Traffic Advisory Committee report sparks debate on Cardiff Road

by Tristan Turner

The Traffic Advisory Committee has submitted a report with information on Cardiff Road following a request for information from Council on the current safety picture of the road. The report reveals that there has been three relatively serious but non-fatal accidents along the road in the last three years, all with westbound traffic, and all were rear-end collisions.

The report, presented by Traffic Advisory Committee Chair William Norton, was fuel for some debate and interest among Council, with Councilor Boutestein, on the topic of potentially increasing the speed limit on the road, saying “If we increase the speed on [Cardiff Road] to 60, people might just start driving 70.”

Councillor Dafoe disagreed, citing speed statistics from other parts of Town that show an average speed slightly lower than the speed limit.

No motions or changes were made following the report, which was received for information unanimously.

The entire report is available for anyone to review on the Town’s website. The report includes information on traffic enforcement statistics and other data relating to Cardiff Road, and is available under the ‘town council’ heading on the morinville.ca website in the Apr. 12 agenda package.

Council is set to review the Town’s Photo Enforcement Policy at the Apr. 19 Committee of the Whole meeting.

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8 Comments

  1. Speed is only part of the issue, they need to build a turning lane or another access into South Glens.

  2. It’s because those tools running the photo radar vehicles are there. People are more occupied with them and not as concerned as with what’s going on in front of them.

    There is no reason for a photo radar vehicle to be on that road. It has nothing to do with safety, and it’s more of a distraction then anything. It’s a money grab.

  3. I see zero issue turning into south Glens . The route Into town form cardiff road is the joke.

  4. According to the picture, they park just before the 80 sign to get people speeding up from the 50 zone into the 80 but before they pass the 80. 50 seems too slow on that section of road whereas 60 seems perfect until you pass the turn off for south glens. I’m guessing any rear end collisions would’ve been caused by people watching their mirrors after passing the photo radar guy and not watching the car slowing to turn in front of them. He usually parks back from the intersection further

  5. “rear end collision” what were they checking their speed so they would not get a photo ticket and did not look up in time.

  6. It is absolutely about the speed radar coupled with the speed limit going from 80 to 50. It’s a vulnerable spot, whether people know their is radar there or not. I live on this road, where it’s been 80 for 20+ years. Even after driving this long I still forget and have to quickly slow down.
    Additionally 80 to 50 is too big of a jump. 80 to 60 would be better. And lay off the radar a bit.

  7. Its time that both council and safety committee listen to the public and STOP enforcing (to the extent that they do) the areas that can not be justified on safety grounds. Contractor works for the town, and council works for us. After all theses years and vote on the issue, residents are still not being heard.

    Town and safety committee are Linda in the following:

    https://ca.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=mcafee&type=C011CA876D20151113&p=your+not+listening+linda+video

  8. It’s noted in Mr. Turner’s article that over the last three years there have been three “relatively serious, rear end collisions” (one per year over the last three years??). Logic dictates, and I don’t think there is a law enforcement officer that would counter, the fact that rear end collisions are caused, in most instances, by following too close or distracted drivers. And in a relatively serious accident law enforcement would probably issue a ticket to the offender that rear ended the car in front of them. Maybe Mr. Turner can find out how speed played a factor in these three accidents.

    I must agree with the comments of Clayton George, Jenny Delaine & Joe Gosselin.
    The transitioning, both east and west, from 50 to 80 and 80 to 50 is probably the area in which photo radar is concentrated and it would be interesting for the traffic committee and the town administration to provide information in what areas the majority of tickets are written. I would not be surprised to see that the greater percentage are written in these transition zones. Going east right after the south glens turn-off the transition zone goes from 50 to 80 and I suggest that the 80 was moved further down the road in order to create a speed trap. There are no turn-offs from the south glens turnoff going east until the boundary road. Maybe someone could come up with the actual facts as to where the tickets are actually being issued and what percentage are issued west bound and what percentage are being issued east bound.

    This information would actually tell the citizens that we are dealing with nothing more than a speed trap, cash cow or a tax on drivers. I would also like to know what percentage of tickets are issued on Cardiff Road versus the rest of the town. it would also be interesting to find out what percentage of tickets are issued to residents versus non-residents of the town of Morinville.

    And as an interesting side note, has anyone figured out yet how the NDP are going to put a carbon tax on photo radar tickets.
    Life is an adventure,
    B

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