New bilingual road signs unveiled near a Richmond construction zone Thursday are the first in B.C. to ask drivers to slow down in two languages: English and Chinese.

Both Thomas Tam, CEO of the immigrant services agency S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and Al Johnson, WorkSafeBC’s regional director in charge of construction, said they are not aware of similar signs elsewhere in the province.

The signs — a joint initiative of WorkSafeBC, Graham Construction and the B.C. Construction Safety Alliance — ask drivers to slow down in English and Chinese and feature large pictures of construction workers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds with family members such as elderly parents and children.

The signs are not intended to imply that drivers in Richmond are not able to read English, Johnson said. Rather, the goal is to get the safety message across to the target audience in the most effective way possible.

“The Richmond community, probably more so than any other community in the province, has a considerable Chinese and multicultural population, so we just thought it was a natural that here, where a lot of the advertising and corporate signs are also in Chinese, it was an opportunity for us to do it in that language as well,” Johnson said.

Signs convey a message more effectively when they are in the native language of the target audience, Tam said.

“I think that there is some misconception that when we see this bilingual signage, it implies that people don’t like to learn English or cannot read English,” he said.

But when Chinese speakers drive by the signs and see the message, coupled with an image of people who represent their community, “you catch me to a higher degree,” Tam explained.

“So we are not talking about people who don’t understand [and] that’s why we need another language.... I would say that this is an enhancement, it’s not a replacement,” he said.

The B.C. Ministry of Transportation does not use construction-zone signage in languages other than English, said spokeswoman Kate Trotter.

“Wherever possible, symbols are used to maximize understanding regardless of language.”

While the Insurance Corp. of B.C. has no specific English comprehension requirement for licensing new drivers from other countries, the road safety knowledge test is only available in ten languages, said ICBC spokesman Adam Grossman, who noted that the majority of road signs, such as stop signs, are symbol-based. Road tests are typically conducted in English, although customers may bring an interpreter if they wish, he added.

Drivers from a list of 11 countries that ICBC deems to have similar standards in place for signage and road testing need only exchange their foreign licence for a B.C. one, Grossman said, adding that ICBC applauds the bilingual road sign initiative. Only four of those listed, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and several semi-independent surrounding islands, are English-speaking countries. China is not on the list, but both Japan and South Korea are.

“Whatever way you end up with a Class 5 licence ... you’ve gone through a pretty rigorous testing process,” Grossman said. “You’ve either done that in your home country or you’ve ... done that through our own graduated licensing program.”

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