Learning from Swedish success: Temiskaming chamber takes to the road to promote Europe highway safety model.

AuthorRoss, Ian
PositionNORTHEASTERN ONTARIO

A tagline from Sweden's Vision Zero road safety project resonates with Mark Wilson: We shouldn't have to pay with our lives for our mobility.

At the conclusion of his May presentation at the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities' Sudbury conference on the merits of the 2 +1 European highway system, Wilson displayed some names of the more than 50 people who've died on Highway 11 between Hearst and North Bay over the last decade.

"Those are people who were productive Northern Ontarians and some who could've been productive," said Wilson, a researcher for the Temiskaming Shores and Area Chamber of Commerce's highway safety group.

Wilson and the chamber's Going the Extra Mile for Safety (GEMS) committee are taking their message across Northern Ontario, hoping to build popular support and pressure the province to adopt a 25-kilometre 2 +1 pilot project.

While the chamber firmly believes it will save lives on Northern highways, the concept it isn't gaining traction with the Ministry of Transportation (MTO).

The 2+1 configuration, first pioneered in Sweden in the 1990s and since adopted by other European countries, is a three-lane road providing two lanes in one direction and one lane in the opposite.

With some variations by country, it's designed to reduce head-on collisions by providing continuous and alternating passing lanes at two to five-kilometre intervals. A barrier of wire cable or steel guard separates opposing lanes of traffic.

Since introducing the 2+1 model to Swedish roads 20 years ago, that country has reduced highway deaths by more than 70 per cent.

The Temiskaming chamber contends a Highway 11 trial is the best way to test drive if it works.

"We believe any deaths that we consider preventable are too many deaths," said Danny Whalen, president of the Temiskaming Shores and Area Chamber of Commerce.

The province highway collision statistics, he contends, indicate motorists on the highway around Temiskaming Shores are four times more likely to die than anywhere else in Ontario.

But 2+1 isn't being heartily endorsed by the MTO or the consultants they hired to study the concept, WSP.

"The study concluded that the 2+1 road system was not feasible for the Highway 11 North at this time," MTO spokeswoman Kristin Franks replied by email to Northern Ontario Business.

The consultants indicate the idea has merit but they had misgivings about applying European standards to Ontario highways.

The way WSP sees it, the road base would have...

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