Tied-up traffic trying to turn left onto Gate Avenue from St. Albert Trail northbound has driven a former city councillor back to city hall.
Two-time councillor Bob Russell returned to council chambers during Tuesday’s meeting to voice traffic safety concerns over the number of vehicles that pile up at the lights at that intersection. His concern was primarily around the advance green light drivers need to wait for when turning left onto Gate Avenue. The advance is cued last in the traffic light cycle, which Russell argued creates a safety and traffic problem.
“On almost any given afternoon, but especially on Fridays between five and six, northbound Trail traffic wants to enter the turning lane onto Gate Avenue,” he said. “Gate Avenue is a major access point to all (going to) Grandin Park. If the traffic on the north wants to enter the turning lane and finds the lane full, that traffic will halt. I think council has to take some action here – otherwise we’re going to kill somebody or somebody is going to get injured.”
The city is currently transitioning to a new traffic lighting system that’s meant to respond better to real-time traffic flows. Right now, how the city’s traffic lights work is through detection: a camera picks up a vehicle when it approaches a light and puts in a call to turn the lights from red to green.
Dean Schick, the city’s manager of transportation, said the Trail and Gate Avenue is being looked at as the city examines the entire corridor.
“We’re still working on St. Albert Trail, the full corridor, to transition to the adaptive style and signal operations,” he said, adding the city looked at that intersection in 2018. “The whole reason for it is around co-ordination for the north and southbound movements that assist in improving the co-ordination. As we switch to that adaptive style, it’ll be a component for each and every intersection in terms of how the intersection operates.”
Schick said traffic cueing isn’t a unique issue to the Trail and Gate intersection as it happens at a variety of intersections. He said the new system will allow his department to get a better sense of how traffic is flowing and change the lights to better accommodate vehicles.
“At some point in time, there may be intersections that this is just the level of capacity,” he added. “So unless an alternate road is provided or improvements to the intersection itself, such as widening or extension of the storage links or an adjustment in the travel patterns or whatnot, that's really the solution.”
He added that timing plans for lights can make a big difference and he hoped improved detection and sensors will help the situation further.
