Proposed roundabout up for debate at public meeting
Posted Jun 2, 2010 05:44:38 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Plans for the first of the city’s four proposed new roundabouts will be unveiled tonight – and one city councillor says HRM officials should be ready for a fight.
Residents of north end Halifax are being invited to a public meeting to see what the city has planned for the intersection of Devonshire, Duffus and Novalea.
Ken Reashore, acting director of transportation and public works, says statistics show roundabouts improve an intersection’s safety.
“A roundabout at that location and every location significantly increases safety,” he said. “It also reduces delay.”
Reashor says he hopes work can begin at this intersection next year – but Coun. Jerry Blumenthal (Halifax-North End) says he and most of the local residents he’s talked to don’t think a roundabout is a good fit for the area.
“We don’t have that much traffic here,” he said. “It’s mostly pedestrians. We have a lot of seniors, a lot of children that have to go to school and cross two or three times a day. We have a considerable number of visually handicapped residents, and if they take down the lights, they also have to take down the audio visual signals.”
Reashor says he’s aware of the community concerns, but is confident that once residents see and hear the plans, they’ll be onside.
“We’ve had a meeting out in Sackville on a roundabout there that people were very concerned about,” he said. “At the end of the meeting, 80 to 85 per cent were convinced and less apprehensive.”
Blumenthal says he welcomes the public meeting, but doesn’t see it being welcomed in the north end.
“To me, a roundabout brings much more traffic, and we don’t need more traffic,” he said.
Tonight’s meeting starts at 7 p.m. at St. Stephen’s School on Highland Avenue.
