Resident launches petition to gather support for neighbourhood traffic safety

Michelle Price was there when paramedics took away a seven-year-old girl that was struck by a car at Baintree Way and Coulthard Boulevard.

"I felt so incredibly sad," she said. "Everybody around there was so upset."

The incident got the Upper Country Club Neighbourhood residents talking on a Facebook group page.

"There was a lot of concern about a seven-year-old girl was hit by a car on Baintree Way," said Price, who lives on Dellgrove Circle. "I'm not the kind of person that will drone on. Talk is cheap. You can sit around and talk as much as you want, but at some point somebody has to do something." 

The incident, she said, was sad but also preventable.

And that's why she launched into action by reaching out to her local councillor, city staff, and starting an online petition to inform neighbours and gather concerns and feedback that can eventually be presented to council. Not only that, Price said, she had had petition cards printed to be given to the neighbours that are not on Facebook.

She said the council member guided her on how to go about contacting staff and what she might need to do to delegate to council. 

Staff, Price said, connected her to the appropriate departments and told her that they will be installing speed radar signs to gather data around vehicle speeds and will also collecting numbers around the volumes of cars in the neighbourhood.

Where she said she understands staff's need to make an empirical move, she and her neighbours know there is an issue. 

"You've got a lot of windy roads and it's not a gentle curve," Price said. "There are sometimes people going around the bend at high speeds. You have a lot of families in the area and people go biking. It's just a recipe for disaster."

In the petition, she recommends using speed calming measures such as permanent speed bumps and additional signage.  

Price also suggests updating and/or better enforcing parking by-laws governing on-street parking to restrict current residents from using on-street parking as an extension of their own personal driveway.

On some streets, she said, that is also a factor contributing to traffic issues.

"They're blocking the sidewalks and their vehicles hang over the street, so they're taking up part of the street," Price said, adding sometimes cars are parked dangerously close to intersections. "That disrupts sight lines and creates potential for accidents."

Her petition also suggests extending bike lanes to enhance safety for residents.

"Sometimes people park in the bike lanes," Price said, adding this could be solved by additional signage indicating clearly where one can park or not.

She also wants the city to be careful about allowing further intensification and growth in the neighborhood that will result in increased traffic volumes and increased on-street parking.

"We're in a neighbourhood of 887 dwellings," Price said, adding she wasn't aware of any further development planned. "The neighbourhood has matured. The trees are larger and you have a lot of people riding around. How you allow for further intensification in the area that is already so densely populated needs to be considered. Let's not make the issue worse here by allowing further intensification."

She said she knows that her councillor and staff are taking a closer look at the situation but she will still make a presentation at an upcoming council meeting.

"I do believe this needs to be on the record with the city, even if for nothing else other than to say the residents in the neighbourhood are concerned," Price said. "At the end of the day, council should be getting updates from staff and follow up with it. I think the right way is to get this on council record through a presentation."