is caught evading fare on our transit, it’s a $173 fine. But my guy got $109 for almost killing me,” she says.
If Jiwa had the chance to speak with someone disapproving of camera enforcement, she’d say: “You never think it’s going to be you until it’s you. Up until the second our cars collided, I didn’t think we were going to be in this accident. Then my whole life fell apart because of something I didn’t do—my dad, the driver, didn’t do. It’s not a money grab, but it’s people’s lives on the line.”
And to be held accountable is not such a bad thing, Jiwa says.
“A lot of people think getting a ticket is the worst-case scenario, but it’s not,” she says. “Changing someone’s life is the worst-case scenario.”
Political challenges
From a political standpoint, Paugh describes the topic as a hot potato.
“Nobody wants to touch [it],” he says.
There are adversarial opinions in the discourse of average-speed-over-distance cameras. While some believe it will save lives, others see it as a cash cow for the government or say speeding isn’t the issue.
“But the reality is, if you’re going too fast and something happens, you have less time to react. It’s simple physics. No matter what the government’s laws are, the laws of physics are still the same,” says Paugh.
ICBC data bolsters his point. Between 2010 and 2019, speeding was the leading factor in crashes resulting in a fatality for six of those 10 years. Speeding was tied with distracted driving/inattention for three of those years.
Whether local elected officials agree with Paugh or not, they will be less likely to tackle this issue if they’re weighing re-election and hear the outspoken opposition to heftier penalties or ostensible “inconveniences” on the road.
West Vancouver-Sea to Sky MLA Jordan Sturdy, who will not seek re-election in October, spoke on a related matter in a previous Pique article.
While discussing the benefits of term limits for elected officials, Sturdy noted, “if you had term limits, then there’s nothing to lose. It’s easier to make the right decision when you have no skin in the game.”
Bureaucratic Constraints
Paugh’s advocacy did not entirely fall upon deaf ears—he has received communication from West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager, Squamish Mayor Armand Hurford, Green Party candidate Jeremy Valeriote, Squamish Councillor John French and Whistler Councillor Jen Ford (who is also running for the NDP in this fall’s provincial election).
But there is much more at play than hearing back from local officials.
French met with Rob Fleming, the minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, but later told Paugh the minister met with him and listened to him, but nothing more transpired.
Municipalities must work with applicable ministries and higher orders of government on larger projects like highway intersections. Without the monetary resources from the top, the scope of change is not extensive.
To illustrate, the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s budget for 2023-2027 allots some money for highway intersection upgrades. However, it is noted design and planning will occur alongside the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and other bodies.
To add to administrative roadblocks, TransLink—a public provincial agency—is grappling with major funding gaps. Users in Metro Vancouver may see service cuts as early as next year, with the possibility of up to 145 bus route closures.
What’s next?
This is a nuanced discussion with many complexities, including pervasive biases.
As Vanderbilt points out in the case of the United States, much more attention is given to terrorism or war than road safety—with constant headlines, suspicions, and buzz about homeland security. Road safety is not a sexy issue, but far more Americans die from driving than war or terrorism.
He explains that in polls after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the people who were in favour of limiting civil liberties in the name of public safety were the same people who opposed traffic measures to reduce fatalities.
This disconnect is not only prevalent in the United States. Uneven appraisal of risk is a human tendency, especially while driving. Vanderbilt writes that drivers engage in more risk-taking behaviours when they feel safer. Therefore, the answer is not entirely safer infrastructure. But camera enforcement can’t eliminate all risky behaviour, either. Perhaps the answer lies in a combination of both.
As Paugh says, the modern car is a kingdom of personalized temperature, noise, comfort, and ease. It also affords a great deal of anonymity. If an officer isn’t there to enforce it, who cares if I make a left turn out of Cat Lake Road?
With a lack of consensus, money, or dialogue among officials, there may not be any significant changes in the near future.
