The District of Vanderhoof have quashed a concerned residents proposal to erect additional stop signs on Clark avenue, stating that they would be unnecessary.
Mike Summers, who lives on the corner of Clark and Third, recently wrote to council highlighting safety concerns on the street as a result of speeding traffic.
“Due to vehicles traveling at high speeds on Clark Avenue, and due to the proximity of a playground, I request council erect stop signs at Clark and Third and Clark and Fifth,” wrote Summers in a letter to the district dated April 27.
During a regular council meeting on May 25, council members voted unanimously that no changes be made to stop signs on Clark Avenue.
Public Works Superintendent, Paul Carver, says he took the proposal very seriously and did a thorough investigation of the roadway, before deciding there were no safety concerns.
“Between myself and my foreman ... we went out and took a look at it and analyzed the situation.
“The recommendation we came back with was that at this time, we don’t feel that stop signs are warranted on that stretch of roadway,” said Carver.
In a report submitted to council on May 17, Carver wrote: “Staff is not aware of any safety concerns on Clark Avenue between Seventh Street and First Street.
“While a public park is located on Fifth Street, east of Clark Avenue, that park is located well back of the Clark intersection. There is standard playground signage southbound on Clark Avenue that identify a neighborhood park in the area.”
Summers says that although there is visible playground signage, it doesn’t seem to be doing much for traffic speeds.
“If we were to have one of those speed watch things along here it would be amazing to see how many people we could collect speeding along this stretch of road...there’s a park sign and it’s very visibly displayed, but it should be like 30 km an hour in a park area,” said Summers.
Summers says he has been living on Clark Avenue for three years and has had these concerns since day one. After contacting the RCMP a number of times about speeding vehicles, he decided to take the matter to council.
“We’ve got people in the neighborhood who have pickup trucks and they race up and down the road at a high rate of speed,” said Summers.
“They travel on this road to get up the hill at the end and they figure they have to go really fast at the bottom to get up to the top of the hill,” he said.
He added that he doesn’t feel comfortable letting his seven-year-old grandson Jason out on the street.
“This is a nice quiet neighborhood - it should stay a nice quiet neighborhood.
“A stop sign would stop people from speeding or at least interrupt their speeding,” he said.
Summers says that ideally he would like to also see some rumble bars installed on the road but has been told they are bad for winter ploughing.
“So we should just go with a compromise and do a stop sign,” he said.
Carver says that Clark Avenue is a collector roadway which means its purpose is to provide “destination.”
He added that similar roadways exist around the municipality which have no stop signs, such as Church Avenue and Lampitt Avenue.
Summers says such roads do not provide a good comparison since the RCMP detachment is located so closely to both streets.
“There is no police station close to us - there is no police presence unless they’re called,” he said.
“I would like to see something to interrupt the speeding and a stop sign would do it,” he added.
Carver commented that looking at the entire roadway, the RCMP detachment is only at one end and that both Lampitt and Church Avenues have a park on them.
“Ferland Park I’m sure gets a lot of people and kids and it fronts directly onto those two streets, but there’s no stop signs there,” said Carver.
Upon finding out that his proposal had been rejected by council, Summers says he is now thinking of organizing a petition within his area.
“If we’re not going to have police presence on the street then we’ve got to have something to correct the problem - it’s a danger and nuisance,” he said.