Tuesday August 26, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC [Posted at 9 pm | Updated August 28, 2025]
See previous article (July 15/25):
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Quick summary: A few complaints about speeding vehicles on Alouette Drive have resulted in the installation of speed cushions that may cause more problems than they resolve.
Speed cushions have been installed on Alouette Drive in the older portion of Westhills in Langford.
The new installation is intended to achieve traffic calming, in two locations:
- Three cushions – Alouette Drive just north of Parkdale Creek Gardens, south of Dornier Road
- Two cuhsions – Alouette Drive just south of Langford Lake Road, north of Antonov Lane
Both locations already have delineator poles nearby along the centre of the road.
Some residents, not all:
The City says that Alouette Drive was evaluated as per the City’s Traffic Calming Policy in response to requests by residents for traffic calming measures.
There are often problems with a complaint-driven system. There appears to have been no query to other neighbours or the broader community as to their input on more intrusions on the road. Residents simply received an advisory card that the speed cushions would be coming.
Now that the speed cushions are in place, a lot of people who frequently travel on Alouette may have feedback about their frustrations over the speed cushions, including residents of the immediate area, people heading to/and from the nearby high school, commercial area and sports stadium.
It’s unknown at this point if the City will be doing any followup with the public, especially residents of the area.
Traffic calming intentions:
“We had a professional engineer recommend options for traffic calming on Alouette, and traffic calming using speed cushions was the recommended solution,” said a City of Langford engineering rep.
“Traffic calming measures encourage safe driving by slowing the speed of traffic to posted speed limits and reducing the volume of vehicles to the design capacity,” the City says.
“Alouette Drive is a narrow road, limiting the options for traffic calming measures and it does already have some features that are generally considered traffic calming, such as on-street parking and narrow cross-section, as well as the delineators that would reduce the perception of the road width.”
However, the narrow road is a frustration for many drivers and the delineators experience wear and tear from the weather. For people with vision challenges at night the narrow roadway and worn-out reflective tape on the delineators create a potential driving danger.
Crosswalk factor:
There is a crosswalk across from Dornier Road over to the pathway that leads to Belmont Secondary School which is likely subject to speeding as drivers begin up a moderate grade.
It might be a safety improvement to install flashing lights for the crosswalk to highlight the presence of the pathway that is tucked away between houses.
If City Engineering is looking at that option for Alouette Drive is yet to be determined. A flashing-light crosswalk might be more instructive to drivers instead of drivers focussing on going over the speed cushions so close to the crosswalk (the cushions often encourage speeding up after being driven over, especially on the uphill grade for northbound traffic).
Possible revision:
While some traffic installations are generally considered permanent, it sounds like there could be flexibility with this one.
“The speed cushions are a pilot project and we will be doing follow-up monitoring to see how the project is performing,” the engineering department has revealed.
A challenge for emergency vehicles:
“Three speed cushions are placed across 2 lanes to allow emergency vehicles to travel through the area without driving over the cushions. This method is preferred by emergency responders to limit impacts on their emergency response times,” the City says.
However, the vertical delineators are so close to the speed cushions that it would mean a significant obstacle for an emergency vehicle travelling in a hurry.
“Two speed bumps (instead of 3) were placed at the installation closer to Antonov Lane, as the road width is narrower and 3 cushions could not be accommodated,” says the City, highlighting an inherent traffic problem with Alouette to begin with… the narrow road width which is challenging for some drivers — particularly past the delineators and blocked lines of vision around parked cars.
Are they better than bumps?:
“The cushions are less intrusive than a speed bump,” the City’s engineering department says.
“The approach onto the cushion is more gradual and over a greater distance. A speed bump would be more abrupt and span the width of the road, which is also unfavourable for emergency vehicles.”
“The cushions are designed to have minimal disturbance when driven over within the posted speed limit of 30 km/h.”
However, vehicle that would hope to avoid an uneven ride over the cushions include older vehicles and trucks with a heavy load (especially if an open pickup truck).
Motorcycles avoid the cushions:
Based on observations on Alouette Drive last week, the speed cushions will not in any way deter any speeding intentions by motorcycles. In fact, as the speed cushions near Parkdale Creek Gardens are on an uphill grade some motorcycle riders chose to go even faster *between* the speed cushions.
Ambience lost:
For reasons of safety, attention to speed on Alouette is of course the right thing to do. But the vertical delinator poles have already slowed down traffic. How much more needed to be done? It’s unknown if any traffic speeed watching was done prior to deciding to add the speed cushions, which seem like overkill.
The feeling of a lovely drive through this older part of Westhills has become diminished.
There is also the added noise as some vehicles rev their engines to go faster up the hill over the speed cushions. Residents may not enjoy that aspect of the cushions.
Attention to Alouette since 2020:
By 2015, Alouette Drive had become a busy thoroughfare for commuters who use the narrow two-lane road to get from Highway 14 over to Langford Parkway (and high-traffic points in between, including Starlight Stadium and Belmont Secondary School).
In spring 2020, two stop signs were installed at the corner of Alouette Drive and Langford Lake Road to create a four-way stop. That was to stop the frequent occurrence of drivers just rolling through the intersection without stopping or even slowing down.
Nonetheless, there was an incident in February 2023 where a person was struck at the Alouette/Langford Lake Road intersection, as reported by West Shore RCMP.
In summer 2021, at the insistence of residents, lane delineators were installed at a few points along the residential street.
In February 2023 some curb repairs were made to the roundabout at Alouette Drive and Glen Lake Road.
And now in summer 2025 are the speed cushions.
===== RELATED:
- More traffic calming along Alouette in Westhills (July 15, 2025)
- West Shore RCMP: incident at Alouette Dr & Langford Lake Rd (March 1, 2023)
- LANGFORD TRAFFIC: Alouette roundabout curb repairs (February 16, 2023)
- Road in old Westhills gets tons of cross-town traffic (June 9, 2021)
- New 4-way stop attempts traffic flow management at Alouette & Langford Lake (July 30, 2020)
- NEWS SECITONS: TRAFFIC | LANGFORD