19th Street traffic unsafe, mom says
More drivers using road as a shortcut
Caroline McLeod watches her 11-year-old daughter every time she crosses the intersection of 19th Street and Avenue F to catch the bus.
They live a few houses down from the pedestrian crossing where a vehicle hit a man and a five-year old boy on Wednesday. McLeod helped direct traffic around the scene until police arrived.
It’s a dangerous place, she says. Stopped cars will start to proceed as soon as her daughter crosses the yellow line. Other drivers will pass cars that have stopped for pedestrians.
One day, her daughter was almost hit by a car that went through just before she made it to the sidewalk.
Bushes in nearby yards make it a blind corner for drivers trying to turn onto or cross 19th Street.
McLeod thinks a crosswalk light would be a good idea to alert traffic to people trying to cross.
That’s one option, but Riversdale Community Association President Deborah Graham has a more thorough solution in mind.
She was disappointed, but not surprised, by Wednesday’s collision. Crossing 19th Street has become dangerous as people use it as a thoroughfare to get to other areas, she said.
“I’m surprised that someone hasn’t actually been killed yet on this street.”
The problem has escalated over the past four or five years as the neighbourhood has changed, Graham said. More people have cars, and people use 19th Street to avoid construction and stay off Circle Drive.
According to Saskatchewan Government Insurance data, 320 collisions (excluding collisions with less than $5,000 in damages) were reported on 19th Street West between Second Avenue South and Avenue H between 2003 and 2012. A total of 87 people were injured, 11 of whom were pedestrians.
The community association has lobbied the city to replace a lane of traffic with parking spaces.
That would slow vehicles down and open up more parking space, a valuable resource since The Banks development will eliminate spaces at the nearby Farmers Market.
Coun. Pat Lorje said her “heart sank” when she heard about Wednesday’s collision.
She said she’s been asking the city’s traffic engineers over the past few years to address “the incredible speed and nonchalance with which traffic cuts right through a major residential neighbourhood.”
She said the solutions are to narrow the road with parking spaces, install crosswalk lights, and build a roundabout at 17th Street and Avenue H to divert traffic from 19th Street.