On October 4, 2021, Councillor Kavanagh and the City of Ottawa hosted an information session on the installation of traffic calming measures on Alpine to eventually install a pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Alpine at Henley.
Background
The intersection at Alpine and Henley was a challenge. The community wants a PXO at that location and after analysis, it was determined that the location met the warrant for number of pedestrians (approximately 200) over 8 hours and also had a high enough vehicle volume. The study also determined that the sightlines at the location did not meet the warrant criteria even with the planned 1.5 metre bulb-out at the intersection. It is still part of the design and is recommended for pedestrian safety. The 85th percentile operating speed of the road is 51 km/h (based on a 2018 speed survey). In order to have safe sightlines for the PXO, the operating speed needs to be around 35km/hr.
Following discussion with Traffic Safety and the Neighbourhood Traffic Calming Team it was agreed that speed humps, prior to the potential PXO crossing, would be the most effective way to reduce the operating speed closer to 35km/hr. The meeting scheduled for October 4th is part of the City’s consultation/communication stage.
The following update was received from traffic safety about the sightlines:
- “It is important to maintain adequate sight distance to allow road users to anticipate and avoid potential collisions, and the existing sight lines are not adequate, meaning we cannot implement a PXO under current conditions. We support the addition of permanent traffic calming measures here to reduce speeds at the uncontrolled crossing. Should speed studies post-implementation of permanent traffic calming measures demonstrate the necessary drop in speed to an 85th percentile of 35km/h or lower in the southbound direction, we would be satisfied that the sight lines condition is met. However, at that point, we would want to evaluate the warrant again, to ensure the permanent traffic calming measures haven’t created a shift in traffic volume below the necessary threshold required to warrant a PXO. Should the PXO be warranted, it would be placed on our list of warranted location to be installed.”
