The Peterborough Examiner e-edition

Safety the focus as council discusses new traffic lights

City may also soon consider offering free transit to young people aged 13 to 18

JOELLE KOVACH EXAMINER REPORTER JOELLE.KOVACH @PETERBOROUGHDAILY.COM

Councillors want to set aside money from next year’s budget to install a set of temporary traffic signals at the intersection of Cherryhill Road and Brealey Drive in the city’s west end.

The intersection now has an allway stop, but at the committee meeting on Monday councillors voted to set aside $160,000 from the 2024 city budget to add signals.

Although the plan needs a final vote at a city council meeting later this month, on Monday the motion from Coun. Don Vassiliadis carried 7-4.

Voting in favour were Vassiliadis and Coun. Matt Crowley, plus Coun. Keith Riel, Coun. Dave Haacke, Mayor Jeff Leal, Coun. Kevin Duguay and Coun. Lesley Parnell.

Voting against it were Coun. Joy Lachica, Coun. Alex Bierk, Coun. Gary Baldwin and Coun. Andrew Beamer.

Signalization is expected to be a temporary measure, meant to serve only until a full reconstruction of Brealey Drive north of Lansdowne Street (which is projected by the city for 2025 — then new signals would likely be needed).

The temporary signalization would serve in the meantime.

A city staff report didn’t recommend it: the report stated that the reconstruction of Brealey Drive would widen the road enough to add left turn lanes.

Without those turning lanes, the report stated, the intersection wouldn’t necessarily function much better than it does now — so the temporary signalization would simply an added cost.

But Monaghan Ward Coun. Vassiliadis said constituents have called him about close calls at the intersection and want help.

“The area is getting busier by the second,” he said, and his ward-mate Crowley agreed.

Vassiliadis said there are already temporary signalizations in other areas of the city — along Armour Road, for instance — where leftturn lanes aren’t present, “and they seem to function fine.”

“It’s about safety in this area — a lot of near-misses,” he said.

Parnell said the temporary signals could be used for several years, since the city sometimes doesn’t have the funding to stick with projected construction schedules.

Duguay agreed the intersection “could be awaiting a permanent solution for some time,” and so he saw merit in installing temporary signals much sooner than later.

But Baldwin didn’t agree.

“I’m not convinced that any lights there will move traffic along any faster than a four-way stop,” he said — or at least not without the turning lanes.

Free transit for teens

City council may soon consider offering free city transit to young people aged 13 to 18.

Right now kids 12 and younger get to ride Peterborough Transit for free; that’s been true since the start of 2022 (a one-year pilot project, from the previous city council, that has not been discontinued by the current city council).

Coun. Lesley Parnell is the chair of the youth commission — which has been reinstated lately, following a lengthy pause in the COVID-19 pandemic — and she said Monday she’s heard from the young people that free bus service for teens ages 13 to 18 would be appreciated.

Parnell made a motion under new business to direct city staff to write a report, as part of the 2024 budget documents, on the feasibility of offering free city transit to people aged 13 to 18.

She told councillors it would mean lost revenue for the city — perhaps $25,000 a year, she estimated.

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2023-06-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

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