June 12, 2017 Council Meeting Notes: Part 1, Traffic Calming moving forward near Conder Park, Brydon Park, and along 198th Street

Last night’s Langley City council meeting saw traffic calming receive approval by council along several roads in our community. As I’ve posted about earlier, council budgeted $400,000 to add traffic calming measures in three areas of the community. City staff send out ballots to residents in areas where traffic calming was being proposed to ensure that there is majority support. The results where that in all areas balloted, 80% or more of people wanted to see traffic calming.

In May, the City hosted open houses to get community feedback on potential traffic calming options for both the area around Conder Park and Brydon Park. Based on the feedback from the community, staff recommended traffic calming above and beyond what was presented.

For the area around Conder Park, the following option will be implemented:

Approved traffic calming around Conder Park. Select image to enlarge.

Council also voted to move forward with the following additional traffic calming measures: up to three speed humps on 197B Street, and up to five speed humps on 50A Avenue.

Staff also proposed five additional speed humps on 50 Avenue to the west of Conder Park, a fence along the frontage of Conder Park, and a pedestrian activated rapid flashing beacons at the 198B Street crosswalk. Council referred these additional traffic calming measures back to staff for more information about the type of fencing being proposed for the park, and to see if we could get funding from a partner such as ICBC for the pedestrian activated flashing beacons.

For the area around Brydon Park, the following option will be implemented:

Approved traffic calming along 198th Street. Select image to enlarge.

In addition, Council voted to move forward with curb extensions at the intersection of 198 Street and 53 Avenue, and a fence along the 198 Street frontage of Brydon Park. This is similar to the following:

Example of road narrowing approved for by Brydon Park. Select image to enlarge.

Staff also recommended up to four speed humps on 53 Avenue east of 198 Street, and a raised crosswalk at the entrance to Brydon Lagoon. Council referred these additional traffic calming measures back to staff to make sure that the traffic calming proposed would be compatible with the new bike lane infrastructure which we received provincial funding for in March of this year.

Giving the choice between road narrowing, other traffic calming measures, or speed humps, I prefer the former two. Road narrowing ensures that the majority of people slow down for the entire length of the narrowed road. With speed humps, people tend to slow down as they approach a hump, then speed up to the next hump, only to repeat the same pattern. That being said, speed humps are quicker to implement, and are a good interim solution until road narrowing and other multi-modal measures can be implemented along a corridor.

Traffic calming is still in the works for the area around Linwood Park, and a public open house will be scheduled to present the options for feedback.

Tomorrow, I will be posting about other items covered at last night’s council meeting.