The District of 100 Mile House is going back to the drawing board for a new redesign for the intersection of First Street and Birch Avenue.
This comes after council was presented with a proposed redesign during the Nov. 12 committee of the whole meeting by traffic engineer Peter Truch. Truch outlined a series of changes including narrowing the lanes to decrease the turning radius of vehicles approaching the intersection, shortening the crosswalk lengths to reduce pedestrian exposure and installing bollards and other physical elements to create a more constrained environment.
Council raised several concerns about the new intersection redesign. Coun. Dave Mingo asked questions regarding RV usage of the intersection, as well as how this design would impact snow-clearing operations.
Truch said that they had been working with staff to allow for the flexibility to push the snow off the bollards - and that those bollards would be temporary and eventually replaced by permanent solutions, such as curb extensions and raised crosswalks.
Meanwhile, Coun. Donna Barnett questioned about shortening the radius - and said a lot of the time, the pedestrians were the problem and not the vehicles.
"I'm at that intersection quite often, and often pedestrians don't look anymore," Barnett stated.
Truch agreed with Barnett that pedestrian safety is relevant and that the proposed designs are intended to help guide and cue pedestrians on where they should be crossing.
This redesign is being undertaken following several past incidents at the intersection. In 2019 a pedestrian was hit by a motor vehicle while in 2015, a multi-vehicle accident occurred that led to a pedestrian being killed by a pickup truck. Council recently received $14,000 from the B.C. government through Vison Zero to design improvements, which were initially intended to look into ways for pedestrians to signal motorists.
Council decided to discuss the matter further during the Nov. 26 Committee of the Whole Meeting. During it, Mayor Maureen Pinkney echoed many of the concerns Barnett and Mingo raised, but she said she lit up a little bit when they talked about raised sidewalks.
"I think having raised sidewalks would really make the awareness of the fact that they are sidewalks," Pinkney said.
Pinkney also added there were some advantages to narrowing the lanes.
"I can see a combination of both narrowing some of the lane ways, adding some parking, which would also add that spot where those trucks... they'd actually have a designated place that they actually can park in."
Council generally agreed that there needed to be a combination approach to fix the intersection, with raised sidewalks and narrower lanes being seen as a better solution than the consultant's initial proposal of bollards. Council then decided to ask staff to explore a comprehensive redesign of the intersection that addressed their specific concerns over safety and traffic flow.
In a statement provided to the 100 Mile Free Press, the district stated that "staff will work with the funder to determine what is possible in terms of revising the proposed design to be a blend of the recommendations in the proposal and other safety measures."
