Traffic control at St. James Street Costco on public works committee agenda

The city’s public service could be asked to study whether a traffic light or other control measure should be installed at the entrance to Costco’s St. James Street location.

City council’s public works committee will discuss the motion, first brought to community committee by St. James Coun. Shawn Dobson, next Tuesday.

“They often have police out there navigating traffic, it gets so squirrelly on St. James,” said public works chair Coun. Janice Lukes.

“We’re going to look at seeing what we can do to improve that.”

That could be a set of traffic lights or other controlled traffic device, said Lukes, councillor for Waverley West.

“It is bad — I’ve been there, it’s not good — because St. James is so busy,” she said.

The Costco at 1315 St. James is one of the wholesale’s three locations in the city.

The motion notes the visibility of oncoming traffic at the north entrance is often obscured by southbound traffic turning left into the lot from St. James Street, and vice versa.

Lukes said Winnipeg police should be able to focus on crime, rather than traffic control at backed-up intersections near businesses.

“This is the challenge with businesses that get really busy, and then the taxpayer foots the bill for it, which frustrates me,” Lukes said.

“I think we can all agree we have better things for the police to do, or they have better things to do.”

The city’s public works department will advise the committee on the length of time needed to study adding controls to the intersection, and come back with a recommendation for or against at a later date, Lukes said.

Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said the service doesn’t collect statistics on traffic control, but said the location often becomes “quite busy on any given day.”

“Major traffic disruptions, including motor vehicle collisions, often require police attendance for traffic-flow control,” Chancy said.

Management at the St. James Street Costco location could not be reached for comment Wednesday, nor could an official with Costco Wholesale Canada.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera