Given good weather, centre line painting of Gabriola roads is expected to proceed in a week or two once “seal-coating”– a form of road repair – along Brickyard hill and other main Gabriola roads is completed.

However road edge and cross-walk painting is in the “we’ll see” category meeting attendees were told at a June 18 Gabriola Transportation Association (GTA) meeting at Agi Hall between Gabriolans  and transportation officials.

GTA member Randy Young said that there were some roads that would have room for an edge line and room to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists if the centre line was moved slightly.

Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) Operations Manager Johnathan Tillie said whether or not lines would be painted along the edge of the roads would depend on how wide the roads are.

Asked if crosswalks will also be painted and new ones added, Tillie said crosswalks are dealt with through “separate contracts”, but that MOTI would be taking community feedback on the need for more crosswalks into consideration. He said they would also confer with local elected representatives about cross-walks.

Fire Chief Rick Jackson said emergency personnel have attended three bicycle accidents across the street from Agi Hall. He said “the people actually ran into the curb because it was invisible”. He said “we … took it on ourselves to paint it”.

Jackson thought it was important that MOTI know that “there were three ambulance calls with injured people”, because the curbs were not visible. He said there were other such areas on the island as well. Young said he could compose a list of those areas.

In response to questions about whether the paint to be used this year was longer lasting than the last batch, Regional Director Howard Houle said he had been told that they will be using a different kind of paint.

Tillie didn’t know what the budget for painting roads on Gabriola is, as it is divided up throughout the Central Vancouver Island region.

As previously reported, highways officials said last year that line crews were scheduled to complete line-painting “between the end of July and mid-August” of 2011. However, with a few exceptions, the painting never occurred.