Rubber soon to hit the road in Paradise

By Mark Squibb \ April 28, 2023

The Town of Paradise will spend nearly $40,000 this year to address speeding in the community.

Council last week approved two motions that it hopes will curb speeding around town, the first of which was the ratification of an e-mail poll of April 12 to buy rubber curbs to modify some intersections.

“Staff have identified three key intersections where traffic calming infrastructure will be placed and monitored in 2023,” said councillor Deborah Quilty. “The intention is to modify each intersection to narrow the available lane width to reduce vehicle speeds through the intersections.”

Those intersections are Lanark Drive and St. Thomas Line; Carlingford Street and St. Thomas Line; and Seascape Drive and Fairlane Street/Ivydale Place.

Quilty added the proposed layout for each intersection is in accordance with Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) guidelines, and that signage will be installed at each intersection.

She explained the rubber curbs are easily installed and can be removed and relocated to other places if necessary.

“So, we might use them all over town,” said Quilty.

Staff, Quilty added, contacted numerous suppliers to provide quotes on the cost of the rubber curbs, the lowest of which was a bid of $28,540, HST included, provided by Construction Signs Ltd.

All told, council purchased 257 rubber curbs.

“I’m glad to see we’re investing more into our traffic calming initiatives for the town,” said councillor Patrick Martin. “But you know what? We can put all we want in the ground, if people don’t take the time to slow down, these are only going to stop so many people or slow down so much traffic. People really need to slow down in the community.”

Mayor Dan Bobbett noted the curbs can be used to form islands and narrow existing curbs. He later likened them to Legos, saying you could put them wherever you wanted.

Councillor Glen Carew asked whether there will be follow up study on the effectiveness of the curbs, and Bobbett said there will be, and permanent solutions may follow.

Council also approved the purchase of a number of black box radar kits.

“The Infrastructure and Engineering Department currently have two black box radar units that are installed throughout the town to record and collect speed data,” said Quilty. “The data is processed through software that provides a report used by staff to identify problem areas and to identify areas throughout town that require some form of traffic calming. Reports of areas with excessive speeds are sent to the RNC.”

Quilty noted that in Budget 2023 council had approved $15,000 for the purchase of two new radar boxes. Staff contacted different suppliers for quotes.

Quilty’s committee recommended council award the contract to Northline, which not only provided the lowest bid at $11,270, but also supplied the Town’s two existing boxes.

“They have provided exceptional customer service,” said Quilty. “And the units currently owned by the Town will be compatible with new software.”

As with the previous motion, councillor Patrick Martin was quick to note his approval.

“This is another great investment,” said Martin. “I think these, in my personal opinion, are more effective than the flashing signs. You can put these on a pole, and you really can’t see them, and you drive past them and they’re actively collecting accurate speeds of the vehicles driving past them.”

Martin added the new software will upload data to an online server, so that staff will no longer have to manually retrieve data from the boxes.

Mayor Bobbett reiterated that the information collected by the boxes is passed along to the RNC, to do patrols of the area.

“And, as we know, ticketing slows people down,” said Bobbett.