Staff Report: Road Issues Rudyard Road and Stormont Road

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee receive the report for information from the Director of Engineering and Parks.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To inform the Committee of the previous work and discussions around the traffic issues on both Rudyard and Stormont Roads.

BACKGROUND:

The road issues have been discussed numerous times by both the Committee and Council over the past 15 years. Residents have had concerns over traffic volumes and traffic speeds, and most recently submitted a petition to Mayor and Council to review the area again.

PROJECT INFORMATION:

On several occasions staff have provided information to Council concerning road issues on Rudyard and Stormont Roads:

• July 2004 report to COW
• April 2005 report to COW
• January 2014 report to COW
• April 2015 report to Council

As a result of the various reports the following mitigation measures have been implemented:

• Multiple speed humps
• Raised crosswalk on Rudyard
• No left turns between 0630 and 0815
• Solar powered flashers to increase visibility
• Full signalization of Stormont/Island Hwy
• 90 second delay
• Protected/permitted left turn on Helmcken Road
• Concrete curb on Rudyard to channelize traffic
• Solar powered flashing signs to illuminate the no left turn signs on Helmcken
• Multiple requests to the RCMP for increased enforcement

As part of a public engagement process a survey and an open house were utilized to collect information on preferred solutions from residents in the area and presented to Council for consideration. Staff sent out over 100 invitations to the open house and had 40 residents attend and received 61 comments.

As part of the review process multiple traffic counts have been performed over the years. Staff hired a consultant to take automatic counts, as well as manual counts in 2015. In addition, the consultant provided a traffic review of the area (attached). Town staff have also setup the Town’s traffic counter on multiple occasions. A summary of the counts are listed below and illustrate that the speeds are reasonable for local street traffic.

2015

• Rudyard 85 % of vehicles travelling 25 to 30 km/hr
• Stormont 85 % of vehicles travelling 35 to 40 km/hr

2016

• Rudyard 85 % of vehicles travelling under 37 km/hr with an average speed of 30 km/hr

2019

• Stormont 85 % of vehicles travelling under 40 km/hr with an average speed of 33 km/hr

The speed limit on both Rudyard and Stormont is posted at 30 km/hr, the Town standard for local roads is 50km/hr. The goal of posting a lower speed than the standard is to slow vehicles down. Although the results illustrate that people are not strictly adhering to the posted speed limit (this usually occurs when roads are posted with speeds that the general public feel are unreasonable for the area) the vast majority of vehicles are travelling at less than 40 km/hr. It should be noted that there would be other areas in town where both speeds and volumes are considerably worse than this area of town. Listed below are some options that have been considered in the past as well as potential issues that may result in choosing additional mitigation measures:

Options

• One-way
• A gate
• No thru road
• Median on Helmcken
• Chicanes
• Potential issues created
  • Will increase delay on Helmcken Road
  • Increase emergency vehicle response time
  • Daycare access will be very difficult
  • Increase to dangerous traffic movements
  • Inconvenient to local residents on Glenairlie, Suzanne Place, Brian Place, Abinger Place
  • Increase volumes on Stormont
  • Potential to exacerbate school traffic issues
  • Potential to increase maintenance costs

ALTERNATIVE RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee refer the traffic issues of the residents of Rudyard Road and Stormont Road to the Community Development Advisory Committee to provide their recommendations for solutions to mitigate traffic concerns.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee receive the report for information from the Director of Engineering and Parks.

SUBMITTED BY: John Rosenberg, Director of Engineering

REVIEWED BY: Kim Anema, Chief Administrative Officer