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Decision heads down 'slippery slope:' Barbeau

The city may be setting a precedent by voting against a staff recommendation against installing stop signs in several areas of Sudbury, according to the chair of the city's new operations committee. Ward 1 Coun.
The city may be setting a precedent by voting against a staff recommendation against installing stop signs in several areas of Sudbury, according to the chair of the city's new operations committee.

Ward 1 Coun. Jacques Barbeau, who was nominated chair of the city's new operations committee, said he had a “hard time” going against a sound argument from city staff. A number of intersections were brought to the attention of the new committee, with recommendations from city staff not to install stop signs at five of them.

Intersections at Bouchard Street and Marcel Street, Lansing Avenue and Melbourne Street, Hawthorne Drive and Westmount Avenue, Madeleine Avenue Main Street and Madeleine Avenue and Alexander Street were the focus of a study by the city that deemed it unnecessary to install stop signs.

In a petition to the city, residents of Madeleine, Martin, Main and Alexander streets were seeking improved traffic control measures where Madeleine intersects with the other roads. Those residents expressed concern with speeding issues in an area where children access the entrance to a school.

Three key elements are used to gauge the need for stop signs including traffic volumes, pedestrian volumes and collision history. Taking into account all of the information, staff indicated to the committee there was no need to upgrade any of the traffic control measures in those areas.

Councillors who make up the committee said there are safety issues in all of their wards, and if installing stop signs will give any kind of relief to residents in these neighbourhoods, then that's what the city needs to do.

The decision has to go before council before anything is final, but the committee said it would like to see the stop signs installed for a one-year period, and then city staff can look at the situation after that to determine if the signs have had any effect.

Ward 3 Coun. Claude Berthiaume said the recommendation from city staff was “logical,” but there are “people who feel (these stop signs) are important, and the city needs to start listening.”

“There is no harm in putting in stop signs, (the cost of signage is provided for in the 2012 operating budget), even in all areas where residents express concern about traffic,” he said.

Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann said while city staff may have caught only a glimpse of the traffic situation within these area, the people who live there are the ones “who see the near misses” on a daily basis. She said in one location of the city, a similar project was instituted and it resulted in a 50-per-cent reduction in the number of speeding vehicles.

Barbeau said the requests brought forward at the meeting were all reasonable, but he said he certainly doesn't support the idea that any time residents think they need a stop sign put up, staff needs to run out and do that.

“We will be inundated with those requests,” Barbeau said. “We heard from staff, who are traffic engineers who know and understand the situation far greater than council does, and we have to accept their expert opinions. We don't have to always agree with staff, but to say we're going to go out every time a resident wants a stop sign is a slippery slope to travel down.”

David Shalsted, acting director of Roads and Transportation, suggested rolling out with the new stop signs in the spring, as the snow would make it difficult for staff to paint the lines that would be needed to accompany them.

The operations committee agreed.

Posted by Arron Pickard

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