Road Safety

Road Watch BC was developed in partnership with Wildsight, Western Transportation Institute, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and the Miistakis Institute to enable citizens living in Elk Valley region of Southeastern British Columbia to report wildlife sightings along major highways

Information on wildlife sightings collected by the public will enable us to better understand where wildlife are commonly crossing, involved in collisions, or moving adjacent to the highway. Ultimately this will lead to development of informed strategies to reduce wildlife vehicle collisions while ensuring the safe passage of wildlife across highways. The generated information will be shared with Government officials in Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) and Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations & Rural Development (FLNRORD).

Road Watch BC includes the development of a smartphone app and associated on-line mapping tool to increase efficiency, accuracy and ease of data collection, and ultimately generate a dataset to be used to inform strategies to improve wildlife movement and both wildlife and human safety.

How to participate?

There are three ways for you to participate in Road Watch BC:

• Option 1: If you are a passenger in a vehicle driving in southeast BC, download the RoadWatchBC smartphone app and record your sightings of wildlife along the highways.
• Option 2: if you are a driver, remember where, when and what you saw while driving along the highways in southeast BC and record your observation using the on-line mapping tool.
• Option 3: If you are a passenger that regularly takes a consistent highway route in southeast BC, consider signing up to drive a specified route (defined starting and end points agreed upon by local project coordinator). This option enables us to record volunteer effort because you record when you are on your specified route even when you don't see any wildlife.

To learn more and request a training session please contact info@roadwatchbc.ca.

If you see wildlife on the highway and you are not sure what species it is, visit our Wildlife Identification section on the website.

Road Safety Tips

During the warmer summer season, there is an increase in foot and vehicle traffic.  We recommend that you follow these preventative safety tips while outside enjoying the sun:

Staying Safe

According to Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) most bicycle injuries and crashes occur during the afternoon rush hour. Follow these tips to ensure you are making safety your first priority!