Morinville high school students will have a safer time crossing 100 Ave. this winter now that town council has moved to add crossing lights to the crosswalk in front of the town’s high school.
Morinville town council voted Oct. 11 to spend $20,000 to install flashing crosswalk beacons on oversized signs at the 100 Ave./Morinville Community High School crosswalk. The money will come from the town’s safety reserve.
The vote followed weeks of calls from residents for council to act on pedestrian safety, particularly along Hwy. 643 (which is called 100 Ave. in Morinville). A student was struck by a car in the MCHS crosswalk on Sept. 9.
The town’s 2022 Pedestrian Crossing Review recommended the installation of crosswalk beacons and black-on-white oversized crosswalk signs at this crosswalk to improve visibility and safety. The crosswalk currently has zebra-stripe markings and fluorescent yellow signs.
Sgt. William Norton of the town’s enforcement services branch recommended that council install three sets of pedestrian crossing signs and flashers at this crosswalk for $20,000. One set would go on the road’s median, as the road was extra wide. The flashers would be similar to the sign-mounted LED beacons seen in the town’s school zones. The lights and signs would take 13-to-24 weeks to install, most of which was due to Alberta Transportation’s approval process.
Council could instead remove the crosswalk for about $5,000, Norton said. Removal would technically make this spot safer for pedestrians, as it would remove all pedestrians, but it would not protect anyone who decided to cross here anyway. The nearest alternate crosswalk was 175 m away at Grandin Drive West. Removing the crosswalk would take about nine weeks, most of which would be spent waiting for Alberta Transportation’s approval.
While some residents had called for the town to put crossing guards at this location, Norton noted that crossing guards (as in people who stop traffic for pedestrians) were actually illegal in Canada — only emergency personnel or flagmen on construction sites were allowed to direct traffic. Those youths with stop signs and vests you see in some school zones were actually “crossing assistants” who enhance a person’s right of way by stepping into the street when there was a break in traffic.
Coun. Stephen Dafoe said removing this crosswalk would encourage jaywalking, as it connected the school with a ravine frequented by pedestrians. He suggested the town put in “crossing ahead” signs near this crosswalk to enhance visibility.
Mayor Simon Boersma moved to install flashing lights at the crosswalk, saying that the community’s welfare was at stake.
“We do need to ensure our kids are safe.”
In an interview, Greater St. Albert Catholic superintendent Clint Moroziuk said the district was extremely pleased by council’s decision.
“Anything that enhances the safety of students, staff and community residents is definitely a step in the right direction.”
Intersection open house
Council also got an update on traffic safety plans for the four-way stop at Grandin Drive and 100 Ave. and the three-way stop at Cardiff Road and 100 St., both of which had sparked safety concerns due to traffic and pedestrian volumes.
Town council allocated $100,000 in this year’s budget to study how to improve these intersections.
Town infrastructure manager Jordan Betteridge said administration would hold an open house on these two intersections Oct. 26 to see if residents thought they should be improved with traffic signals or roundabouts.
“Roundabouts are shown to be the safer option,” Betteridge said, as they prevent head-on and T-bone collisions, but also take more land than signals and become more complicated when you add crosswalks and heavy vehicles.
The open house runs next Wednesday Oct. 26 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre. An online survey on the intersections will run for two weeks. Visit morinville.ca for details.
