Tag: Saanich Police

Saanich Police gets windshield perspective

A truck recently crashed into Green Party leader and Saanich-Gulf Island candidate Elizabeth May’s constituency office on Quadra and the Saanich Police had this to say:

Saanich police spokesman Sgt. Dean Jantzen said May’s office and the adjacent storefronts are close to the road, with no barriers to protect them from traffic.

Umm, what? This is classic deflection of blame. The issue is cars travelling too fast, yet the blame gets passed from the driver, who was speeding, to the property owner, who “failed to protect their buildings from traffic.” If we need to build barriers to protect ourselves and our buildings from the traffic on the adjacent road, we are utterly failing to build a city for people.

Saanich police jaywalk

Saanich Police HQ and Tim Hortons
Saanich Police HQ and Tim Hortons

Buried in a Times Colonist article about the shiny online stuff the Saanich police is doing, is this little gem:

One motorist was upset at having to brake for uniformed officers jaywalking across Vernon Avenue from the Saanich police headquarters to go for coffee.

As the photo shows, the police HQ is actually quite a pedestrian unfriendly place. There is no crosswalk on Vernon Ave north of Saanich Rd. But the real irony is that the police HQ is right on Lochside Trail, which runs directly under Vernon.

I am not blaming the cops for jaywalking, because they are merely trying to save time. It is another merely amusing and sad example of how not to build for people.