Region of Queens councillors plan to ask RCMP to step up enforcement efforts at the three-way stop at Main and Market streets in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

Queens County councillors grappled with traffic safety in downtown Liverpool at their meeting on Tuesday evening.

The intersection at Main and Market streets has been the scene of some close calls between motorists and pedestrians. And in January, a 79-year-old woman was hit in the crosswalk and taken to hospital in Bridgewater. A driver was charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk.

The incident reignited concern in the community about that intersection and others in town. Councillors heard from their constituents that they needed to address safety in that area.

Some residents want the municipality to install pedestrian-controlled crosswalk lights.

At their Jan. 23 meeting, councillors asked staff to review previous reports and studies about that intersection and come back with recommendations. They also asked staff to investigate adding fluorescent orange flags at that intersection for pedestrians to use while they cross.

On Tuesday evening, some councillors were in favour of trying the flags, while others were opposed. It would cost $1,050 to put the flags at each of the three corners of the intersection. The idea has been used in the Halifax region at many crosswalks, but not at those controlled by stop signs. 

Adam Grant, the region’s director of engineering and public works, said he spoke with the community group in Halifax behind those flags. 

The citizens’ group Crosswalk Safety Society of Nova Scotia began putting the orange flags at intersections in 2008 after a teenager was killed in a Dartmouth crosswalk. According to the group’s website, it got approval from the province in 2011 to allow crosswalk flags on provincial roads. They are now found in Hubbards, Hantsport, Aylesford, Berwick, New Ross, Bridgewater, Chester and Windsor.

Grant said the reception to them in the Halifax region is mixed. And he told councillors there is no evidence that installing the flags at Main and Market would improve pedestrian safety.

“I don’t feel comfortable consenting to the installation, quite frankly, as the traffic authority.

“Any time we introduce anything to a situation which doesn’t have a clear and direct guideline with substantiated evidence determined by professionals, we’re introducing liability. For me to suggest putting these in place will improve safety when I don’t know they will would be contradictory to my intent.”

Councillors decided to defer the flag discussion to a later date.

Grant said that pedestrian-controlled lights at the intersection could interrupt traffic flow and create more problems. He said it’s unusual to install the lights at a three-way stop.

A 2015 study by Insight Traffic Engineering did not recommend installing lights at the intersection. Instead, it suggested changing some signage, remove any trees or greenery obstructing visibility and moving the stop sign and crosswalk from the western approach on Main Street.

The study found that existing traffic control wasn’t an issue, though it did recommend council at the time ask Queens District RCMP to step up enforcement.

Grant told councillors Tuesday that conditions at the intersection haven’t changed since that 2015 report, and that there was no increase in the rate of collisions over the past 10 years, according to the RCMP.

Mayor Darlene Norman suggested leaving the issue for the next council to tackle after municipal elections in October.

District 6 Coun. David Brown said he’d like the region’s police advisory board to discuss increased enforcement with the RCMP at their next meeting, likely in late May.

“It sounds more like a compliance issue,” Brown said.

“Once you make an example of a few peole and word gets out that there are potential fines for jaywalking or entering the intersection illegally when you’re driving, word will get around and pepole will take the extra time and look at what they’re doing.” 

Norman said she believes that’s a good idea, and that police need to keep up the enforcement efforts for many days, and at all times of the day.

“And fines. Not warnings, but fines for rolling stops, for all of those things, because it might be the pedestrian once in a while who darts out, but it’s often the vehicle driver.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below

Region of Queens councillors are looking for ways to improve safety at the intersection at Main and Market streets in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad photo)

By Rick Conrad

Councillors at the Region of Queens want something done to address pedestrian safety at the three-way stop in downtown Liverpool.

The intersection at Main and Market streets has seen its share of collisions and close calls. 

On Monday, a 79-year-old woman was hit in the crosswalk and taken to South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater. RCMP said her injuries were not life-threatening. A driver was charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk.

The incident reignited concern in the community about the safety of that intersection and others in town.

At its meeting on Tuesday, council voted to have staff review previous studies and reports and come back with recommendations to make the three-way stop safer.

“I understand the frustrations,” Mayor Darlene Norman said Wednesday in an interview.

“Over my years of driving, I have been on both sides of that coin,” as a pedestrian and as a motorist.

According to minutes from a July 2019 meeting, the previous council had rejected the idea of crosswalk lights. It would have cost $27,000. 

Then-CAO Chris McNeill told councillors that it was staff’s opinion that installing lights “will not improve safety or eliminate pedestrians’ inattention when crossing the intersection”.

Instead, councillors at the time decided to post a “no left turn” sign for post office parking, remove any trees or shrubbery obstructing visibility, and asking the Queens District RCMP to step up enforcement, including traffic stops during peak hours.

A 2015 study by Insight Traffic Engineering recommended changing some signage, moving the stop sign and crosswalk from the western approach on Main Street, and moving the sidewalk shrubbery and furniture.

The study concluded that existing traffic control wasn’t an issue. 

Leanne Arnott, owner of nearby Five Girls Baking, said this week after the most recent incident that pedestrian-controlled lights should be installed.

“In other cities where I have lived with pedestrian-controlled crosswalks they seem to have been very effective and very useful and I think that in this situation that would be a good thing to have here.”

Arnott said she’s happy that council is going to address the issue, but that they should also involve the community in their discussions.

Norman said Wednesday that councillors have heard many ideas — from full traffic lights to having orange flags available at each corner for pedestrians to carry as they cross.

She said they will consider all options and wait for staff to come back with a report. 

“Council places public safety first. I do not believe this council would ever make a decision not to do something because of the cost.”

She said she personally supports installing accessible pedestrian signals, which include lights and sound when a pedestrian chooses to cross. But it is ultimately council’s decision.

Still, Norman said, it’s the responsibility of pedestrians and motorists to be careful in all intersections. 

“So while council can do everything in its power, be it installation of traffic lights, basically it boils down to pedestrians and those driving the vehicles using safety as a No. 1 factor when going through intersections.”

Norman said they’ve heard from residents about other areas in Liverpool where safety is a problem, such as the intersection at Queens Place Drive.

And in November, residents of Main and School streets submitted a petition to council, urging the region to lower speed limits in the area and to create a four-way stop at the intersection.

Councillors also asked staff to study those and other areas that need attention.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below

RCMP were at the scene of a crash in the crosswalk at Main and Market streets in Liverpool on Monday morning. (Rick Conrad photo)

By Rick Conrad

A 79-year-old woman was taken to South Shore Regional Hospital on Monday morning after she was hit in the crosswalk at Main and Market streets in Liverpool.

The collision occurred at 11:21 a.m., an RCMP spokesman said. The woman’s injuries are not life-threatening.

Police have charged a driver with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk.

The three-way stop at the corner of Main and Market streets has seen collisions and close calls before.

Leanne Arnott, owner of Five Girls Baking, said she has witnessed some of them.

“In fact, I myself have had a very close call,” she said Monday. “That was a couple of years ago and I was three-quarters of the way through the intersection when somebody decided not to stop and I actually had to put my hands on the hood of their car and jump back before they ran me over.”

She did not see Monday’s incident, but noticed emergency personnel tending to the woman, who was lying on the street.

Arnott said the intersection is unsafe and the municipality should install pedestrian-controlled lights to help alert drivers.

“As a business owner, watching this intersection daily, it is not safe. And I think if you were to ask anybody who lives around here, walks around here or even drives through the intersection on a regular basis, you’ll be told that this intersection is absolutely not safe.”

She said she’s worried more people will get hurt if something isn’t done soon.

A spokesperson for the municipality was not available to comment Monday.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the Jan. 22 news update below