A new method for implementing traffic calming may be on its way to Squamish, but the details are still to be fine-tuned.
District of Squamish councillors received the Traffic Calming Policy report on Dec. 10, which aims to update how residents can request traffic calming measures in the community.
But before they were willing to support the new policy, councillors requested additional information be brought back to a future meeting, which would clarify costs, and the inclusion of speed limit reductions.
The new policy
“Traffic calming is the installation of mostly physical measures that are intended to slow vehicles and increase safety for all road users,” District manager of transportation, Brent McMurtry said at the committee of the whole meeting.
Examples of traffic calming include speed humps, speed tables, pinchpoints and chicanes.
“The [new] traffic calming policy confirms the process that will be undertaken to screen and prioritize traffic calming requests from community members,” McMurtry said.
“Two streams have been identified for the updated policy; local and minor collector roads which would be initiated by residents and then District-led improvements on major collector roads.”
The proposed new process for residents to make a request for traffic calming is:
- A request is submitted
A resident would submit a traffic calming request either online or in paper format;
- Screening
Staff would review the request against the screening criteria, which includes collision history as well as speed and volume thresholds. In most cases, it would require a traffic count to assess the speed and volume at that location.
- Prioritization
Locations would be prioritized based on vehicle speed, pedestrian facilities, traffic volumes, collision history and pedestrian generators (locations that would anticipate more people accessing such as schools, rec centres and parks).
- Plan development
Top priority locations are allocated to the available budget. A traffic calming plan is developed for these sites. This may include public consultation, depending on the level of impact.
- Implementation
The traffic calming measures are implemented.
The second stream is district-initiated and only applies to major collector roads.
According to the Traffic Calming Policy report, major collector roads are intended for through traffic and emergency vehicle access, “therefore traditional approaches to traffic calming such as speed humps or traffic diversion are generally not a good fit.”
“Alternative approaches such as narrowing travel lanes are possible but are often more costly. District-led traffic calming provides the opportunity for co-ordination with other road capital projects to provide greater efficiencies,” reads the report.
Councillor reactions
Councillors were supportive of the proposed new policy but had questions about the cost and complexity evaluation of projects, as well as the inclusion of speed limit reduction as part of the policy.
McMurtry said speed limit changes were not accounted for in the new policy, and he wasn’t sure if staff had the authority to change posted speed limits based in the current traffic bylaw.
He noted that he would come back to council with an answer at a later time.
A motion was made and carried at the committee of the whole meeting to provide feedback to staff on the traffic calming policy and direct staff to bring the policy back for further consideration with the following items addressed:
- Inclusion of cost and complexity evaluation of projects in the prioritization or advancing of projects.
- The consideration of delegation for changing speed limits, and or inclusion of speed limit reduction as part of the traffic calming policy.
- Public-facing communication of the prioritization list.
“I think, similar to the costing piece sort of being missing, when I’m talking about the speed piece, I’d like to understand where those go,” Mayor Armand Hurford said.
“Is it in a different policy? … Because I think as the community engages with this, we're likely to hear all matters of concerns, and I want to make sure that this intake point can address those broadly. And if there is an additional policy that needs to be developed for whatever other bucket emerges as we get this feedback that we do that,” he said.
Coun. Chris Pettingill said he thinks most residents who would come to the District with traffic calming ideas would be most concerned about the speed of drivers on the road.
“They’re really concerned about the speed and they’re trying to bring solutions to deal with the speed piece,” Pettingill said.
“They’re not coming with ‘I’m totally happy with the speed, but I want speed bumps anyway’ … so I understand why we’ve split it apart, but from a public understanding, I think to my mind we have to understand that it’s really about reducing the speed when we’re talking about traffic calming from the public's perspective so I think that sort of needs to be our starting point.”
At the Dec. 17 regular council meeting, councillors voted unanimously to support the motion.
The traffic calming policy will return to council in 2025.
For more information on traffic calming and the new policy, visit the District of Squamish website.
Traffic circles are one example of traffic calming.This one is on The Boulevard in the Garibaldi Highlands.
