Safety for students, pedestrians, drivers
New traffic control lights are up and running on Jefferson with Sinclair
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This article was published 15/09/2017 (2962 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A new set of lights at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Sinclair Street should make Garden City residents’ commutes a little more organized.
That strip of Jefferson Avenue is home for Garden City Collegiate, Seven Oaks Met School, Faith Academy Middle School apartment blocks and corner stores. On Sept. 13, Seven Oaks School Division representatives, principals, Public Works’ Ken Allen and several students cheered as they switched the new set of traffic lights on.
“Every morning and afternoon, before and after school, it gets very crowded here, and there’s a bunch of younger students walking to school and high school students trying to get to school (by car) and is very hard to find parking, and it makes you late for school in the morning,” Amelia Kacperkiewicz, president of GCC’s student council said.
Previously, the intersection operated with an all-way stop control. In September 2016, Old Kildonan ward Coun. Devi Sharma raised the issue at the Standing Policy committee on infrastructure renewal and public works and requested a traffic study to determine if traffic lights were necessary. Results came in, and the project was approved earlier this year in January which recommended the installation of traffic lights to control traffic.
Installation was done through the summer, and the lights were ready to be up and running as the school year started this fall.
“The new traffic signals are good news for Old Kildonan and will make it safer for everyone to navigate through this busy intersection. I’m especially pleased that safety will be enhanced for the two adjacent schools on Jefferson Avenue”, Sharma, who advocated for funding for the project, said. “Traffic will flow more smoothly now that the signals have been activated and will reduce traffic congestion experienced by many in the area.”
Victoria Dias, the vice-president on the Garden City Collegiate student council, commented that as a student who drives to school every day, she often felt uneasy to make turns when so many students are trying to cross the street at the same time.
“It gets backed up. It will be an overall improvement for safety because we have elementary and middle schools around here and I think things will be better for everyone,” Dias said.
The cost for the installation of the traffic control lights was $205,000 with an estimated annual maintenance and operating cost of $5,000 per year beginning in the 2018 operating budget.