Traffic calming measures could be coming to Tamarac Trail

September 26, 2024 · 0 Comments

Additional traffic calming measures could be coming to Tamarac Trail, following concerns voiced by a resident earlier this month.

This week, Council will consider a recommendation from Town staff to install flexible signs near Tamarac and Albery Crescent, which is currently a three-way stop.

Area resident Christina Choo-Hum came to Council earlier this month with concerns about the intersection. Her driveway is one of two on the opposing side of the three-way intersection. It’s a situation that has made turning in and out of her driveway difficult as “people don’t believe cars are turning into those driveways” when more than one driver is at the intersection.

“They will proceed right while I’m turning into those driveways,” she said. “It becomes very dangerous, especially for people who don’t actually live in these houses who are turning into these driveways.

“I think this one is really, really challenging because it’s this double-wide driveway that is a daily hazard. There hasn’t been a day I haven’t pulled into my driveway and not had to really grip my wheel and really have a little bit of nervousness pulling in.”

The three-way stop was installed in July as a way to improve area traffic flow and pedestrian safety, but the resident said there hasn’t been a marked improvement since then.

“There is a need for traffic calming and I totally acknowledge that – we’re looking for other measures that might actually result in traffic calming for the neighbourhood,” she said. “[Neighbours] weren’t looking for a stop sign; they were looking at something to calm traffic, as was I. We’re still looking at something to calm traffic [better] than this measure. They connected with me and said they are still seeing the same sorts of traffic concerns that they were having and this isn’t providing the remedy that people were looking for, originally.”

Council listened to the concerns at this month’s Committee of the Whole meeting and tasked staff with reporting back to Council on the matter. At the time, however, Director of Planning Marco Ramunno said Council directed staff to install the stop signs, with the additional measure of installing flexible traffic bollards along Tamarac still on the table.

“If Council wants to direct staff to revisit the placement of the stop sign, it’s something we can do, but it was installed in the location as identified in the report back in the spring. Council also did direct us to install the flexible safety traffic bollards and we’re working on that.”

In the resulting report, staff said they have reviewed resident feedback and collision data, finding “no safety-related concerns” at this and other similar three-way stop intersections where at least one driveway is on the fourth side. The report also found “there were no safety conflicts between vehicles pulling out of the driveways” at the intersection in question, based on a 24-hour monitoring of the corner.

“Staff monitored the subject all-way stop intersection for 24 hours to determine whether there are safety conflicts between vehicles accessing the driveways at the intersection and vehicles traversing the intersection on Tamarac Trail,” reads the staff report. “A speed study was also undertaken to determine whether speeds were reduced at the intersection of Tamarac Trail and Albery Crescent (west leg) as a result of the stop sign installation.

“Staff have reviewed video recordings taken at the intersection on Monday, September 9, 2024. Based on this review, there was no indication of vehicle conflicts between vehicles accessing the driveways at the intersection and vehicles traversing the intersection on Tamarac Trail. Vehicular speeds on Tamarac Trail have been reduced as a result of the conversion of the intersection of Tamarac Trail and Albery Crescent (west leg) to an all-way stop controlled intersection. Staff undertook a speed study over a three day period and the results of this work indicated that vehicle speeds (85th percentile speeds) on Tamarac Trail near the west leg of Albery Crescent have been reduced by 6 km/h (from 53 km/h to 47 km/h) as a result of the conversion of the intersection of Tamarac Trail and Albery Crescent (west leg) to an all-way stop controlled intersection.”

By Brock Weir