Road Safety on city streets a theme for council Monday

While Council members circled around the contentious themes of roundabouts on Monday evening, the topic of road safety on other city streets removed from Second and McBride gained somewhat of a review.

The most prominent of the councillors to the discussion Councillor Nick Adey who came with a list of areas for consideration of the city's Operations department and council members.

Speaking at the end of the thirty minutes of civic discussion from Monday, the Councillor outlined some of his trouble spots for the group.

Five corners was one area of note for attention from
Councillor Nick Adey

Among his notes, concerns related to Five corners and how some safety measures could be put in place at that corner to make the yield process more clearer. 

"I've got a couple of things that are linked by a central theme and the central theme is pedestrian and traffic safety . 

As you'd have to be living under a rock to have missed that there's a community discussion around McBride and Second Avenue, but what I think has been useful about it, without going there. 

Is that it's produced a lot of discussion about other places and ways that we need to address particularly pedestrian safety ...

On Five Corners, I've never really thought about it before.

But somebody pointed out to me that when you go from Third Avenue through to Second Avenue there is a yield sign there that is actually meant to affect traffic not going through there, but down the ramp way on the right hand side from Second Avenue.

So as a small point there is an opportunity there I think to make that safer as it's not clear who is supposed to yield to who there"  

Adey also observed of a video submission from a local resident that may be of interest in Prince Rupert officials,  outlining a program in Port Hardy towards a solar powered lighting addition for stop signs to enhance their visibility. 

The Crosswalk between Chevron and the Post Office on Second West
is considered one of the most dangerous pedestrian crossings in the city

He also noted of the concerns related to Second Avenue and the Chevron, speaking towards a recent ICBC Safety initiative the he, the Mayor and Councillor Cunningham participated in that area. 

"In conversation with the RCMP officers when we began that, I said well where would be the most effective place for us to be and the RCMP officers didn't hesitate to say well, the crosswalk by Chevron ...

A crosswalk that we really need to think about how we can make that safer, how we can either control it or make it safer" 

Mr. Adey also noted of the lack of any crosswalk along Park Avenue from Five Corners and the Ferry terminal noting of a few locations that could be considered.

The Councillor also relayed concerns on speeding on city streets and inquired as to how community residents could approach council to reduce speed in their neighbourhoods

Mayor Pond  turned that discussion over Director of Operations Richard Pucci, who first observed that he had made notes on the Councillor's list and observed how they and other areas of note around the community could be raised with the ministry of Transportation.

As to the speed reduction question, Mr. Pucci offered up some guidance to the issue.

"With the speed, our traffic bylaw states that a resolution of Council can adjust speed limits within highways associated with the community, obviously not MOTI highways, but our highways which are roadways.

I would like the opportunity just to maybe come back with a Consent Memo  just to confirm the process and bring it forward But within the traffic bylaw it does say by resolution of Council may adjust speed limits"

Councillor Barry Cunningham also had some thoughts to share on safety, noting of the recent safety campaign that he, Mayor Pond and Councillor Adey had participated in and how he would like to see an expansion of the safety reflector program, particularly tied into the Halloween time activities to highlight  the measures that are available to be seen.

He also observed that there is also a responsibility for pedestrians to be aware of their situations and not to walk into traffic. Another topic of note for the councillor was the issue of bikes, ebikes, and motorized scooters and how there is need for bylaw enforcement on those issues as well as the helmet bylaw.

Councillor Randhawa observed of a reduced speed program in place on Atlin Avenue and suggested a review of the success of that initiative towards expanding it.

Mayor Pond shared some thoughts related to traffic calming measures that could be considered.

"In terms of traffic study and design what is referred to as traffic calming devices ...  it's a funny thing but if you actually narrow things in, people automatically slow down right.

If you go into certain neighbourhoods in Vancouver and Langley or wherever and I'm not trying to push a particular cause here, but where small roundabouts are done ... can't believe I went there did you ... but it forces people to slow down as they go around those.

When you do curb bump outs right, so there's lots of different ways and one of them is to actually have an enforceable speed limit, but there's design considerations that can be done also that can help you slow down for sure"

The full round of discussion can be reviewed from the City's Video starting at the 32 minute mark.

Items of interest from the Operations Department can be reviewed here.

A wider overview of Monday's Council Session can be explored through our Council Timeline Feature.