Committee recommends new Transportation Safety Plan be sent for council vote
By Tim Kalinowski on June 9, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com The City of Lethbridge took one more step toward creating safer streets for vehicle and pedestrian traffic alike as the Civic Works Standing Policy Committee of city council recommended unanimously that the new Transportation Safety Plan be sent for a final vote to city council at its next regular meeting.The reason the plan is needed is because Lethbridge has one of the highest annual serious injury rates from vehicle accidents among cities its size in the province, SPC members were told.
Among the recommendations contained in the plan include more roundabouts and variable speed limit zones to slow traffic down, and better road and intersection design to help inhibit speed. The plan sets an ambitious goal to reduce accidents which cause serious injury or death in the City 50 per cent by 2030 on the way toward a zero per cent target by 2040.
The plan also intends to try to cut down on distracted driving by increasing education on the importance of people turning off or disabling cell phones while driving.
The plan was first presented to the Civic Works SPC back in February, but SPC members felt it was important to get feedback from BILD Lethbridge on the ramifications of the plan, particularly when it comes to increasing the number of roundabouts in the city.
SPC members  were informed roundabouts are generally not favoured by developers in all circumstances because they take up too much real estate and sometimes make corner lots abutting roundabouts harder to sell. BILD wanted to see fully flushed out guidelines as to when, where and why the proposed roundabouts would be constructed.
“We did have this workshop on roundabouts and had a good conversation about how we move forward with those, and our concerns about around it just being a default, and having a more holistic look at where these are placed based on guidelines that are yet to be developed,” said  BILD Lethbridge executive officer Bridget Mearns, who addressed committee members at Tuesday’s meeting. “Our concern was this being in a plan when these guidelines had not yet been developed.”
Noting BILD’s concerns, and changes made in the master document which agree to further consultation with the development industry on the siting of future roundabouts, the Civic Works Standing Policy Committee recommended the Transportation Safety Plan be adopted by city council. Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter 4
-3
