No changes planned to unlit crosswalk: city

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This article was published 27/11/2019 (2355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are no plans to make changes to a crosswalk where a boy was hit Monday afternoon, despite previous incidents there, the city’s traffic and transportation planner said Tuesday.

Sam van Huizen said there is already a lighted crosswalk at 18th Street and Louise Avenue and crossing signals at Princess Avenue where pedestrians can cross 18th Street safely.

A nine-year-old boy sustained what Brandon police called “scrapes and bruises” after being struck by a vehicle while crossing 18th Street at Lorne Avenue Monday afternoon.

The boy was crossing westbound at a marked but unlit crosswalk, where a curb-side northbound vehicle stopped for him, police said. The median-side northbound vehicle did not stop in time and struck the boy. Police said slippery conditions may have also been a factor in the accident.

Police said Tuesday no charges are being contemplated.

“The city does do ongoing reviews of various intersections,” van Huizen said. “A lot of them start with concern raised by residents or road users in the area to, kind of, raise them higher along the priority (list).”

Traffic counts and reviews of collisions are also conducted, he said.

Van Huizen said his department hasn’t received any complaints about the Lorne Avenue crosswalk since he started in the job three years ago.

“If we were to receive something formally, we’ll probably take a look at it as we would with the other intersection that had a fatality earlier (last) week,” he said. “It’s not something we ignore outright.”

A 75-year-old woman was hit by a vehicle at the intersection of Park Avenue and 26th Street last Monday and died the next day.

The Lorne Avenue crosswalk has lower treatment than some others, with oversized signage and a zebra pattern on the crosswalk, “to kind of give notice to drivers that there is a crosswalk there and that people may be in the intersection,” van Huizen said.

The Louise Avenue intersection has a pedestrian corridor — with signals that come on when pressed by someone waiting to cross — while Princess Avenue has traffic signals at that intersection.

The level of crosswalk is based on a variety of factors, van Huizen said, such as collision history, level of service from vehicles, turning movements in the intersection and pedestrian counts in addition to proximity to other crossings.

“Right now, there are safer options for pedestrians to cross the street, across 18th Street there, for the students, primarily, to cross,” he said.

“With those other intersections in the area, with higher levels of treatment, we have those alternatives for pedestrians who don’t feel safe crossing at an unserviced intersection.”

He added removing the Lorne Avenue crosswalk isn’t an option as people would continue to cross there, anyway.

Although 18th Street is a provincial highway, the City of Brandon is still the traffic authority, van Huizen noted.

A number of comments on the Brandon Sun website urged the city to install a lighted crosswalk where the boy was hit this week.

“This is a bad one has been for years,” wrote one person. “Needs to be lighted.”

Others called for drivers to watch the other lane for pedestrians.

“I used this crosswalk throughout my university days as it was the closest to my apartment,” another person wrote. “I saw numerous students hit at this crosswalk, always the same way. Car in one lane stops. Other lane keeps going. It’s a crosswalk. Slow down and stop if the car beside you is.”

» brobertson@brandonsun.com