City of Powell River Council wants to ensure that drivers who are speeding slow down in Cranberry.
At the Thursday, March 19, council meeting, councillors discussed a motion that staff be directed to continue monitoring traffic in the Cranberry area. The Cranberry Ratepayers’ Association has appealed to the city to slow traffic through the district’s main corridors.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said there had been a meeting with the RCMP and speed issues in the Cranberry area had been discussed.
“They have agreed to be a little more vigilant in monitoring the speeds there,” she said.
While residents have a real concern about speeds throughout the business area in Cranberry, Hathaway said it wasn’t an area of concern for the RCMP.
Councillor Jim Palm said when a report from staff had come back from council, he wasn’t happy that the city was not doing something about the speeding issue in the area around Magpie’s Diner on Cranberry Street.
“An email came across our screens, recently, from the Cranberry Ratepayers, in reference to the 30-kilometre per hour limit at the park in that vicinity, and perhaps we should think about reducing it where it speeds back up to 50 kilometres per hour by the diner,” Palm said. “Maybe we should reduce that to 40 kilometres per hour. I thought that was a great suggestion. Maybe it’s something staff would be willing to look at.”
Marie Claxton, city clerk, said it had been mentioned in the staff report that the suggestion had been made for a 40-kilometre per hour area on Manson Avenue through to Church Street.
Hathaway said there had been discussion with Powell River RCMP’s Staff Sergeant Rod Wiebe about the use of a speed display board along the roadway.
“I think they are really effective,” she said. “I know when I’m driving at Willingdon Beach and they are put there by Putters [Mini-Golf] I put my brakes on,” she said. “That might be all we need for an answer.”
A little more RCMP presence in the area would also add to observation of speed limits, she said.
Councillor Rob Southcott said the staff report indicated that when speed zones are changed, it doesn’t necessarily have influence on people’s habits.
“Our habits are a lot more enduring than laws,” he said. “If it’s not rigidly enforced it gives the impression that it is okay to break the law.
“I think the objective here is that the behaviour of the driving public is changed. I support the idea of those speed signs.”
Mayor Dave Formosa said he also attended the meeting with Hathaway and senior staff with the RCMP and it was suggested that the sign could be used. However, Formosa wonders where to place the sign.
“The road is pretty tight in there,” he said.
Even when a speed board is placed in a neighbourhood, the installation is just temporary.
He said in the area where there is the transition from 30 to 50 kilometres per hour along Cranberry Street, from DA Evans Park toward Manson, in that narrow tunnel, it feels like speeding.
Formosa said he thought staff had indicated dropping the speed from 50 to 40 through that corridor was a good idea. He said the board may be a good temporary solution but dropping the speed to 40 might be a solution.
Hathaway said she had concerns about reducing the speed to 40 km/h there because if the city makes that revision, council might be inundated with requests to reduce speed on people’s streets.
Claxton said there is a traffic bylaw review that is going to be presented to council in May. She said if council wanted to consider monitoring the situation, “we’ll see how that goes.”
The motion that staff be directed to continue to monitor traffic in the Cranberry area was carried unanimously.
