Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: July 30, 2009 6:00 PM
An intersection in Vernon will remain as it is despite some complaints. Council received a report Monday on realignment of 25th Avenue and 27th Street. Within the document, city staff explain why the old stop sign and merge northbound on to 27th have been replaced with a stop sign and north/south turn on to 27th. “It answers a lot of the questions,” said Coun. Bob Spiers of the report. Spiers had heard numerous complaints from residents about the new traffic pattern at the intersection. But staff indicate that the changes to the intersection were a result of 16 accidents over five years. “The previous layout required vehicles exiting 25th Avenue to merge with vehicles already traveling northbound on 27th Street,” said Amanda Watson, transportation technician, in her written report to council. “This often led to inappropriate approach speeds and the drivers exiting 25th Avenue were required to view the directly approaching traffic and check their blind spots, by looking backwards over their shoulder. These factors are known to lead to misjudgments regarding the distance, speed and location of safe gaps in the approaching traffic.” The new alignment requires drivers exiting 25th Avenue to approach 27th Street on a reduced angle and stop. “This reduces the distance over which vehicular conflicts can occur and enables drivers then to simply look to their left to see the oncoming traffic directly and be better able to judge speed and distance,” said Watson.
Spiers wants staff to post the report on the city website (www.vernon.ca). “It’s really good and will answer a lot of questions for our residents,” he said. Coun. Shawn Lee supports the new intersection, saying the former blind spot put motorists at extreme risk. “I’m happy with the changes that have been made there,” he said. And more work is planned for later this year. “The second phase, to widen the shoulder on the east side of 27th Street between Highway 6 and 25th Avenue, is planned to be undertaken October this year,” said Watson. “This final phase will further improve sight lines of the approaching traffic, whilst providing a more bicycle friendly shoulder on this well-used part of the bike network.”
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Don Quixote Note:
The report (to be posted online) will indicate to the concerned citizens the reason for the changes made. The changes that will further improve the sightlines on October will hopefully bring further improvements that will reduce the accidents at this location. I will be asking for an accident update report in spring of 2010 to see if this safety recommended change was warranted.
The staff report that will be posted online at City of Vernon Site can also be found here:
1 comment:
Despite what they say, this intersection is much, much worse than the old one. It's particularly dangerous during busy periods in winter when rear-end collisons occur (and this happens on regular basis). Because of intersection layout, there's no room to by-pass the damaged vehicles, so you must turn around and use 26th Street. This gets very dangerous as many vehicles are coming down 25th Ave, often at high speed. It's only a matter of time before there's a serious pile-up at the bottom of 25th.
I use this intersection every day and agree the contrarians....it's a terrible waste of money.
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