A new report from Edmonton’s office of traffic safety says 659 crosswalks are classified as either dangerous or as needing upgrades. Still, only about nine per cent of them will get the work done by the end of this year.
City councillors will be asking for better ways to tackle that list when the community services committee meets next Wednesday.
“Currently, the city-wide priority list identifies 659 locations that require crosswalk upgrades, 70 of which will be completed by Q4 2019,” the report said.
“The cost to upgrade the remaining 589 locations is approximately $58 million. Under the current budget of $2 million per year, it would take approximately 29 years to address all locations on the list.”
While she’s not happy with that pace of improvement, Councillor Bev Esslinger is encouraged that city staff are listening to complaints.
“The good news is we’re noticing it and our citizens also know the value of having good crosswalks,” she said. “We’re getting that information from our citizens where they don’t feel safe. It really shows that we’re going to have to address our priorities and continue to move that.”
“I looked on the list and there’s some concerns there. I’m sure that will be the basis of our conversation next week.”
Esslinger sees the city now doing road work and neighbourhood improvements at a pace never seen before. She’ll be asking if safety improvements can be combined with neighbourhood renewal to add things like widening sidewalks at intersections. So-called “bulb-outs” make the crosswalk shorter and safer.
“I was just at a neighbourhood renewal meeting this week and safety is one of the values they want to ensure as they do neighbourhood renewal,” she said. “We’ve seen that in Prince Charles. They requested some of those bulb-outs and that will be in place this year.”
One solution the report puts forward is using solar-powered, rapid-flashing beacons at more locations. They cost approximately $25,000 or $40,000 if they tap into the main power grid. Compare that to pedestrian-activated signals which cost $150,000 and overhead pedestrian amber flashers which cost $100,000.
The report said council will get an updated list of priorities in the spring of 2019, along with a work plan that takes into consideration all the other locations.
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