Duane Hicks
After requesting last month that town council help make the intersection at King’s Highway and Keating Avenue safer as part of its 2010 budget, OPP Cst. Anne McCoy of the Rainy River Valley Safety Coalition is garnering more and more support for the initiative.
Cst. McCoy said she has secured $19,300 in grant funding from Safe Kids Canada, the Community Policing Committee, Northwestern Health Unit, and the Ministry of Transportation Road Safety, although this grant funding does not include wages for a crossing guard.
While the grant money will cover community safety zone and school zone signs, mobile radar signs, and more, Cst. McCoy needs the town to step in and hire a crossing guard, as required by the Highway Traffic Act.
“I can light that area up like a Christmas tree and say, ‘This is the school zone,’ but I need the municipality to pay for the crossing guard,” she explained, adding she recently sent a letter to the town “in order to make sure it was crystal clear that the onus is on the municipality.”
“They’re the ones held responsible by the Highway Traffic Act to hire the guard,” she stressed.
Cst. McCoy said she has been looking at the cost of hiring a crossing guard, and found the average cost to be $15.14/hour, and they usually work 2.25 to 2.5 hours daily.
This works out to about $15,000-$18,000 a year.
She noted she spoke with Tom Marinis of MTO Road Safety, and found that if the town is willing to fork over the cash for the crossing guard, it would push the scope of the project into a different bracket.
Cst. McCoy then would be able to secure even more funding through a MTO Road Safety grant.
“It’s literally, ‘Here’s your money, but I can double it because I can match it with a Road Safety grant,’” she noted. “I am really hoping the town says, ‘Okay, let’s make the best of our funds.’
“Without them thus far, I have raised $19,300 to put towards the initiative,” she added. “If I have them on board with me, and they’re matching that amount, I can, in turn, get more money for the Active Transportation Traffic Safety Initiative, which is helping to increase more pedestrian safety with more painting of lines and more pedestrian linkages throughout the community.”
Cst. McCoy also pointed out the Rainy River Valley Safety Coalition is a charitable organization, and there are corporations and sponsors out there that would contribute to a safety initiative such as a crossing guard.
But she stressed the town needs to put a crossing guard in place before the private sector can come in and help offset the cost.
Noting that the intersection of King’s Highway and Keating Avenue is a safety issue which has been brought before council in the past, Cst. McCoy said community support is strong—and still growing.
“I would definitely say the awareness has heightened,” she remarked. “I am getting calls at the detachment indicating parents and organizations are supporting it.
“I am going to different organizations to garner their partnerships, whether it be the safety coalition or the town traffic committee, to hear them say that they believe there is a safety concern at that intersection and they’re going to recommend this whole strategy to the town council be adopted.
“I haven’t had anyone come to me yet that’s said it’s not a problem, which is unique because sometimes you get into debates with people and there’s been no debate.
“People are saying this needs to be addressed, let’s get it done, let’s do it,” Cst. McCoy added. “Hopefully, the consensus with town council will be it’s a very high visibility, highly proactive initiative, and they’ll come on board with it.
“I would like to see the town take a proactive approach in making a positive change in pedestrian safety for our kids, and I would like to see us start with this initiative and see how it grows.
“I would love to see this community be front and centre with developing safe initiatives to reduce injury, especially towards our kids,” she stressed.
Cst. McCoy said the project is “close to her heart,” and that she spends time in schools with students who use the Keating intersection and others.
“I want to see it happen for them. It’s important. I don’t want to see anyone injured or struck by a vehicle,” she remarked. “And the possibilities of that happening are high because of the amount of offences happening.
“You’ve got to do something.”
Local resident Leslie Danielson, who petitioned town council to get a crossing guard for that intersection back in 2006-07, said she’s happy to see Cst. McCoy—armed with statistics and plenty of resources—bringing it back to the table.
“I am really hopeful this time something will be done,” said Danielson, who, at Cst. McCoy’s invitation, has gotten involved with the Active Transportation Committee.
“She’s got some funding, which I think is going to help, and with the Active Transportation Committee that’s formed, I think we probably have a better shot at it this time,” added Danielson.
“She [Cst. McCoy] has a lot better backing that I was able to get, and she has got a lot of statistics. . . .
“She’s done a lot of research to get this going, and I really hope that her efforts pay off for her in the end.
“It will boost me, too, because it’s something I have been trying for for several years,” Danielson noted. “I don’t know how [town council] can say no when she’s getting the funding.”
Danielson noted the Town of Atikokan employs three crossing guards, and wondered how they can afford three when Fort Frances won’t pay for one.
Danielson also said the danger at the Keating Avenue intersection hasn’t decreased in the last few years, citing the large volume of traffic, and how many people run red lights there, as a clear indicator as to the need for a crossing guard.
“I now am at the point where I walk my son to the corner, watch to make sure the cars are stopping, and let him cross,” she remarked.
Mayor Roy Avis said the request has been referred to the 2010 budget process, and definitely will be discussed at the table.
When the matter of crossing guards has been brought before council in past years, the town went to the public school board and asked for it to help pay for them.
When the school board was unwilling to share the cost, “the town elected not to proceed with it because it was a controlled intersection,” said Mayor Avis.
“Now, Cst. McCoy has came forward again, and we will be reviewing the request,” the mayor added. “She has come forward with some good information, and we will be reviewing it again.
“I know she has contacted some of the other parties involved to try and secure funding.
“We will participate, but we don’t think it falls completely on the shoulders of the Town of Fort Frances. That’s speaking for myself, not for council,” said Mayor Avis.
“But I think that’s why it didn’t survive the previous budgets.”
What’s the strategy?
The King’s Highway and McIrvine Road Corridor active transportation strategy includes three parts:
•Stage one of the plan would be to implement a community safety zone on King’s Highway, McIrvine Road, and Highway 602 (Colonization Road West).
This zone would extend from the Legion Park to the McIrvine Road intersection, and then north on McIrvine to the north side of the Fifth Street West intersection.
The zone would encompass St. Francis, J.W. Walker, Fort Frances High School, and Confederation College. It also would include a park and very busy pedestrian area through the highway and First Street West intersection.
This designation is an enforcement tool for “traffic calming,” and doubles traffic fines incurred within the safety zone.
•Stage two would be the implementation of school zone signs with speed reduction and amber lights. Options would include the installation of a mobile speed measuring sign, crosswalk lines being painted at intersections, repairs to curbs, and installing signs to control direction of traffic movement and to clearly mark school zones.
They also would want to work with Public Works and the planning division to discuss options for “traffic calming methods” using signage and speed reduction methods.
•Stage three would include the town employing or contracting a crossing guard at the intersection of King’s Highway and Keating Avenue to provide supervision for children crossing during school hours (between 8-9 a.m. and 3-4 p.m. each weekday).
The purpose of the crossing guard is to supervise the 80 children travelling to and from J.W Walker and St. Francis, but Cst. McCoy said that number of children walking to school could be higher if parents felt their children were safe crossing the road.
Another idea more recently included in the pilot project is a “Kiss ’n Ride” program at J.W. Walker. Cst. McCoy explained that instead of having vehicles parked on both sides of the roadway to drop off their kids at school, there would be one designated drop-off point.
Parents wouldn’t get out of their vehicle, but instead temporarily would stop, their child would get out at the “Kiss ’n Ride” point, the parent can leave, and the child safely escorted to the school yard or inside the school by one of several volunteers or “valets.”
She added this would reduce traffic congestion for school buses and passing motorists, and ensure children aren’t running across the street after getting dropped off.
As well, it lessens traffic for children who walk to school.
This program has been successful at six schools in Thunder Bay.
Looking beyond the Keating/King’s Highway pilot project, Cst. McCoy said that once the new Robert Moore is built, they will determine what can be done to ensure students can walk to school safely.
“We can’t put the cart before the horse,” she stressed. “We have to wait until the school is built and see where the traffic patterns are going to be.
“It’s gong to be a whole different look,” she noted. “The traffic patterns and congestion now is really heavy on Crowe Avenue and Second Street, but it will be completely adjusted because parents will be picking their kids up in a different location.
“I think this ‘Kiss ’n Ride’ program would work phenomenally at the new school, but we’ll see how it goes at J.W. Walker,” Cst. McCoy reasoned.
The need for safety
Cst. McCoy said there’s no doubt the intersection at Keating Avenue and King’s Highway is dangerous—and something must be done.
For example, an OPP highway traffic enforcement initiative which took place last month proved there’s a good deal of infractions happening there.
“At the Keating Avenue intersection at King’s Highway, we had 18 charges and four warnings. So we had 22 offences,” Cst. McCoy noted.
“It concluded on Sept. 15, and we moved to another intersection to compare the rate of charges for the offence driving through red lights.
“We had zero charges at other intersections,” she added, stressing it’s can’t be overstated as to how much traffic goes through the intersection at Keating Avenue and King’s Highway.
“While the officers were at Keating, a number of them counted vehicles to get a rough estimate of how many were in the area,” Cst. McCoy continued. “Within 25 minutes, one officer counted 264 vehicles.
“I had students attend that location on a Wednesday, between 2:37 p.m. and 3:37 p.m., there was 1,149 on the eastbound and westbound lanes.
“At that the same, I also had other students count the northbound-southbound vehicles, there was 102 vehicles.”
Cst. McCoy noted pedestrian injuries are the third-leading cause of injury-related death in Canadian children under the age of 13, and the most frequently-reported child pedestrian actions that result in injury or death is crossing an intersection, followed by running onto the road.
She added that before the ages of nine or 10, children do not have the skills necessary to safely navigate traffic, noting, “they just don’t have the brain development yet . . . they need supervision.”
Cst. McCoy stressed that educating students is only part of the solution, and that actual traffic changes must be made to improve safety.
“We’re looking at trying to change the behaviour of students, but also we’re dealing with young students that don’t cognitively recognize what red lights mean,” she explained.
“Boys, in particular, don’t recognize the dangers of being hit by a car.”
