Making case for four-way stop at Stanley, Church’s Lane
The city is once again asking Niagara Region to consider putting a four-way stop at the corner of Stanley Avenue and Church’s Lane to address speeding concerns.
Coun. Wayne Thomson said there have been complaints for several years about the intersection.
During this week’s council meeting, Thomson showed several photos he took of motor-vehicle collisions at the intersection.
“This has happened on a regular basis and in spite of the fact that we keep asking the Region to do (something about) this situation, it hasn’t happened,” he said.
Thomson’s motion requesting the Region look at installing a four-way stop was approved by council.
The intersection currently has a stop sign on Church’s Lane, on either side of Stanley Avenue, but not on Stanley Avenue itself.
The speed limit on that section of Stanley Avenue is 60 kilometres per hour.
Thomson said he gets calls “constantly” from Dan Mowbray, who owns a car wash and self storage business at the intersection.
Mowbray would like to see a four-way stop installed at the intersection.
“Even myself, I have to really watch it going up there because it’s a long distance and it’s free and you can get going up pretty good,” said Thomson.
He said the issue has gone to the Region before.
“They said it didn’t meet the criteria and yet it continues to have accidents right at that corner regularly.”
Thomson said he was driving down Stanley Avenue last week when he noticed an accident at the intersection.
“It’s a regional responsibility and I’m sure this time they’re going to have to do something. It’s pretty serious. This time there was some pretty serious injuries. The ambulance was there when I was there, taking people into the ambulance, so it’s not insignificant.”
Mowbray said he has operated his Classic Car Wash Self Storage business at the intersection for nearly 30 years.
He said even though the speed limit is 60 km/h, it’s common to see vehicles travelling 80 km/hr.
Mowbray said it’s a fair distance away on Stanley Avenue before motorists encounter a stop sign or light.
He said a stop light is “probably fairly expensive,” but a four-way stop shouldn’t be.
“At my intersection a lot of people in the north end go from Church’s Lane down the parkway or into various parts of the city,” he said.
“A lot of times … they’re maybe not paying attention, they think they’ve looked and next thing you know they go through the intersection and somebody is going down, even if they’re going down 60 kilometres an hour … you can get a fair distance, so they might have not seen them when they first looked.”
Mowbray said at least once a year there is a “bad accident” at the intersection where vehicles are “totalled.”
He said he has seen accidents where vehicles have flipped in the air and ended up in the ditch.
“There was actually a fatality a number of years ago. Somebody unfortunately will die again if something isn’t done and I’m not the type of guy that pushes for anything. I just do my own little thing in my own little world.”
Shawn McCauley, acting director of transportation for Niagara Region, said the last update report they provided to the city about the issue was in August.
He said when the Region determines potential four-way controls, it follows guidelines/warrants set out in the Ontario traffic manual.
Criteria is based on collision data and traffic-volume data.
McCauley said the intersection never met either criteria.
“What our response will be again is that our staff is not recommending a four-way stop at this time,” he said.
“We keep all of those intersections on a list and we continually update the criteria on an annual basis for collisions and depending on the traffic volumes, how close they are to the warrant, we do those on either a one-year, or two-year, or three-year cycle.”
He said because the Stanley Avenue and Church’s Lane intersection wasn’t “close” on the traffic-volume part, “it’s scheduled again to be recounted in 2018.”