Coquitlam crash data ‘reassuring,’ says cyclist
There’s more to the story at one of Coquitlam’s highest cycling crash intersections
The two Coquitlam intersections that had the most crashes last year might not be reflective of the city’s most dangerous crossroads.
According to ICBC data, 2024’s most accident prone intersections in Coquitlam for cyclists were Falcon Drive and Guildford Way, and Guildford Way and Pinetree Way. Both sites had three crashes that involved cyclists.
In 2023, Falcon and Guildford had three crashes involving cyclists, and two in 2022.
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“Obviously traffic fatalities and injuries, whenever they happen, can tell us a lot about an intersection’s safety, but there’s also a lot more of a picture to this,” said Colin Fowler, the co-chair of the HUB Cycling Tri-Cities Local Committee.
Since Coquiltam completed phase one of the Guildford Way transportation road improvements from Port Moody to Johnson Street in 2023, Fowler says there’s been a big increase in cycling ridership on that corridor.
And this increase has been people of all ages from kids and families to seniors — not just confident cyclists “that have been out there for decades and are used to the mean spirits of the road.”
“The fact that fatalities and injuries haven’t spiked up alongside that is reassuring,” Fowler said.
“It shows what we’ve thought, which is that the injury rate actually has gone down.”
Conversely, sometimes intersections won’t have any crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians — not because they’re safe but because they’re so dangerous cyclists and pedestrians avoid them, Fowler said.
Improvements at Falcon and Guildford
The protected bike lane on Guildford Way is what makes people feel safe to ride, and it’s what has contributed to the uptick of cyclists.
But most crashes involving cyclists happen at intersections and the intersections along Guildford (including at Falcon) don’t have intersection protections and treatments.
However, some of Coquitlam’s new projects, like at the intersection at Guildford and Pinetree completed earlier this year, do have added safety features for cyclists.
There’s a curb that reduces the turning radius for vehicles, so they can’t get to the end of the intersection and immediately turn right.
“They have to be more mindful of where they’re going and the speed at which they’re doing it,” Fowler said.
There’s also a ‘no rights on red’ rule, though Fowler expects there to be an adjustment period for this as drivers adapt to it.
Overall, Coquitlam has 117 kilometres of cycling infrastructure and 32 kilometres of multi-use pathways throughout the community.
Overall, he says it is “really encouraging” that Coquiltam has taken these steps.
“Car crashes are something we need to start taking a more proactive role in preventing and not just ticketing bad drivers, but making sure that we can build infrastructure that enables people to get around safely,” Fowler said.
Drivers speeding and running red lights is another concern, and one of HUB Cycling’s next efforts will be to work with the province to install red light cameras.
“You can protect [an intersection] all you want. But if somebody is expecting their turn to go and somebody speeds through the intersection on a red light, that’s still a very devastating injury,” Fowler said.
