The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor City council hoped it would slow traffic and make the South Hudson Street area safer, but their four-way stop may be doing just the opposite. That's the assessment of a neighbourhood resident a year after stops signs went up at the South Hudson-Phelps Avenue intersection. 'As a resident of South Hudson Street, I feel that the all-way stop control at this intersection is unnecessary and potentially dangerous,' Heather Brickner wrote in a letter council reviewed at their meeting last week. Brickner said she has seen motorists fail to stop at the intersection, 'likely because other drivers see it as unnecessary,' and speeds near her home have seemingly increased. While regularly using the intersection over the last year, Brickner said only twice has she seen vehicles on Phelps Avenue 'and usually there are no vehicles at the all-way stop.' 'This indicates to me that the traffic volumes are very low, and that the all-way stop is not warranted,' she wrote. Brickner further said it is 'difficult if not impossible' for southbound motorists on South Hudson to see the side streets after coming to a halt. 'If this all-way stop was installed with the intent to slow down traffic and increase pedestrian safety, it is unlikely that either of these benefits have occurred,' she wrote. Brickner cited research into multi-way stops that concluded they do not control speeds. In fact, she wrote, 'unwarranted' all-way stops increase speeds 'some distance from the intersection' as drivers try to 'make up' for time lost at the stop. Increase noise She wrote stop signs also increase noise in the vicinity of an intersection and even decrease air quality stemming from more stopping and starting on the part of motorists. Brickner asked whether council had undertaken a formal 'intersection evaluation' before installing the stop signs. Municipal Admin-istrator Mark Kolt said the matter received much attention from the city's Traffic Commission, which recommended the four-way stop. Over a period of 'quite a number of weeks' and several meetings, he said, the commission discussed and debated the matter before reaching its final decision. The commission heard 'a number of perspectives' on the matter, Kolt said, as letters and calls from people on both sides of the issue were weighed. Funding an independent traffic study each time the commission receives a letter, he said, would not be practical and 'those sorts of approaches are easier to defend in larger centres.' Brickner suggested that if council has concerns over pedestrian safety, they should install an overhead crosswalk, like the one on Main Street, instead. Council had no comment on Brickner's letter, referring it to the Traffic Commission for further discussion.
