A stoplight at the intersection of 10th Street East and 2nd Avenue East in Owen Sound in 2019. (Bayshore Broadcasting file photo)
Owen Sound has retained a consultant to review traffic data for 10th Street in Owen Sound and see where improvements to light timings and signals could be made.
The city’s director of public works and engineering Dennis Kefalas says while the flow of traffic on 10th Street is “the best it’s ever been” there have been some people complaining about left hand turns.
The current light timings along 10th Street include a dedicated left hand turn advance signal at the major intersections of 2nd Avenue East, 2nd Avenue West and 3rd Avenue East.
The maddening part for some drivers: there is no dedicated left hand turn lane on 10th Street, so if the first vehicle stopped at these intersections happens to be driving straight the entire left hand turn signal does nothing to advance traffic.
New traffic monitoring technology was installed along 10th Street in 2019. Kefalas says it helped inform new light timings that have lowered the cross town travel time along 10th Street from just over three and a half minutes to one and half minutes.
But, he says the city is always looking to make improvements where possible and has hired a consultant — Good Roads consulting — at a cost of around $10,000 to review traffic data gathered through the Miovision monitoring system.
He says the consultant will see where improvements can be made, which could include changes to left hand turns and further enhancing light timing synchronization along 10th Street.
“Whatever solution we come up with will not be perfect,” Kefalas says. “There will always be some congestion during the busier times of the day. However, we do want to see if we can minimize those congestion times and maintain a better flow of traffic. That’s always our aim.”
Kefalas expects a report will come to the city’s operations committee either at its meeting on Oct. 12 or next month.