The young man driving a brown Ford pickup didn't quite catch the Green Wave on Springfield Road in Kelowna on Saturday morning. Neither did the senior citizen behind the wheel of a Mercury Topaz.
Both exceeded the speed limit of 50 km/h on the road and so had to slow down and come nearly to a stop at the next set of traffic lights.
But the majority of other motorists seemed to be driving at 50 km/h, and were thus able to breeze through three sets of lights synchronized to accommodate traffic moving at the posted limit.
The so-called Green Wave campaign was launched last Wednesday, and already some Springfield Road area residents believe it is having the desired effect of reining in speeders.
"Oh, definitely. Look for yourself," Sharon Cookson, 52, said as she stood on the Springfield Road sidewalk and beheld a succession of drivers obeying, or only slightly exceeding, the speed limit.
"It can feel like a little freeway through here at times," said Cookson, who has lived just off Springfield for 12 years. "But I do think people are going slower now."
"Maybe it's just going to be a temporary thing, people reducing their speed, or maybe not," added Richard Pearce, who was also out for a walk Saturday morning. "I think the city's done a good job putting up these signs to get people to slow down."
Green and white signs along Springfield inform drivers the lights are timed to move 50 km/h traffic without interruption. There are also solar-powered speed reader boards, flashing not just a vehicle's velocity, but instructions to 'Slow Down!' if the car or truck is going too fast.
The timing system appears to be working as designed. In five trips taken by a speed limit-obeying reporter up and down the section of Springfield covered by the Green Wave campaign, green lights were encountered at all three intersections.
Drivers seen to be speeding between intersections did not gain any advantage, since they did have to slow down or stop as they hit red lights.
On average, there are 63 crashes a year on Springfield, with many of them speed-related. Driving is made somewhat more hazardous because of all the residential driveways that lead onto the road.
"We will be implementing continued enforcement along Springfield Road, which will coincide with both engineering and education initiatives to increase the safety of that particular corridor," said RCMP Const. Kris Clark.