As a 20-plus-year resident of Erin Ridge, I am strenuously opposed to the closure of Coal Mine Road.
I feel very strongly that closing Coal Mine Road will do nothing more than push more traffic onto Erin Ridge Drive, an already overly burdened road. Many concerns with Erin Ridge Drive, centre around traffic volume, pedestrian safety as well as parking along the road.
In a 2.5-kilometre stretch of road, we now have 10 crosswalks, most of which have been or will be renovated to ensure they protrude into the roadway. We also have three recreation fields, a school, one three-way stop and (currently) one change of speed at the hospital.
I haven’t yet mentioned the plethora of parked cars which line most of Erin Ridge Drive and grow to dangerous levels when the fields are in use. The road is a heavily used bus route that is the major transportation corridor for most residents living in our subdivision. I fear that there is a higher level of traffic congestion and incidents even if the city reduces the speed limit. The road is poorly designed, having a mix of schools, fields and single-family homes.
Residents of homes along both Everitt Drive and Erin Ridge Drive will be gravely impacted by increased traffic volumes, as any vehicles using Coal Mine Road to enter or exit the subdivision will now have to use Everitt Drive via Erin Ridge Drive and vice versa.
I understand that the closure is being proposed in part to reduce the perceived short-cutting from those Sturgeon County residents coming through Coal Mine Road to Costco and Jensen Lakes.
As a resident of Executive Way North, the volume of our street was measured at the same time as Eastgate Way and Edgewater Terrace. The average daily car total of these three streets was 300-500 cars. I don’t believe the traffic on our street is excessive or outside the normal volumes one should expect.
What is not made clear in that study was how many of those car counts are actual residents of Erin Ridge. The current information on traffic volumes does not seem to be conclusive. The closure seems to be a reactive decision made at the discretion of a few.
I believe more time and consideration should be paid to looking at alternatives. We should not be closing any roads until additional collector roads are constructed, as this will only place more demand on an already congested subdivision.
R. Hierlmeier, St. Albert
