Barton Drive file photo (paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Barton Drive

Trial run to tame traffic on Barton Drive

Oct 25, 2022 | 1:20 PM

A one-year experiment will see the city put speed humps on Barton Drive despite the speed issues not meeting the city’s policy on their use.

The city’s traffic manager reported back to council on their request to investigate resident complaints on the street.

“Although the current location does not meet the City of Prince Albert traffic calming policy, we do see a large concern from the residents and we want to address that,” Evan Hastings said in a presentation to council.

The project is the result of a resident filing several complaints with the city over speeding traffic on the residential street.

As a result, the Department of Public Works and the police conducted several speed studies on the street with results showing that the volume of traffic speeding was not a serious concern and did not trigger any measures under the City’s traffic calming policy.

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The speeding that did happen was generally later in the day. Of the approximately 35,000 vehicles tracked, six were found to be going 70 km/h or faster.

Residents (84 per cent of those on the street) submitted a petition to council to place the speed bumps anyway.

The trial run will start in May 2023 and end in October, which gives Public Works time to see what happens. Along with speed bumps, there will be speed monitoring signs placed on the street.

“It also allows time for the residents to determine the effectiveness of the measure and if they like it in their community,” Hastings said.

The final decision will weigh the input from staff, residents and emergency services.

A choice between two styles of speed-calming devices was presented: speed bumps that cover the width of the street or speed cushions that have gaps that measure the width of the fire truck’s tires.

The cost for a speed cushion is $4,500.

Having speed bumps slows the response rate of emergency vehicles by 15 to 20 seconds and costs $4,000.

Both methods increase the amount of traffic noise.

Coun. Dawn Kilmer said the numbers seen on Barton Drive are similar to those seen on Southwood and asked if the monitoring could be expanded to a second street.

Some discussion centred around how far the program will go, with Mayor Greg Dionne saying that the budget will need to be about $100,000 or more.

He said he was not convinced that the bumps are the answer in residential streets, even if they are elsewhere, also pointing out that the bumps on the street will have to be in the exact right location to allow fire trucks to go through.

Other councillors were in favour of the trial to see what the result is.

“We should try this and see how it goes and then If it works and it slows traffic down, we have to budget for it and other areas of the city,” Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick said.

Over the winter, staff will be tweaking the Traffic Calming policy to change how the city and the public communicate in the future, such as making sure the community supports changes.

Not all residents on Barton Drive are in support of the speed bumps, according to comments by Coun. Ted Zurakowski, but they do not want to speak publicly.

A final report on the bumps on Barton Drive will come back to council next December. Mayor Greg Dionne and Coun. Don Cody were the only opposing votes.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com