A Morinville councillor has called for the elimination of a controversial photo radar location following the release of the town’s traffic safety review – despite the fact that one of the highest speeds in town was clocked at that spot.
Town council received the first draft of the long-awaited traffic and pedestrian safety review report last week. The 24-page report by the traffic advisory committee looks at speeding, signage, crosswalks, parking and safety awareness in town, and makes a number of recommendations. It was originally set for completion late last year.
The report notes that speeding continues to be a major issue in the town, especially in school zones and along Highway 642. Drivers had been clocked going 140 kilometres an hour down Highway 642 downtown, and some 24 people had been spotted going more than 50 km/h over the limit in town since 2009.
Twenty per cent of drivers on Highway 642 were speeding, the committee found, and 40 per cent of those speeders were driving cars registered to Morinville residents.
The committee considered, and rejected, a call to require photo radar cars to always be in plain view. While radar officers found greater compliance with speed limits when their cars were visible, “to only achieve compliance when enforcement vehicles are visible is not desirable,” the committee found, as there are not enough enforcement cars to exploit this effect town-wide.
Meanwhile, members of the public had called for more traffic enforcement, including photo radar.
Reviews by the solicitor general and the Morinville RCMP also found no problem with the town’s photo radar program or the placement of its vehicles.
Coun. Sheldon Fingler moved to ask the RCMP to consider moving the photo radar spot by the pumphouse near Highway 642 on the east side of town to another location. (Photo radar critics in town have accused officers of “hiding” behind the pumphouse to catch speeders.)
Director of corporate operations David Schaefer noted that the highest speed ever recorded in town, 147 km/h, was clocked at this location.
Coun. David Pattison vehemently opposed Fingler’s motion. There are homes and pedestrians at this location, he said, as well as a proposed crosswalk, making speed enforcement vital.
“I want those (speeding) guys caught,” Pattison said.
The motion passed 5-1, with Pattison opposed. It will be up to the RCMP to decide what to do about this photo radar spot, Oyarzun noted.
The committee flagged the proposed roundabouts in the Highway 642 functional planning study (which was approved last week by the province) as a long-term solution to speeding in town. In the near term (the next few months), the town should lengthen the 50 km/h zone near Cardiff, review Morinville’s speed limits on its collector roads, and get the province to create an acceleration/deceleration zone on Highway 642 on the east side of town – one that could see the limit go from 50 to 80 to 100 instead of from 50 to 100.
Morinville also has an inconsistent approach to signage, the committee found. Not all school zones had “end of school zone” signs, for example, and identical intersections often have different signs – some have stop signs, others have yield signs. The committee is calling on the town to do a formal review of its signs next year.
The town should work with the province this summer to use zebra markings and yellow paint make the crosswalks on Highway 642 more visible, the committee wrote, and buy gates to keep cars from using walking trails as shortcuts. The town should also identify parking shortages along Highway 642 and 100 Street and work with the province to improve safety at Cardiff Corner.
A final draft of the report is expected this August.
