Last year, the Safer Roads Alliance worked with the communities of Lac La Biche, Fox Creek and the Municipal District of Greenview, in partnership with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) to implement TIRF’s Action2Zero online road safety assessment. This evidence-based tool was designed to gather input from a broad cross-section of community organizations to gauge the status of road safety, identify strengths, and uncover gaps. The assessment includes a recommended plan to address the gaps discovered throughout the engagement.

While the community reports undergo a final review, the Alliance has started to address some top priorities in the community of Lac La Biche based on key learnings emerging from the assessment. One of the most important outcomes was the integral role of local peace officers when it comes to road safety. These officers perform a wide variety of duties, but the time they spend enforcing traffic laws and engaging with diverse community stakeholders is essential to educate people about risky behaviours on the road and make communities safer.

To help support and build their capacity, the Alliance has met with the regional peace officers several times over the past few months to learn more about key road safety concerns in their community – namely speeding/aggressive driving, impaired driving, and distracted driving. This knowledge has informed our work with the peace officers to enhance activities coordinated with their road safety enforcement calendar. The assessment findings have also influenced the development of educational tools and resources (in collaboration with TIRF) that promote safer, less risky driving habits in the community.

The Alliance is working closely with other first responders, local officials, and schools to reinvigorate community traffic safety committees. These connections will ensure we’re plugged into the community so we can effectively coordinate and customize resources specific to issues in the community of Lac La Biche.

This is just the beginning of our community-centric approach to road safety and we look forward to sharing more outcomes and ways in which the Alliance putting the Action2Zero assessments into action.

If you are interested in having your community participate in a future assessment, reach out to Debbie Hammond, Safer Roads Alliance, Executive Director for details.