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Crosswalks and more

The transportation committee is pleased to announce work has begun on installing several bulbed pedestrian crosswalks.

The transportation committee is pleased to announce work has begun on installing several bulbed pedestrian crosswalks.

In order to try and improve the safety of pedestrians, four sets of ‘bulbed’ pedestrian crosswalks will be installed between Cottonwood Park and the RCMP station.

Bulbing is when the sidewalk is curved outwards into the street at crosswalk locations.

This has been proven to provide several safety features.  The bulbs tend to ‘calm’ traffic which should slow down industrial traffic through the core of town.

Pedestrians are more visible to approaching traffic, and it is easier to determine what the intentions of the pedestrians are as they enter onto the bulb area.

The committee did initially have concerns around snow removal and the impact of the bulbing on winter traffic flow.

To ensure that these concerns were mitigated the public works department has been working in close conjunction with the Ministry of Transportation on the design and they feel that the benefits will far outweigh any concerns.

Construction of the bulbs will take a couple of weeks and there will be some impact to traffic patterns while the work is underway.

The committee apologizes for any inconvenience this causes and ask for consideration as this project proceeds.

Established a year and a half ago, the transportation committee is made up of a cross section of community representatives including local and rural residents, First Nations, RCMP and the Chamber of Commerce.  One of the key focuses of the committee over the last year has been to ensure the safety of our community.

In 2012, the Ministry of Transportation and ICBC in conjunction with the transportation committee conducted several safety audits.

The traffic engineers then proposed  options to improve the safety of our community.

Several of those improvements have already been implemented; they include replacing and improving  signage, speed reader boards, pavement, lights, installation of a pedestrian controlled cross walk, and improvements to both the North Road and Tachie Road.

The community of Fort St James has seen a  significant increase in commercial traffic through the downtown core over the last couple of years and this has led to an increase in the number of concerns raised regarding pedestrians attempting to cross the main road.

If you have any questions or concerns you can contact any member of the transportation committee.  Councillor Joan Burdeniuk (250) 996-8667 and/or Dave Stewart public works superintendent (250)996-8233 are both available for more information.