Residents near a busy road connecting Port Moody and Coquitlam want drivers to slow down.
If Port Moody’s city council vote in favour of a traffic calming pilot project on Moray Street, those residents might get their wish.
The $70,000 pilot project would cover the Port Moody portion of Moray Street from St. Johns Street to Brookmount Avenue and will be presented to council tonight for their vote.
The proposed traffic calming measures include:
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- A lateral shift
- Curb extension
- On-street parking
- Medians
- Marked crosswalk at Pinda Drive that includes pedestrian-activated flashing lights
In the pilot project, some of these measures would be accomplished with temporary materials, such as white plastic delineators for proposed curb locations, yellow plastic curbs for proposed raised centre median locations, pavement markings and signage, and the marked crosswalk at Pinda Drive.
Previous traffic calming methods not working
Moray Street was repaved in 2020. At the time, the City took advantage of the work being done to add in some “minor” traffic calming measures. According to the report, these included painting new lines on the road to make the driving lanes narrower, painting medians and turning bays near St. Johns Street and adding a southbound painted bike lane.
However, residents weren’t totally thrilled with the changes. Their concerns led to a traffic calming study. Among residents’ concerns were the lack of a marked crosswalk at Pinda Drive, an “uncomfortable walking environment” thanks to how close traffic is to the sidewalk on the east side of the street and continued speeding by vehicles.
The study found that the street gets lots of traffic. More than 7,000 vehicles travel the route each day. Many also exceed the posted speed limit of 30 km/h.
According to the city’s public engagement results from last summer, the bulk of resident respondents consider safety for pedestrians and cyclists as well as reducing speeding their top concerns.
Bike infrastructure lacking
Missing from the pilot project? Bike infrastructure.
While a bike lane was painted on the southbound side of the road and share the road markings were included on the northbound side of Moray, there wasn’t an increase in cyclists using the route.
City of Coquitlam staff also said there was no interest by the City to develop a bike lane on the Coquitlam side of Moray Street. Instead, they would like to see a route using Clearview Drive, Park Crescent and Corona Crescent.
Guidance from the BC Active Transportation Design Guide recommends protected bike lanes on streets that see the amount of traffic Moray Street does.
“The road is not currently wide enough to implement protected bike lanes or a multi-use path without sacrificing other proposed traffic calming elements,” the report stated.
If approved by council, the pilot project will be re-evaluated in November.
