Hi Mark,

Thank you for your reply. The school district does not fund crossing guards. Some school districts used to but it was then transferred to the municipalities. For example Surrey and Victoria both have crossing guard commissionaires that are funded and covered by liability insurance provided by the city. The reason for this is that the crosswalks are not on school grounds and therefore not under the school district’s jurisdiction. 

As for the intersection in question, the last evaluation of the crosswalk was done in 2019 that was 4 years ago. The population has densified considerably in the last 4 years. Albion Elementary School is also well over capacity even after c̓əsqənelə Elementary opened in the fall of 2019. Which clearly shows we as a community have grown considerably and are bursting at the seams. A new evaluation is clearly overdue. 

As I mentioned on the phone, before and after school is obviously the busiest time for pedestrian traffic but it is also rush hour. Vehicles waiting to turn left or right from Hill avenue onto 240th street must wait until the pedestrian crossing is initiated in order to get a large enough break in traffic to turn left or right. This is particularly problematic because the vehicles turning right are attempting to push their way through the pedestrians crossing, the majority of which are small children. This is so incredibly dangerous. This intersection is also just one block off the highway. Many vehicles are travelling much higher than the 30 Kilometres an hour in this school zone after coming off the highway.  The children should not be in this much danger attempting to walk to school. 

What is the criteria required in order to have the intersection upgraded to a full signal? What were the specific findings of the consultant firms evaluation in 2019? Will the city evaluate this intersection again and if so when? Will the city consider a crossing guard program since the crosswalk is on city property? 

Sincerely,
Christina Holland