Traffic circle in city’s east end wins praise

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This article was published 24/11/2023 (1031 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While some residents along Durum Drive have expressed their displeasure with the chicanes installed on the street, the councillor for the area where the other new traffic calming measure has been installed says he hasn’t heard any complaints yet.

In Brandon’s east end, at the intersection of Princess Avenue East and Douglas Street, a mini traffic circle has been installed by bolting signs and small white delineators to the pavement, encouraging motorists to go around the intersection rather than straight through.

“It’s a pretty good runway through there on Princess to be honest,” said Coun. Glen Parker (Ward 9), who represents the neighbourhood on city council.

“There’s no stops from First Street to 13th Street (East) along there, so some folks can get going at a pretty good rate. If it’s all part of our Vision Zero solution, I’m certainly in for trying it and then if it didn’t work out, we’ll try something else.”

For the moment, though, Parker said he believes it is keeping traffic moving at the right pace and he has not heard any complaints regarding the traffic circle.

Earlier this year, city administration lowered the speed limit on Princess Avenue East from 50 kilometres an hour to 40 km/h. Parker said he’d received a single complaint regarding that change.

Grant Hamilton, a local cycling safety advocate and resident of the neighbourhood, said he has been through the traffic circle both in his vehicle and on his bike.

“As a driver, it’s really fantastic,” he said. “As a cyclist, as a pedestrian, same thing … now what you have is everybody slowing down and it just makes that intersection quite calm, quite more convenient, more welcoming. It was just a real breeze to drive through.”

Not only does he love the concept, but he’d like to see more of them installed.

During a trip to northern Italy a couple of years ago, Hamilton said almost all the stoplights and four-way stops in municipalities he visited had been replaced with traffic circles.

“As a driver, it was so incredibly convenient, you never had to stop,” he said. “So you really had a good flow. Even if your top speed was somewhat reduced, your average speed was faster and you felt like you were getting places much more efficiently because you never came to a complete stop,” he said.

Should the city decide to make the circle permanent, Hamilton said he hopes effort is made to make it look attractive, like placing a planter in the centre.

Having ridden his bike through the chicanes on Durum Drive, Hamilton said he liked those as well.

He said the negative reactions to the chicanes reminded him of the negative reactions Brandonites had to the installation of the first traffic circle on 34th Street two decades ago.

With the temporary nature of the two calming measures, Hamilton said he was glad the city was taking an approach that lets it experiment to see what works and what does not.

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