The District of Squamish is updating its traffic calming policy and plans to take traffic calming requests from residents through a form on its website. Staff presented the new policy to the council at Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting. It will be shared with the public later once the Council approves it.
The District of Squamish will also purchase a new traffic counter to monitor traffic calming projects in town. It now has one traffic counter to collect data. Traffic counters collect vehicle speed and volume data but don’t include a display board. The district will also buy another speed reader board that displays drivers’ speed.
Brent McMurty, the transportation manager, told the council that the district doesn’t have a ‘defined process’ where it places the traffic counter but usually collects data for at least a week.
“We’re hoping to have a more systematic approach to regularly collect data along major collectors and known problem areas to observe changes and understand how our community is continuing to evolve,” he said. “It’s a process that we’re working towards to have a more systematic approach to collecting data to support decision making.”
Two ways to traffic calming
District of Squamish is also updating procedures to divide traffic calming into two streams. The first stream applies to local roads and minor collector roads. Residents will be able to submit a traffic calming review request form. District staff will review the form and move forward with traffic calming if it meets screening criteria and budget requirements. The form is not available yet.
“By using feedback from community members, staff will be able to target areas with identified concerns on local and minor collector streets and focus the speed and volume monitoring program on the busier major collectors throughout the community,” notes a staff report to the council.
The District will lead the second type of traffic calming, which will apply only to major collector roads. These roads are designed for traffic and emergency vehicles, so methods like speed humps or diverting traffic usually don’t work well. Instead, the report notes that options like narrowing the lanes can be used, though they can be more expensive. In March 2023, the District hired a consultant to help create a new traffic calming policy. The old policy was created in 2003.
DOS updates traffic calming policy
The updated draft Traffic Calming Policy has several changes compared to the 2003:
The process has been simplified by removing specific dates, Council reports, and Staff references.
Traffic calming is now split into two approaches: one for resident-initiated improvements on local/minor collector roads and another for District-led improvements on major collector roads (explained further below).
Road classifications have been updated to match the District’s current system.
Decisions on acceptable traffic calming measures will now be guided by Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) recommendations and Staff expertise instead of a fixed list in the policy.
Meanwhile, District of Squamish staff is also supporting a consultant’s recommendation to implement a 30km/h speed limit in the Downtown and Oceanfront area. If the council moves ahead with the first option, signs would be installed at the Highway 99 exit and through the Downtown and Oceanfront area.
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