WINNIPEG — A pilot project designed to control traffic on Aldgate Rd. in South St. Vital isn’t the solution some residents were looking for.
Several sets of staggered speed bumps were installed last month on a stretch of Aldgate where there isn’t a stop sign for around 3 kilometres.
But residents are seeing drivers swerve around the speed bumps, into the oncoming lane, to avoid them.
“They don’t want to go on the bumps so they just go around instead so it can get a little sketchy,” said one woman who lives near Aldgate.
A traffic study conducted by the city found that 15 per cent or more vehicles were travelling at 55 km/h or greater in the 50 km/h zone which meets the threshold for installing speed bumps.
The alternating speed bumps are the first of their kind in Winnipeg, said city councillor Janice Lukes, who hopes the outcome of the pilot project will be a way to slow traffic while still keeping it moving.
“We need to keep traffic flowing but we don’t want it to stop at ten stop signs every block, that’s very frustrating it’s not effective to move traffic,” she said.
She also believes it could provide answers for other neighbourhoods experiencing growth in residential development.
“This neighbourhood is a perfect case example of new growth long corridor of growth and what we’re going to learn from this we’re hopefully going to be able to apply to other parts of the city,” said Lukes.
The city is planning to install collapsible white sticks along the middle of Aldgate to prevent people from crossing into the opposite lane to avoid the bumps.