By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Anyone who has needed to make a left turn from James Street South onto Queen Street East can attest to the danger that intersection poses for both drivers and pedestrians.
At the Nov. 12 St. Marys council meeting, councillors addressed a letter from St. Marys resident Nadia Sommerville outlining her safety concerns with the intersection, a discussion that carried into infrastructure director Jeff Wolfe’s presentation of a brand-new, comprehensive road-safety plan for the town.
“My daughter goes to DVCI high school and walks travelling from downtown up towards that intersection to get to school each morning and later afternoon. As much as I tell her to avoid that intersection, it is the most convenient,” Sommerville wrote in her letter. “ … There is also the concern of not just my child but others who use this intersection to get to school on a daily basis. There is also a retirement home not even a block away from this intersection as well.
“So, this affects (the) most vulnerable in our community. There is definitely a high volume of vehicle traffic at the Queen and James intersection and an increase of volume of pedestrian traffic. This intersection only has one stop sign and if you are looking towards the bridge for oncoming traffic, it is very hard to see oncoming traffic, especially if anyone is speeding.”
Councillors were quick to agree with Sommerville’s concerns with both councillors Marg Luna and Dave Lucas going as far as to say they actively avoid that intersection because of that lack of sightline.
“The intersection is certainly a challenge,” Wolfe said. “It has been that way for a long time. The current bridge that goes over the CN rail immediately adjacent to that intersection was constructed in the ‘70s, so it has been in the current alignment for (at least) 50 years. … Certainly, there are challenges around the intersection with visibility to the east.
“ … One of the main challenges with the intersection is the approach from the west and the steep angle of the road coming from downtown. Any attempt we could make to try and stop traffic on that hill would be very challenging for any sort of large vehicle or even smaller vehicles for that matter if they were to come to a complete stop at a red light and if they had to restart. More likely, if they were backed up down the hill, it would be a challenge; maybe not right at the intersection, but if there was a lag and they were backed up, we would end up with issues with vehicles maybe not being able to get up the hill in the wintertime.”
While the intersection was identified in 2014 as an issue that will continue to get worse as the town grows, there has been no clear solution to the problem. A road-safety plan brought for council’s approval later in the meeting, however, may be the first step towards improving that intersection and the safety of drivers and pedestrians on all 56 kilometres of public roads in St. Marys.
The drafting of this plan was spurred on by a request from the St. Marys community policing advisory committee for the town to investigate adopting a Vision Zero Strategy. The Vision Zero and Safe Systems Approach Strategy is a global initiative meant to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on roadways. Ultimately, council decided to move forward with the development of a road-safety plan within the spirit of Vision Zero, but not to adopt Vison Zero in its entirety.
The town has undertaken various initiatives to improve road safety in the last five years and the road-safety plan compiles various strategies and initiatives to reduce the risk of fatalities and serious injuries on local roads.
“Specifically, the plan borrows from the safe systems approach which is a concept where we acknowledge the fact that … everyone makes mistakes and we need to help build a system collectively that makes sure when someone does make a mistake, it doesn’t result in a lifechanging injury,” Wolfe said. “We acknowledge the fact that people make mistakes, we acknowledge the fact that people are squishy, we’re vulnerable and we need to be protected especially … if we’re not in a vehicle. Also, all levels of the industry need to be involved whether it’s higher levels of government, automotive industry, safety regulators or health-care providers.
“Everyone needs to work together to make sure our roads are as safe as possible.”
The plan is broken down into three categories for developing countermeasures to injuries and fatalities on local roads: engineering, enforcement and education. The plan is intended to improve data sharing, elicit more public feedback, create additional educational programs, update engineering standards and encourage targeted analysis of safety issues that will inform future operating and capital budgets. An internal-safety audit team, traffic-calming program and annual reporting to assess progress will be developed as a result of the road-safety plan.
In response to concerns from council about specific intersections and safety concerns, Wolfe told councillors the town has developed a safety audit program based on staff’s recent experience improving another intersection of concern in town at Jones Street East and Church Street South. Wolfe told councillors staff could begin the process of auditing the James Street South and Queen Street East intersection to potentially identify both short-term and longer-term improvements that can be included in future capital budgets.
In their resolution approving the road-safety plan, council also identified Water Street South and Queen Street East as an intersection of concern to review in the near future.
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