A Camosun College student’s pitch for a new crosswalk on Cedar Hill Road is getting the green light for further consideration.
Elanor Teel walks to Camosun’s Lansdowne campus from her Savannah Avenue home, often having to wait several minutes to cross Cedar Hill at Doncaster. The nearest pedestrian crossing is several hundred metres away.
“I just think it’s an ideal place for a crosswalk because on either side of Cedar Hill are bus stops,” said Teel, who brought her concerns to the Saanich News back in February. Teel timed it one morning and discovered she had to wait two minutes for a break in traffic. “Often I think I can make it and end up booking it across the intersection. It’s not the safest.”
The Saanich News contacted Saanich’s engineering department, which promised to compile data for the intersection, counting the number of pedestrians crossing as well as the gaps in vehicle traffic that would allow someone to cross Cedar Hill.
Saanich director of engineering Harley Machielse said that data has now been collected, showing “the amount of pedestrians that were crossing at that location certainly has a demand for a pedestrian crossing.”
He said a full warrant analysis must still be completed over the summer, with consideration being given to the site in the fall.
“In the fall we consider how does this request rank against maybe three or four other competing pedestrian crossing requests,” said Machielse, adding one or two pedestrian crossings are included in the district’s budget each year.
“Looking at the pedestrian demand at this location, and the data there, it certainly recognizes it has a high demand and it is probably in the top running for a location for next year.”