Drivers aren’t sold on no left-turn sign
New Hamburg residents aren’t happy with the region’s solution to keep stopped traffic off rail tracks
NEW HAMBURG — The no-left-turn signs went up on Waterloo Street as fall began.
New Hamburg has been in a traffic tizzy ever since.
No longer can commuters reach hundreds of homes and a handful of apartment buildings by veering left onto Steinman Street.
Side streets further up two-lane Waterloo Street have become uncomfortably busier. Trucks, not allowed on certain side streets, must twist around to get to west-side businesses. A fitness centre parking lot has been used as a thoroughfare, Wilmot Township Mayor Les Armstrong says.
A resident-led online petition against the change has 355 names.
“That intersection has been there for 160 years,” said Armstrong, who wants the Region of Waterloo to reverse its sudden no-left-turn stance on the regional road just past a railway crossing.
“There has never been, that I’m aware of — I was a police officer out here for 10 years and I’ve been on council for 20some years — any accidents occurring or any near misses occurring as a result of somebody stopped to make a left turn and somebody behind them stopping on the tracks.”
So why did the region put up the noleft-turn signs?
Transport Canada was doing some maintenance work at the railway crossing last spring, Armstrong explained. An
inspector noticed that a dangerous situation existed on two-lane Waterloo Street as traffic backed up by left-turning vehicles stopped on the tracks.
The region received a letter of noncompliance under the Railway Safety Act from Transport Canada on June 7, asking that action be taken.
“It wasn’t just a letter, it was an order,” said Steve van De Keere, the region’s director of transportation. “You don’t take those lightly from Transport Canada.”
The region had only two weeks to respond. Staff were sent to the intersection and observed the same safety issues the Transport Canada officer witnessed.
“It wasn’t that we just got the letter and did the left-turn prohibition,” van De Keere said. “We went out and did our own homework as well.”
Other left turns near the intersection caused concern as well, particularly southbound onto Arnold Street and into a gas station. Those could also back up traffic over the tracks.
However, the northbound left onto Steinman appeared to be the main issue. In mid-September, the no-leftturn signs went up after notices were sent out. And then a commuter uprising began to percolate over the region’s stance.
“They decided that what they need to do was put up these no-left-turn signs and that would fix the problem,” Armstrong said. “In fact, it created more problems.”
In October, the mayor and township staff met with regional officials to look at options that would address the safety issue and soothe upset residents.
“They said they are looking at options,” Armstrong said. “They didn’t say they were looking at the option necessarily of taking the signs down, which is what I want them to do.”
There aren’t a lot of viable options, van De Keere said. Widening may not help since the main problem is that Steinman is just too close to the tracks. Armstrong said the CN line, which is used by Goderich-Exeter Railway, gets passenger and freight train use daily.
The no-left-turn change remains in place.
“There was no need for changes, and the way the changes were implemented with no consultation has led to local frustration as well,” Jeff Gerber, a Wilmot Township councillor for New Hamburg, wrote in an email to The Record this week.
“There was also little regard for the impact the change would have.”
Meanwhile, police are enforcing the new no-left-turn signs. Disobeying them can cost drivers two demerit points and a fine and surcharge totalling $110.
Another sign on a utility pole before the railway tracks reads “Do Not Stop on Railway Tracks.” Matthew Brenneman, who lives on Steinman Street, wonders why that sign isn’t enough to avoid adding the no-left-turn rule.
“Why aren’t we enforcing one sign but we are the other?” Brenneman asked.
Regional police say such a sign is unenforceable. However, there is a right-of-way bylaw for stopping a railway track that carries an $80 fine.
But there is another issue, Brenneman points out.
Just beyond the railway line and the Y-shaped Waterloo-Steinman intersection is a crosswalk for school kids that could just as easily lead to cars stopped on the tracks.
“So I guess we better take the crosswalk and relocate it,” Brenneman said.
The region was made aware of the school crossing issue by the township. In early November, it installed cameras observing the area over three days. The video is still being analyzed. However, van De Keere’s initial look found nine instances of vehicles stopped on the tracks, all resulting because vehicles were turning left at Steinman.
“Nine occurrences in three days — and that’s despite the left-turn prohibition,” van De Keere said. “You can only imagine how many occurrences there were before the left turns were prohibited.”
Other instances of stopping on tracks, due to crossing guard actions or southbound left turns were fewer, he added.
So the debate over the no-left-turn signs continues.
But van De Keere said there is also video of a vehicle stopped on the tracks, due to a left turn at Steinman, and “sandwiched” by vehicles in front and behind. If a train had come at that time, he said, the middle driver may have been stuck.
“Those situations have potential for catastrophic collision,” van De Keere said. “We just can’t let that go without addressing it.”