IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: A version of article was originally published by ThoroldToday on May 23.
The city’s Road Safety Committee is ringing the alarm bell, because they feel that the intersection at St. David St. E and Ormond St. Is in need of some urgent reconsideration.
“I think this intersection really needs some attention,” said member Donna Del Cueto, during last week’s committee meeting. “At the very least it needs some crosswalks painted on the road for getting safely across Ormond street.”
Three of the four intersecting roads slope downwards into the intersection, which leads to speeding in all directions.
“The cars go whizzing by very fast,” Del Cueto said. “Of course not all of them, but enough that it is a concern. There’s nothing slowing them down from the stop sign at Townline Road all the way up to the Tim [Hortons]. It goes downhill.”
Del Cueto believes a four-way stop could possibly alleviate the speeding issues.
“What else could we do?” she asked the other committee members. “There have been many accidents at that corner. I would like to propose some kind of action taken to make this intersection safer for pedestrians and for car traffic.”
Another issue flagged by Del Cueto is that the sidewalks don’t slope into the street.
“If somebody is trying to get across Ormond street in a wheelchair, they have to come out into the street to be able to cross and again go out in the street to get back up on the sidewalk,” she said.
Councillor Henry D’Angela, who sits on the Road Safety Committee, agreed.
“Just looking at the sidewalks, there’s no receiver on the east side of Ormond Street, to receive people from St. David,” he said. “So I think there could be some modification to the sidewalks just so that they’re receiving each other well.”
A committee member asked if it was possible to designate the intersection as a community safety zone.
“It certainly could,” answered the city’s Manager of Engineering Sean Dunsmore. “I will say that around the region it’s not usually a community safety zone around high schools which is what this is. They’re more related to elementary schools but it doesn’t mean we can’t do it.”
Community safety zones usually involve some form of traffic calming measures such as the narrowing of the road or the installation of boulders, as well as a lowering of the speed limit.
In the end, the committee asked that Thorold City Council look into the matter.
