The District of Lantzville is moving full speed ahead with a transportation review that will not only put sustainable growth on the map, but also address safety concerns within the district.
“We’ve been looking at doing it for a few years,” said Fred Spears, the district’s director of public works. “What the district is looking to get out of the whole traffic review overall is a road network plan that outlines the future needs of the district.”
According to Spears, a road network plan would be particularly helpful during subdivision proceedings.
“We’re going to need a plan that actually outlines roads so that when subdivisions happen we’ll have those in place,” he said. “So far, it’s worked because we’ve had very little subdivision.”
Boulevard Transportation Group is providing the service to the tune of $37,000, approximately $30,000 of which has been budgeted for in the 2012-2016 financial plan. The remaining amount will be taken from the public works fund.
After collecting and analyzing information, the Boulevard Transportation Group will review current road engineering standards and the village core, provide the district with road network and intersection improvement recommendations, as well as identify deficiencies in current and planned pedestrian, cycling and transit networks. The group will also develop a traffic calming policy. The study should be complete by the end of March, Spears said.
“The traffic calming policy is big for us because there’s a lot of areas that are open and people tend to speed a lot going downtown,” Spears said, adding that the district installed two speed bumps through main corridor of Lantzville two years ago.
“Some people still do a lot of speeding in areas where those speed bumps aren’t and they tend to accelerate rather quickly once they’ve passed them,” he said.
Some of the challenges the district faces in terms of topography include the Island Highway, which divides the district into north and south Lantzville. It also contains numerous dead end roads, which has the potential to cause issues with water and sewer lines.
Spears said public consultation is crucial to the process and encourages Lantzville residents to bring their ideas, concerns and comments to an open house, to be held Jan. 16, from 2-4 p.m. and again at 7-9 p.m.