Town heeds petition regarding Westmount Drive intersection

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Despite being technically declared insufficient under the Municipal Government Act, Town of Strathmore council is engaging with a petition regarding traffic safety on Westmount Drive.

Town administration received the petition, Oct. 22, containing 31 signatures requesting a review of an issue about safety when drivers turn onto Westmount Drive from Westlake Bay. The petition outlined public concerns, as well as proposed solutions for remediation. 

“It is a concern for the town to be safety conscious and I think we are very, very fortunate here that we have not had an accident at this intersection, and I do not want to see that happen, not only for us driving on the road coming out, but people on Westmount, they are moving along there,” said Kenton Ziegler, speaking on behalf of the petition to council. “We are concerned about the configuration … when this community was established, that really was not an issue; there was not a lot of traffic and people were a lot slower, and there was considerably less movement along there.”

Ziegler added another common observation in that location is impatient drivers rapidly accelerating once they are no longer waiting for school busses to vacate.

The concerns outlined in the petition describe low visibility in both traffic directions while exiting Diamond Shore Villas, which has led to a number of near collisions with oncoming drivers. Additionally, residents have complained about vehicles travelling at excessive speeds and “hugging the shoulder” while passing by.

Potential solutions to impact the problem presented by the petition included reducing the speed limit on Westmount Drive, enhancing signage to improve awareness of the hidden intersection, improving road markings, installing rumble strips on the road, creating a bike lane adjacent to the curb, or to install a fully illuminated crosswalk.

“All you need to do is set up a radar trap just to the west of our entry every morning for a week between 6:30 and 8:30 and you’ll get enough revenue from tickets that you will be able to pay off some of these suggestions,” said Ziegler.

Town of Strathmore CAO, Kevin Scoble, iterated to council that he spoke with the town’s engineer prior to the meeting about local engineering standards, as well as transportation advisory council (TAC) guidelines regarding the intersection in question. 

“The cross section is sufficient, the road cross section is actually wider than, and it is more generous than our minimum standards. The radius of curvature is within the TAC guidelines. The sight distance is within the recommended guidelines, the stopping distance is within the recommended guidelines, the sign height is within the recommended guidelines,” said Scoble.

For the immediate future, some low-cost solutions including use of durable oil-based road paint in order to improve lane visibility at the intersection were proposed. 

Passing a motion made by Coun. Brent Wiley, council has directed administration to engage with the Diamond Shore president, or delegates regarding the current situation, infrastructure, current town plans, and potential mitigations. 

Long-term solutions aim to be discussed during such engagement sessions.