Resident wants city plan for intersection

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/09/2010 (5585 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Weston area resident says she won’t give up her fight for improved traffic controls at a dangerous crosswalk despite the fact the city has ignored her pleas for nearly a decade.

Aline Cardiff has been lobbying civic officials to make it safer for pedestrians to cross Logan Avenue at Dee Street since 2002.

Cardiff said area residents continue to be concerned about the situation and want the city about it now.

“The intersection is still terrible,” she said.

Cardiff helped collect more than 250 signatures in 2002 for a petition that demanded the city install a traffic light at the intersection.

While the city’s public works committee met on the matter in the fall of 2002, a city administration report said the need to install a full traffic signal at the location was very low.

A 2003 city traffic engineering report stated that traffic volumes in the area didn’t warrant a traffic light at the intersection.

Cardiff, who worked at the intersection as a crosswalk guard from 2000 to 2003, said pedestrians are still in danger at the crosswalk
That concern prompted area residents to start a new petition asking the city to change the current overhead signals to traffic lights that are activated when pedestrians press a button to cross the intersection.

Residents say that the proposed changes would force drivers to slow down and be more aware of pedestrian traffic in the area.

“The big drivers, trucks and buses are more respectful and stop. Cars and smaller truck pay no attention, “ she said.

“There are a lot of families that live in the area. Something needs to be done,” said area resident Fred Morris.

Morris, a city council candidate in the St. James-Brooklands ward, said he hopes the new petition will force the city to take the residents’ concerns seriously.

“Sometimes traffic counts have to give way to things like safety,” he said.

Cardiff said there have been a number of near accidents at the crosswalk involving pedestrians and can’t understand why the city is ignoring the problem. She avoids using the intersection whenever she can.

Coun. Scott Fielding (St. James – Brooklands) said city officials have not ignored the concerns of residents. He said the city conducted another traffic study at the intersection in the fall of 2007.

“The city follows national guidelines contained in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Canada to determine the need for traffic control signals,” he said, adding if residents of the area still think it is a concern, he is willing to look at having another traffic count done.

rob.brown@canstarnews.com