The Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus (WOWC) is calling for help to make rural roads safer.
The organization Good Roads has found rural Ontario accounted for 48 per cent of traffic fatalities on municipal roads in 2019, even though only about 13 per cent of the Ontario population lives there. Good Roads Executive Director Scott Butler reported that in 2019, there were 428 traffic fatalities on municipal roads, and 205 of those occurred in rural municipalities.
That has prompted the WOWC to support Good Roads in its push for a provincial pool of funding for road safety, repairs, and upgrades on sections of rural roads deemed unsafe. Good Roads is urging a collaborative approach to safety, risk management, connectivity, and economic development.
The WOWC represents approximately 300 communities across rural Southwestern Ontario, and Chair Glen McNeil said the proposed program would help prevent serious collisions and keep people out of hospital.
“Lawsuits resulting from these accidents are also significant factors in increasing municipal insurance premiums, meaning that efforts to make roads safer are also one of the most meaningful ways that municipalities can improve their risk profile – all while creating employment for labourers working right here in rural Western Ontario,” McNeil added.
“Many rural, remote, and northern municipalities are responsible for maintaining extensive road networks on a smaller population/tax base,” Butler explained. “As a result, these roads tend to be older, in poorer condition, and incorporate basic road safety infrastructure.”
Good Roads hopes a provincial partnership can help address dangerous sections of Ontario’s rural, northern, and remote roads. Upgrades could include replacing legacy assets like wooden posts with guardrails, while ensuring roads have guiderails, signs, lighting, and road paint. Upgrades could include more modern and innovative safety tools like guardrails, guiderails, and crash cushions.
Good Roads pointed to similar funding precedents in other parts of the world, including the High Risk Rural Roads (HRRR) program as part of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) in the United States.
Read original story from Midwestern Ontario News – BlackburnNews.com