Latest traffic study at downtown intersection not good enough, Liverpool resident says

A traffic study presented to Region of Queens council in July concluded that traffic lights are not needed at the Main and Market intersection in downtown Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

A Liverpool resident wants the Region of Queens to do a more comprehensive study of safety at a busy downtown intersection.

Paul Deveau says a recent look at traffic at Main and Market streets was insufficient.

“Is the current configuration of this intersection safe?” he told councillors during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s regular council meeting.

“A proper risk assessment survey conducted at this intersection would be done under the worst-case scenario, or optimum or peak usage, when both vehicle and pedestrian traffic are at their highest. It would look at not just volume, but the behaviour of the traffic, such as the percentage of the vehicles not coming to a complete stop or a rolling stop, but also look at pedestrians, and if they’re stopping or looking before crossing.”

The three-way stop is one of the most heavily travelled intersections in Liverpool. And it’s seen its share of collisions and near-misses.

It’s viewed by many as one of the most dangerous areas for pedestrians in downtown Liverpool.

Councillors voted this past February to spend $24,000 on the traffic study after a crosswalk collision in January 2024 sent a 79-year-old woman to hospital.

An earlier study was done in 2015. No significant changes were made at that time.

Consultants CBCL presented their findings to councillors on July 8. They concluded that the intersection could handle current traffic volumes without extra measures like traffic lights.

Paul Deveau spoke to regional council on Tuesday about the Main and Market intersection. (YouTube)

Deveau, who ran as a candidate in the 2024 municipal elections, said he looked at similar studies done in 50 other Canadian municipalities and they were all conducted in either early spring or late fall. He questioned why this study was conducted in February.

He said that on July 7, as he was sitting outside Main and Mersey Dining Room and Coffee Bar on Main Street, he counted 232 vehicles in about 25 minutes travelling toward the three-way stop. That was higher than the 119 total morning trips observed by the consultants and the 148 total afternoon trips.

“Why do an assessment on traffic in one of the slowest months of the year?” he told councillors.

“It only looked at the traffic volume with the assumption that the people using that intersection would behave in a manner that is predictable and by the letter of the law. This council already knows that they do not. So my question to the council is this, will the council conduct a comprehensive risk assessment on that intersection or stick with the bare minimum and use the current half-measure results to make a decision?”

Mayor Scott Christian said after the meeting that in response to Deveau’s concerns, he’s going to ask for an update on the intersection at Main and Market streets.

“And so I’ll be looking for some further information from staff on that one.”

Deveau told councillors he hopes they take a more robust look at safety in the area.

“So when an accident happens again at this intersection, not if, but when, is this the justification that you want to stand for not making a change? 
Is this what you want to tell the next person whose life could be forever altered or their family, that you did what you could do with the information provided? What if the next person was your family member?”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Traffic study: No need for lights at three-way stop in Liverpool

A consultants report does not recommend installing traffic lights at the Main and Market intersection in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

A study of the troublesome three-way stop in downtown Liverpool has found traffic isn’t that bad and that it doesn’t warrant installing traffic lights.

Engineering firm CBCL presented its findings to council this week about the intersection at Main and Market streets.

“We found overall that the intersection has sufficient capacity for the current traffic volumes and the future traffic volumes with the current stop control configuration. We found that the traffic signals are not warranted,” David Copp, a transportation engineer with CBCL who conducted the on-site traffic study in February, told councillors at their regular meeting Tuesday.

Copp said that opinions about the intersection are mixed. While some pedestrians and business owners believe there’s no problem, others told him it is hazardous.

“There was a number of folks who identified that cars or trucks were not yielding to pedestrians. They were sort of blasting through the stop signs and just ignoring any pedestrians who were waiting. 
There definitely seems to be a bit of a lack of trust on the part of the pedestrian that vehicles will actually stop where they’re supposed to when they approach the intersection.”

Collision data for the area is very limited. There have been 36 reported collisions within a 100-metre radius from 2009 to 2024. Most of those were vehicle collisions. Five of them involved pedestrians.

“So it made it very challenging to draw any conclusions or highlight trends or causation between these incidents,” he said.

Overall, the study found traffic flow and vehicle speeds were within acceptable limits. And it also found that five new housing developments planned for the Mount Pleasant area just outside downtown Liverpool won’t make volumes a problem in the next 10 years.

Copp said some changes could make the area safer for pedestrians.

He said combining the through and right-turning westbound lanes at the post office on Main Street would shorten the crosswalk there and improve visibility.

There would still be an issue of cars entering and leaving the angled parking spaces next to the post office. He said most of the collisions in the area were related to those spaces and that council should consider removing or reconfiguring them.

Councillors voted this past February to spend $24,000 on the traffic study after a crosswalk collision in January 2024 sent a 79-year-old woman to hospital.

The intersection has been the scene of lots of close calls over the years.

District 5 Coun. Jack Fancy said he doesn’t believe combining westbound lanes on Main Street is enough to protect pedestrians.

“We’ve had people hit and I think due diligence, if we just walk away from this and say we’re going to combine those two lanes, I don’t think we’re doing our job,” he said.

I can live with the car to car (collisions), you can fix those. Car to pedestrians, you can’t fix. 
So I think the car to pedestrian is our biggest concern.”

He wants to see some kind of pedestrian-activated signal to alert drivers when somebody wants to cross.

District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault said the intersection and the sidewalk approaches have to be improved to be more accessible for people with visual, hearing or mobility impairments.

“It’s very scary to go through that intersection for pedestrians, very scary. So I think there’s a lot of work we have to do there, and if it doesn’t warrant traffic lights, maybe put up the lights for the signals for the pedestrians. 
But I think this is a situation where we really have to do a lot of a lot more conversation, a lot more work. We just cannot leave it the way it is.”

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton told QCCR after the meeting that even though the traffic count was done in February, when numbers would be typically lower, she said it still gives a good baseline for council to consider.

“And so our conversation with that particular intersection, I think, is far from over, and we should consider if there’s any improvements that we can make to the parking there (at the post office), how we make that the best it can be, given the information that was presented today.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Queens councillors to ask RCMP to beef up enforcement at Main and Market in Liverpool

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

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Queens County to study safety at three-way stop in Liverpool

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

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Woman taken to hospital after collision in Liverpool crosswalk

An RCMP officer and cruiser are at the intersection of Main and Market streets in downtown Liverpool.

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