Pedestrians, trains, and automobiles – there’s a lot going on at a busy downtown intersection and the Town is looking at changes to make it safer.

The Town is looking at a series of improvements to the intersection of Centre Avenue and Riverside Drive to address concerns identified in a study of the intersection.

“A lot of it is to reduce collision potential and improve pedestrian safety,” said municipal engineer Marley Oness.

A range of problems were identified in the study, such as limited visibility of pedestrians, motorists who fail to yield to pedestrians and don’t obey stop signs and confusing traffic controls.

The list of proposed changes for the intersection was included in the Town’s 2010 capital budget, approved by council last week:

• Change the existing stop signs to allow free-flow traffic on Riverside Drive and place a stop sign on Centre Avenue. At present, motorists on Centre Avenue don’t face a stop sign, while those on Riverside Drive do.

• Prevent vehicles from turning left from Daggett Street onto Centre Avenue.

• Install pedestrian warning signs.

• Restrict parking near the intersection to improve visibility for motorists as they approach the area.

Oness said the changes will cost about $20,000.

He said the work will allow improvements to the pedestrian crossings to make them more visible to motorists. As well, he said preventing left-hand turns from Daggett Street onto Centre Avenue will help prevent traffic from backing up in the area.

According to Oness, the changes aren’t expected to result in any big changes to traffic flows in the downtown area as there are still options for motorists passing through the downtown area to do so without any inconvenience.

“The predominant flows are in the east-west direction and the traffic flows in the north-south (direction) are fairly low to begin with,” he said. “I think it’s going to help with the flow of traffic.”

While the intersection has seen few collisions, he said the study found a large number of incidents of conflict and near misses between motorists.

A major problem is motorists who drive into oncoming traffic to bypass lineups that form when trains pass through the downtown core.

Oness said the changes should help reduce the chances of a collision between vehicles when a train is present.

“It’s an improvement to what it was. If the vehicles are allowed to flow east-west there shouldn’t be as many (lineups) happening there because there are fewer left-hand turns,” he said.

Oness said long-term plans for the intersection include constructing a left-hand turn lane on Riverside Drive to accommodate vehicles turning on to Centre Avenue.

The study also recommended installing guard arms on the rail crossing.

The Town has earmarked funds for a portion of the work, but the project sits low on Transport Canada’s priority list. The Centre Avenue crossing is number 1,626 on its project list and the Lineham Avenue crossing is ranked 1,860.

As a result, it’s expected the two Okotoks crossings will not be scheduled for upgrades until at least 2011.

The Town set aside $88,750 for its share of the project’s $710,000 cost in its 2009 capital budget. For the remainder of the cost, 80 per cent would be covered by Transport Canada and 7.5 per cent by CP Rail.

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