The intersection of Anderton Road and Ryan Road East is the highest-crash location in ICBC's entire Comox municipality crash dataset. We're a group of neighbours trying to get the speed limit on this road lowered. We have been told by our MLA that the most effective thing community members can do is write — and keep writing — to elected officials, so that the record reflects how many of us are asking for this.
If you live in the Comox Valley, you can help. Add your name below, and we'll send a documented, fact-based email on your behalf to the politicians who can act on this.
We are a community group asking the BC Ministry of Transportation and Transit to lower the posted speed limit on Ryan Road East, from the Anderton Road intersection eastward — a stretch currently posted at 80 km/h.
The province controls this road. The province sets the speed limit. The province has, so far, declined to act. Our MLA has met with us, and has advised that the most effective tool available to us is to keep the issue formally on the record — through written communication, daily, from as many constituents as possible. That is what this campaign does.
When you sign up, we send one email on your behalf to each of the politicians whose responsibilities touch this road. The email is based entirely on documented, public evidence — ICBC crash data, the City of Courtenay's adopted Official Community Plan, the Ministry's own recent public statements, and published news coverage. We do not write anything in your name that we cannot back up with a source. The references for everything we say are listed at the bottom of this page.
We are not asking you to do anything other than sign up. You do not need to write your own letter, attend a meeting, or call anyone. We handle the rest.
Between 2020 and 2024, the intersection of Anderton Road and Ryan Road East recorded 63 crashes — that's one crash every 29 days, every year, for five straight years.
Of those 63 crashes, 25 were casualty crashes — meaning at least one person was injured or killed. That's nearly 40% of all crashes at this intersection. At minimum, 25 people were hurt or killed at this single intersection in five years. One injury-or-death crash every ten weeks.
To put that in context:
It is not just the intersection. The 1.3 km section of Ryan Road East between Anderton Road and Belair Road — currently posted at 80 km/h — has:
This is perhaps the most important point.
The Ministry of Transportation and Transit has already determined that 50 km/h is the appropriate posted speed limit for Ryan Road East. The eastern third of the road — from Belair Road to the eastern end — is already posted at 50 km/h. The signs are already up.
We are not asking the Ministry to set a new speed limit. We are asking the Ministry to extend an existing speed limit by approximately 1.3 km westward, to cover the section between Anderton Road and Belair Road.
And there is no traffic-flow argument against doing so. Vehicles travelling eastbound on Ryan Road East have to slow down to 50 km/h at Belair Road anyway. The 80 km/h section feeds directly into a 50 km/h zone. Maintaining 80 km/h on a 1.3 km stretch that bottlenecks immediately into 50 km/h does not save anyone any meaningful time. It adds risk without adding throughput.
Compare the section we want lowered to a section of the same Ryan Road just a short distance west — between Lerwick Road and Back Road, both managed by the same Ministry.
The Lerwick-to-Back section, posted at 60 km/h, has no driveways, no bus stops, a straight alignment, and no residential homes facing the road.
Our section, posted at 80 km/h, has 47 driveways, residences, a bus stop without a sidewalk, the highest-crash intersection in the municipality, and a likely school bus stop. By the Ministry's own criteria, these designations are inverted.
The City of Courtenay has formally designated the Ryan Road / Anderton Road intersection as a future Neighbourhood Centre in its adopted Official Community Plan. This means the city has officially planned for this area to become more dense, more commercial, more walkable, and busier with pedestrians. A Local Area Plan for the Ryan/Anderton area is in active development.
In other words: the City is planning to make this intersection a hub for more residents, more shops, and more foot traffic — while the province continues to post the same intersection at 80 km/h.
In a May 8, 2026 article in the Comox Valley Record, a Ministry representative confirmed publicly that the province has "collected some traffic data" and is "in the process of having an engineering review done" of the Ryan/Anderton intersection. Courtenay council, in the same article, expressed open frustration with the province's pace on this corridor.
This is exactly the right moment to act. The Ministry is already reviewing this intersection. We are asking — through the volume of your emails — that the review include consideration of extending the existing 50 km/h speed limit westward to Anderton Road. It is a small ask attached to a process already underway.
The 2011 Comox Transportation Study, a formal municipal planning document, already identified Anderton-related intersections as the worst collision sites in the area, based on a decade of data through 2006. That study was 15 years ago. Since then, no provincial action has been taken on the speed limit at this intersection. Sixty-three more crashes have happened. Twenty-five more casualties.
We don't know. What we do know is that the alternative — silence — has not worked for fifteen years. Our MLA, who has met with us on this issue, advised that volume and persistence are the most effective tools available. We are following that advice.
No. Sign up once and we'll handle the rest. You're welcome to follow up with us if you'd like to be more involved, but it's not required.
You don't need to. If you live in the Comox Valley, you use this road or are affected by it. Your voice as a constituent matters regardless of which street you live on. The intersection is the worst crash location in the municipality — it's a Comox Valley problem, not just a Ryan Road East one.
Emails will be deployed dynamically on an advocacy schedule to ensure persistent awareness with key representatives.
Yes. The three templates are available on request. Email us and we'll share them.
A group of neighbours from Ryan Road East and surrounding streets, working in coordination with the existing community petition campaign (ryanroadeast@gmail.com). We are not affiliated with any political party.
Everything stated on this page is drawn from public, verifiable sources. The full list is below.
Questions, corrections, or want to be more involved? Email us at ryanroadeast@gmail.com.
If you would like to stop receiving emails being sent on your behalf, or remove your information from our list entirely, email us and we'll take care of it within 24 hours.
Thank you for adding your voice.