Roger Knox - Vernon Morning Star Published: July 18, 2009 12:00 PM
A Vernon councillor wants city staff to re-examine its decision to change a unique Vernon intersection. Bob Spiers says the redesigned intersection at 25th Avenue and 27th Street, where the old stop sign and subsequent merge northbound on 27th has been replaced with a stop sign and north/south turn onto 27th, is a “different kind of configuration that is causing great concern for a lot of people.” “I’ve talked to many East Hill people that drive through there, I’ve yet to find one that’s appreciative of the change,” said Spiers. “I’d ask for a review of why it was put up that way.”
Coun. Shawn Lee, a former resident in the intersection’s area for 15-plus years, said he’s happy with the change because now he can see traffic coming north on 27th from up over a rise in the road. “The problem was there was no vision of people coming up over that rise,” he said.
Rob Dickinson, the city’s manager of engineering, who lives in the area and uses the intersection every day, explained the change was made to improve sight lines. At the new turn, a vehicle can see all the way down to Highway 6 without having to do a full body turn in a vehicle. “The way it was before, you had the merge, people didn’t slow down. We put in a stop sign, people barely merged and yielded,” said Dickinson. “Now we’ve prepared it so you actually have to stop, and you have a clear sight line before you go. “It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s the best we can do with that configuration.”
Spiers noted that he received a complaint from a resident who witnessed a school bus trying to make a right-hand turn at the new configuration, and had to go into the oncoming lane in order to have the room to make the turn. Spiers also pointed out a letter to the editor from Sunday’s Morning Star from a retired police officer who called the new design “nothing but an accident waiting to happen.” Council has asked staff to prepare a report on the intersection for an upcoming meeting.
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Don Quixote Note: The letter from the retired Police Officer can be found in the Morning Star's letters to editor.
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