City to Take Closer Look at New Crosswalk Request
Monday, November 4, 2013 @ 6:40 PM
Prince George, B.C.- The City of Prince George needs a pedestrian controlled crosswalk on 15th Avenue at Quinn Street. That’s the argument put forth by the Aboriginal Business Development Corporation.
The Aboriginal Business Development Corporation (ABDC) says with a bus stop on the north side of 15th opposite Quinn Street, people are jaywalking to get across 15th. They say there is no pedestrian controlled crosswalk from Ospika all the way to the one at South Nicholson. That’s a significant stretch with no “safe” place to cross.
Operations has already done three separate traffic checks on this stretch of road. Manager Bill Gaal says their recent traffic checks show the average number of people crossing 15th at Quinn during peak time is 5. They have checked with ICBC and there have been 9 incidents at the Quinn and 15th spot between 2008 to 2012 and none involved pedestrians. He told Council if there was a desire to do more, then it would involve a detailed road safety analysis.
He says if a crosswalk was to be considered, there would have to be a spot for “refuge” in the middle of the boulevard because of the width of the roadway.
Councillor Murry Krause says he would like to see more work on this, and it might involve the moving of a bus stop to a better spot, “You can lay out the route, but people will take their own path” says Krause.
While Councillor Garth Frizzell supports Administration taking a closer look at this matter, he doesn’t support a full “engineering study and traffic analysis” because of the “implied costs”. Frizzell was also interested in finding our how the City’s traffic count came up with 5 pedestrians during peak times, and the report put forth by the ABDC said there were 27.
Gaal explained that when making a decision on a pedestrian controlled crosswalk “There are 9 warrant items that must be considered” he says he does not support only doing half the work.
Councillors Wilbur, Koehler and acting Mayor Councillor Stolz voted against sending this to administration for further study, while, Frizzell, Krause, Skakun, Hall and Everitt voted to support having administration examine the issue further.
Mayor Shari Green was not in attendance for this evening’s meting as she, along with City Manager and IPG’s Heather Oland are on their way to China.
Comments
Better make it one of those new fangled portable crosswalks in case the ABDC decides to pull up stakes and move. Could happen.
A set of traffic lights at the intersection of 22nd and Ospika would be a good thing.
Wait wait wait… I know this is somewhat off topic for this post, but who appoints the “Acting Mayor” when Shari Green is gone? It seems odd to me that after the whole tax-fiasco which resulted in many people claiming Stolz should resign altogether, he becomes acting mayor in her absence. Can someone shed light on this process for me (I’m still relatively new to the voting world!)??
On topic however, I feel this one doesn’t need a fully controlled cross-walk. Why not have an uncontrolled cross-walk similar to what is on 5th Ave between Patterson and Ogilve? If there is only (as they claim) 5 people during peak times, why not just toss up some signs and throw down some paint? That cannot be that difficult or costly…
Dragonmaster: I HIGHLY agree with that. As someone who drives around town a lot for my job, that would even help with vehicles safely turning off of 22nd onto Ospika. That can take forever to do safely if traffic is flowing.
I would think traffic and pedestrian flow is well outside the mandate of this Aboriginal Business Development Corporation. To think that they took the time and expense to do a crosswalk use study during peak use is baffling to me. So the report they developed and submitted came up with 27 users compared to the city’s 5 users.
Maybe less time looking out the windows and more time looking at the work on their desks and on their computer screens would better benefit their “clients”?
The pictures shown at Council of pedestrians crossing the street.
There are three levels of crosswalks shown –
1. painted lines only
2. painted lines plus overhead crosswalk sign
3. painted lines plus pedestrian controlled traffic signal.
http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/mayorcouncil/councilagendasminutes/agendas/2013/2013_11_04/documents/Deleg_15th_Quinn_Crosswalk_ppt.pdf
Move the bus stop! There is a controlled pedestrian light at the Husky Station, use that but wait, its too far of a walk for some. Sooo move the bus stop to a better location. Honestly, I drive this stretch every day, about ten times a day and have NOT once seen a pedestrian jay walking near Quinn Street. Pedestrian’s use the crosswalk signals at the Husky Station. Not saying that the pics in the above link are false, but maybe those people who took them are the ones jay walking across the street.
Every citizen has the the right to bring an issue of concern to councils attention.
ABDC did a great presentation to council last night. Their staff noticed close calls of pedestrian trying to cross 15th Ave and nearly being hit by vehicles. They took the time to track and document these incidents, as their business location has a front row view of this area. It is up to council to decide where to go from here with the information received. I did not get the feeling from Manager Bill Gaal’s comments that he was keen to investigate further.This is were council has to give specific instruction to city staff, if and how to proceed.
Well then, I would like to congratulate the Aboriginal Business Development Corporation for doing such a stand up job in their presentation about Aboriginal business start-ups in our city! *groan*
Perhaps the ABDC can check the trash bins along 15th ave, as there may be some concern that those bins are under utilized!! again… *groan*
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