Electronic speed boards and pedestrian-activated crossing signals are among the measures being considered to improve safety on 39th Street at the east side of Red Deer.
On Wednesday, people from the surrounding area were invited to review staff proposals for slowing speeders in the strip running between 30th Avenue and the eastern edge of the city.
While the speed limit there is posted at 50 km/h, the city has data showing that drivers are travelling up to 20 km/h over the speed limit, largely because the road is flat and wide with good visibility, said Michael Williston, transportation engineer with the City of Red Deer.
Permanently mounted speed boards would show drivers their rate of speed in relation to the speed limit and would collect that data for future reference, said Williston.
Pedestrian-activated crossing lights would enable people to cross safely while calming traffic by forcing motorists to come to a stop.
Police have a regular enforcement program for the area, but photo-radar is ineffective because the van is so easily spotted, Williston told a crowd of about 40 people who gathered for the first of two presentations.
Traffic calming measures put in place earlier on simply haven’t worked, he said.
Williston and other staff from city hall heard from numerous residents who complained that, although not designed as an arterial road, 39th Street has become a freeway for people coming into the city from the east.
A large number of people, particularly those employed in the plants around Joffre, have found that 39th Street is a quicker route into the city than 55th Street because there are no lights, said one man, who identified himself as a former employee of Nova Chemicals.
Residents Shari and Chuck Seely said they are afraid to let their children cross 39th Street because the traffic travels so fast.
Although there is only one lane in each direction, Shari Seely said she has seen drivers cut over to the oncoming lane to pass vehicles that have stopped for people trying to cross the street.
She suggested cutting in a some rumble strips, which she feels would force drivers to slow down as they come in from the east.
Michael Donlevy, whose home took $100,000 in damage in 2009 when it was rammed by a vehicle that had gone out of control, said people using 39th Street as a short cut are travelling 110 km/h when they hit the city limits and have barely slowed to 80 when go past his place.
The city has planted some fast-growing shrubbery along the north side of the street and set up a temporary concrete barrier that will keep cars out of people’s back yards in the five years that it will take for the shrubs to mature, said Donlevy.
While some people have claimed that the barrier is an eyesore, nobody’s house faces that part of the street, so nobody has to look at it for more than 15 seconds at a time, he said.
Seely said she would rather put up with the barrier than worry about a car smashing into the kitchen while she’s nursing a baby.
As far as the expense goes, the concrete sections can be reused and moving them is not costly, said Williston.
He urged people attending the meeting to fill out the comment forms so their concerns could be included in a report and recommendations that his department will present to city council at a later date.
Copies of an earlier report, presented to city council in October, are available on the city’s website at reddeer.ca
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com