A safety island for seniors crossing the highway at this time seems unlikely.
A petition with about 130 signatures was submitted to council by Senior’s Resource Centre’s Katannya Woodruff, requesting the city look at creating a safety island in the Trans-Canada Highway and Sixth Street intersection that would give seniors more time to cross the busy highway.
“Also, countdown lights and a button to control traffic from the island would be helpful,” states the petition.
To accommodate this, engineering and public works director Dale McTaggart explained to council, either the left-turn lane would need to be removed, or the highway widened, “which is really not feasible given the location of the buildings.”
McTaggart noted the city has already forwarded a request to the Ministry of Transportation to relocate the traffic control from Ross Street to Fourth, to better space the lights out along the downtown highway corridor.