Squamish residents are talking about road safety again after a local resident recently experienced a wrong-way driving incident. While details are limited, the report has prompted familiar questions: Are signs clear enough at our Highway 99 access points? Are people driving with enough care when visibility is poor or when traffic is heavy? And what practical steps can the community, the District, the province, and police take to reduce risk before something worse happens?
Highway 99 through Squamish is a provincial corridor managed by the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI). It carries commuters, school traffic, tourists, and commercial vehicles in all seasons. The local network ties into Highway 99 at several interchanges that serve neighbourhoods on both sides of the corridor. On ramps and off ramps are signed using provincial standards, which typically include “Do Not Enter” and “Wrong Way” signage and pavement arrows. Even with this infrastructure in place, wrong-way driving is a high-risk scenario because it can lead to head‑on conflicts at highway speeds. When an incident like this is reported, it is reasonable for the community to ask whether signage, lighting, sightlines, and driver awareness are doing enough of the job.
Sea to Sky RCMP Traffic Services patrol the corridor and coordinate regularly with local RCMP detachments on seasonal enforcement. Police and ICBC also run yearly education campaigns that focus on common risks such as speed, distraction, and impairment. Back-to-school enforcement around school zones and crosswalk awareness each September are familiar examples, as are CounterAttack impaired driving road checks over the holidays. We have asked Sea to Sky RCMP if any review or investigation is underway related to the recent wrong-way report; official comment is pending. We will share updates as they are confirmed.
The broader conversation in BC continues to shift toward safety and prevention, including how fast we drive on neighbourhood streets. A recent provincial poll found significant public support for slower speeds on residential roads. According to the survey results, 68% of respondents would like to see 30 km/h limits on all residential streets while keeping arterial and collector roads at 50 km/h. Support for automated enforcement was also strong, with large majorities backing intersection speed-on-green cameras, fixed cameras, mobile cameras, and point-to-point enforcement. The poll noted that these systems issue tickets to vehicle owners without driver’s licence points. While neighbourhood speed is a different setting than highway ramps, the polling suggests a wider appetite across the province for tools that reduce risk and improve compliance.
Elsewhere in BC, momentum is building around lower speeds on local streets. Vancouver City Council approved lower speed limits on local streets in June 2025. Many municipalities are also adding curb extensions, better lighting at crossings, fresh markings, and speed feedback displays as part of their traffic calming programs. In Squamish, those types of measures have been used in recent years on District-managed roads to improve visibility and reduce speeds near homes, schools, and busy crossings. Highway 99, by contrast, falls under provincial jurisdiction, which means any changes to ramp signage, illumination, or lane markings are led by MoTI in coordination with law enforcement.
The Sea to Sky corridor has seen ongoing provincial safety work over the past decade and a half, especially since the improvements before the 2010 Winter Games. Along sections of Highway 99, MoTI has added passing lanes, rumble strips to alert drifting drivers, improved sightlines, shoulder widening, and targeted lighting and signs at key intersections. The ministry also uses dynamic message signs to warn about weather, incidents, or delays. These measures, combined with enforcement by RCMP and public education by ICBC, form the backbone of the region’s road safety approach. Even so, incidents that reveal rare but serious risks—like a wrong-way entry—can be useful triggers for a targeted review of specific locations.
What could that review look like? Best practice typically starts with checking whether existing “Do Not Enter” and “Wrong Way” signs meet current size, placement, and reflectivity standards, and whether pavement arrows and edge lines are clear in poor weather or at night. Vegetation trimming and routine cleaning can help restore visibility if signs or markings are partially blocked or dirty. If illumination is inconsistent, adding or adjusting lighting can improve a driver’s ability to read the ramp correctly. In some jurisdictions, larger or additional “Do Not Enter” signs are installed where geometry or driver behaviour suggests a higher risk of confusion. All of these are low-drama, practical steps that can be evaluated quickly by engineers.
Enforcement and education also matter. Sea to Sky RCMP already target high‑risk behaviours such as speeding and impairment. If wrong-way entries are reported more than once at a particular ramp, targeted enforcement during busy periods may be warranted while signage and markings are reviewed. On the education side, reminding drivers about correct ramp use, headlight requirements in low visibility, and the need to slow down and plan lane changes well before an exit or entrance goes a long way—especially for visitors who are unfamiliar with the Sea to Sky and for locals driving in winter conditions. If you ever encounter a wrong-way driver or see a vehicle entering a ramp the wrong way, call 911 as soon as it is safe to do so. Police rely on timely information to respond.
Community reporting helps too. If residents notice damaged, missing, or obscured signs, or worn pavement markings on ramps and frontage roads, they can report them to the District for local streets and to MoTI for highway facilities. Maintenance teams can typically address vegetation, cleaning, and re‐marking as part of regular work. Local knowledge can also inform longer-term design tweaks if the same concerns come up repeatedly.
The poll results on neighbourhood speeds tie into a larger discussion about safety culture. Slower speeds on local streets reduce the force of any collision and give everyone—drivers, people on bikes, and people walking—more time to react. Automated enforcement remains a policy debate in BC, but support in the recent polling was clear. Whether on a residential block or at a highway ramp, the common thread is predictability: clear rules, clear signs, and consistent driving behaviour that other road users can anticipate. That predictability is what prevents the near misses from becoming something worse.
Next steps locally will depend on what the police review and MoTI’s engineering checks find. Based on past practice, a straightforward sequence would be a signage, marking, and lighting review at affected ramps, followed by any quick fixes that arise. If the review indicates a need for bigger changes, MoTI would typically share those plans with local partners. In the meantime, Squamish residents can continue to support a safety-first approach by driving at posted speeds, avoiding last-second lane changes near ramps, and reporting maintenance concerns when they see them.
We have asked Sea to Sky RCMP and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure whether the area in question is under review for safety improvements. Official updates will be shared as they are confirmed. For highway-related issues, residents can contact the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. For local street concerns, the District of Squamish can advise on traffic calming and maintenance requests.
