City Hall staff is getting serious about implementing traffic calming measures at the intersection of Pine St S and Sullivan Ave, and they’re looking to narrow the road by installing temporary delineator posts.
As ThoroldToday reported, residents are worried about the traffic safety at the four-way stop. With plans for a McDonald’s on the corner well underway, there are concerns that the issue will only get worse.
Last Wednesday, at a meeting of the City’s Road Safety Committee, Manager of Engineering Sean Dunsmore presented a proposal to slow traffic by permanently extending the curbs at the intersection.
But committee members were hesitant to commit to such a drastic measure, as they worried it would worsen congestion, by taking away parking spots at the Prince of Wales School.
Then there is also the big question of the traffic impact that the McDonald’s will have.
“When the McDonald’s is built, I think they’re going to have to look at a traffic measure where a car coming onto Pine St can only turn right,” said Councillor Henry D’Angela, who sits on the committee. “It probably won’t be able to turn left. I can’t see how it can come up into the intersection, because there will be a lot of backing up of vehicles if they’re trying to make a left hand turn.”
The site plan for the McDonald’s identifies both a driveway entrance on Towpath St, as well as Pine St S.
Dunsmore explained that there has been lots of discussion between the City and McDonald’s about the traffic at the location.
“They really want the full movement at that driveway,” Dunsmore told committee members. “As part of that site plan we took a contingency to do a detailed traffic study on this location when they’re there so we can actually see what’s happening in stead of estimating what is going to happen. One of the concepts that we talked about is putting in a median down the middle of Pine St to force that entrance to be a right in, right out only.”
The new median would most likely be part of the complete reconstruction of Pine St that the City is hoping to undertake in the next two years.
While traffic lights are still being considered as a long-term solution, Dunsmore said that that would be “a five year program.”
“I think waiting for the design of the entire road might be the solution and the traffic lights,” he said.
But that does not solve the immediate traffic safety issues at the intersection of Pine St and Sullivan Ave.
So what about installing temporary delineator posts, asked Councillor Henry D’Angela.
“If we want to do something immediate and do it over the summer, the delineators make all sort of sense,” answered Dunsmore. “We can get those in and it would certainly be a much cheaper solution in the short term.”
And with that, Dunsmore promised to bring the idea forward to city council for their approval.
