Council shifts gears on stop sign
HSD traffic control request approved
Advertisement
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/01/2018 (2292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The intersection of Barkman Avenue and Fourth Street, the site of a collision between a young cyclist and a vehicle in October, will soon be converted into a four-way stop after unanimous approval from Steinbach city council on Tuesday night.
Stop signs will control the flow of traffic travelling on Barkman Avenue, adding to the stop signs already in place for Fourth Street drivers.
Two days after the October collision, Hanover School Division assistant superintendent Rick Ardies appealed to council in a letter asking for the division’s ongoing safety concerns to be addressed.
“This is not the first time we have walked away from near tragedy, grateful that another student has avoided serious injury,” he wrote.
The division had asked in 2015 for changes to the intersection but, following a city review, council chose to maintain the status quo. City manager Troy Warkentin noted in a report presented to council on Tuesday that city administration’s opinion on the issue had not changed. No changes were recommended, he advised, adding that traffic figures gathered in a city study did not warrant the creation of a four-way stop.
Councillor Jac Siemens, however, presented a motion for exactly that type of upgrade, noting bus traffic on the street as well as parents transporting students and other pedestrian traffic. He also pitched the four-way stop as a better alternative than the division’s other request to lower the speed limit to 30 km/h between Fourth Street and McKenzie Avenue.
“That would be a very slow 30 km/h crawl,” Siemens suggested.
Councillors Michael Zwaagstra and Earl Funk noted the change would mirror nearby intersections at Barkman and Third as well as Lumber Avenue and Fourth Street.
Siemens, who acknowledged he isn’t generally stop sign proponent, concluded this was a good move for a major thoroughfare like Barkman Avenue.
“I think it is prudent in this case,” he said.