Clearview council has received the highly anticipated Traffic Assessment Study.
The study was completed in response to resident concerns about increased traffic, particularly on north-south township roads. The increase has been attributed to GPS-driven traffic travelling to other municipalities including Wasaga Beach and Collingwood, especially during the pandemic.
Council approved the recommendations in the report by RJ Burnside Senior Transportation Engineer Henry Centen at its June 14 meeting and directed staff to call a special meeting to address council members’ concerns about specific roads.
The study was informed by data collected last summer at 48 locations throughout Clearview using an outside agency and the township’s digital speed signs.
The report was first presented and discussed at a workshop during a special meeting on May 27.
It recommends, among many things, short- and long-term improvements to be implemented over 1-5 years including lowering speeds, adding signs, widening roads, paved shoulders, and revising road designs to accommodate all road users including bicycles, ATVs, farm equipment, and pedestrians. The recommendations are supported by staff.
The study is framed as a starting point from which council can make decisions and respond to public comments and concerns.
“We’re trying – from an engineering point of view, which includes posted speed limits – to inform the motorists as to what the target or safe speed is,” said Centen, adding that enforcement, signage, engineering design including road shoulders, and utilizing the township’s existing traffic calming strategy are also tools.
“Lowering the posted speed limit is not the solution,” said Centen. “It gives more enforceability but really the whole toolbox needs to be looked at.”
He reports, most of the roads surveyed in this Traffic Assessment Study currently have posted speeds that are acceptable, based on the criteria considered, with the following exceptions: Lavender Hill Road between County Road 9 and Mulmur/Clearview Townline; Concession 10 between County Road 91 and 33/34 Sideroad, if the road remains as gravel surface; Concession 10 between 33/34 Sideroad and Poplar Sideroad; 36/37 Sideroad between County Road 124 and Concession 10, reduction in west section; and 36/37 Sideroad between County Road 124 and Concession 6.
It is also recommends the designs for roads which carry higher traffic volumes be reviewed to ensure that travel widths, shoulder widths and road geometrics can service the increased traffic demands in those areas.
Councillor Doug McKechnie panned the report during the workshop.
“I was livid when I read this report. There was smoke coming out of my ears,” he said.
“We asked for this report because of the numerous complaints we were getting from the taxpayers… As members of council we’ve heard their frustrations over the last few years and we look to a report to guide us to make changes to address their concerns. Instead, this report seems to me to be written for the automobile and it ignores the environmental and safety factors, not to mention the concerns of all those users other than car and truck drivers.”
McKechnie later voted in favour of the report based on assurances that there would be ongoing discussions and debate, and that specific projects would come back to council for approval and budget deliberations.
Council agreed that directing traffic onto county and provincial roads was the best strategy but difficult to achieve, and that the cost of redoing roads will be very high.
“Traffic, if you think we’re going to stop it, we’re not. It’s going to get worse and worse,” said Deputy Mayor Barry Burton who as a Niagara Escarpment Commission member has learned that visitors to the area is up by as much as 300 per cent. “We have to be prepared to spend money.”
He said spending money to improve roads, paving shoulders and create dedicated bicycle routes is the way to solve the problem, even if it means raising taxes.
“It’s a problem,” said Burton. “It’s a real problem and we need to make a plan.”
In support of traffic calming, council recently approved 75 kilometres of yellow centre line and stop block painting at intersection in 16 rural areas at a tender price of $51,000.