Traffic lights on the horizon for 9th and McBride

There are some interesting talking points for tonight's Prince Rupert City Council meeting and one of them, may bring some relief to parents and students of Prince Rupert Middle School.

As part of tonight's agenda package, Council will hear some background on the woes of the two solar powered speed indicators in the city, the McBride Street bridge indicator and the one on Park Avenue, both of which apparently don't enjoy Rupert's cloudy climate, a theme we have explored in a previous item on the blog.

The interesting part of the proposed solution to that issue however, doesn't have to do with the troubled speed indicators. But rather comes from word, that the McBride Street indicator will soon be relocated further down the road, closer to 11th Avenue East.

That movement to take place once  a controlled traffic signal is installed at the intersection of 9th and McBride.

That will be a development that will most likely be greeted with much approval from those that attend 9th Avenue West's Prince Rupert Middle School. The key morning and afternoon opening and closing times for the school, have created at times some tense moments on the roads, with bottlenecks developing as drivers attempt to turn left or cross over McBride from 9th.

No timeline was provided regarding the installation of the "controlled traffic signal", you can learn more about solar powered speed signs and the traffic signal from the Council Agenda package on page 80

Update: The actual discussion on the theme of the controlled traffic signal as described in the Agenda package did not expand very much in the way of information.

In fact, the agenda package offered more background than the discussion in council, as City Manager Robert Long seemed to suggest that it's more of a controlled crosswalk system, rather than a traffic light system destined for that intersection.

He also seems to have confused the subject of the solar powered speed limit sign with the proposed traffic control signal. Leaving us we imagine to wait until September, to see what arrives at the intersection of 9th and McBride.

You can review the very short and somewhat confusing discussion on the topic from the video archive of the council session for August 19th, the short conversation takes place from  the 1:27:00 to 1:28:00 mark.