A big change could just be a few months away for one of Fredericton’s most frequented intersections.
The York Street and Kings College Road intersection is said to see a high number of collisions. Drivers travelling on Kings College enter the intersection and getting struck by vehicles coming downhill on York.
In the interest of safety the city looked into the collision history of the intersection with possible changes to it in mind.
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Now transportation officials have made their recommendation which passed through city council recently.
“York at Kings College jumped out as having a disproportionate high volume or frequency of collisions,” said the city’s traffic engineer Jon Lewis, who regularly examines collision history.
“It was all basically the same type, traffic coming from Kings College getting hit by traffic on York street.”
The proposed median will run along York Street and remove all left turns from the intersection and restrict movement across Kings.
This will send drivers to other nearby roadways which are better equipped for heavy traffic.
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“In this case it really wasn’t an appropriate solution,” said Lewis, of installing traffic lights at the location.
“We looked at a number of different possible alternatives that would try to reduce these types of collisions and the median idea was what we came up with as the best overall solution.”
City councillor and transportation committee chair, Henri Mallet, believes that while some may be upset by the change that it would be in the public’s best interests.
“We understand that it is going to be an inconvenience for part of a neighbourhood,” Mallet admitted. “That being said it’s also going to make it a safer intersection and it’s going to bring back that street as a residential. There’ll be less traffic, less speeding.”
Council will debate the issue at a meeting on August 14 and if approved construction on the median could start as early as this fall.
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