It’s been almost two years since Huntsville’s Youth Council highlighted the need for improved pedestrian and motorist safety at Huntsville High School (HHS) and the Canada Summit Centre (CSC). In March 2015, according to a report from town staff, the council adopted a motion directing staff to investigate parking lot lighting, the high school’s student drop off and pick up area, pedestrian safety, the school bus waiting area and traffic flow, sight lines, and the safety of turning onto Brunel Road from Park Drive.
Tulloch Engineering was retained by the Town to complete a traffic review at a final cost of $16,950 in 2016.
The Town’s Executive Director of Community Services, Kari Lambe, presented a report to General Committee on January 9 outlining the recommendations by Tulloch and the suggestion by the project’s stakeholder group – which included town staff and representatives from the OPP, HHS, the high school, the school board and Campbell Bus Lines – that the work be broken into two phases.
Phase one, recommended for 2017 at a cost of $26,785, would have included a dedicated student/teacher drop zone in Parking Lot ‘C’ (the southern-most lot at the high school), tree and obstacle removal, a pedestrian crosswalk and speed bump between the high school and Olivers at the CSC, a sidewalk and curb from that crosswalk to Olivers along the south end of the adjacent parking lot, and a curb cut and sidewalk ramp at the entrance to the high school. (See details on the map below.)
Phase two recommendations would have been presented by staff in 2017 for completion in 2018.
For the full PDF version of the above map, click here.
At the meeting Lambe noted that the recommendations would have a safety impact for pedestrians. Currently, to get from the lot at the north end of the high school, students and teachers must walk on the road around snowbanks to get to the school. And with no proper crosswalks, pedestrians sometimes cross at locations where they are difficult to see by motorists.
In response to a question about incidents in the area, Lambe said, “I don’t have a number because they are not all reported. We have had a student/bus encounter resulting in the student going to the hospital and we have had lots of near misses… I’m surprised I don’t know of more reported incidents.”
Other suggestions recommended by the consultant included making Park Drive one way – which would require an Environmental Assessment to proceed because of its intersections with Brunel Road, a District road – and creating a bus zone on Brunel Road adjacent to the high school.
The phase one recommendation didn’t sit well with Mayor Scott Aitchison who said that with $3 million in the 2017 capital budget for roads already and another $100,000 earmarked for sidewalks, the Town could work within the existing budget and that there are “crucially important” items missing from the plan.
Aitchison said he’d like to see stairs from that lower (north) parking lot up to the high school or a sidewalk from that lot to the high school, and fewer access points to that lot. “You have four access points for 40 parking spots. If you limit in and out in this particular parking lot, you could eliminate the need to cut down a bunch of beautiful trees and you’d have much better control of ingress and egress of that parking lot.”
But Councillor Jason Fitzgerald wondered if the proposed changes would have an impact. “Anything we do is only going to apply to people who follow the rules. I don’t think we are going to stop people from darting between buses and walking where there isn’t a lighted crosswalk…they are always going to take easiest route. Is it going to make a difference in the end?”
Committee elected to postpone a decision for further discussion and the item was removed from the 2017 budget.
To see all of the consultant’s recommendations, view the report here (see pages 3-40).
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