The City of Duncan’s controversial pedestrian-scramble crosswalk at Ingram Street and Canada Avenue, set up for a trial run in September, 2023, will now be a permanent feature at the intersection.
Council made the decision at its meeting on Sept. 9, even though both staff and council members acknowledged the scramble crosswalk is not popular among many in the city, particularly drivers.
Council also decided to review the traffic flows at nearby intersections, as part of next year's budget, to determine ways to direct vehicles away from the intersection in an effort to decrease vehicular traffic congestion there.
A pedestrian-scramble crossing, also known as a diagonal crossing or X-Crossing, is a type of traffic signal movement that temporarily stops all vehicle traffic from all directions, allowing pedestrians to cross an intersection in every direction, including diagonally, during a dedicated time phase that is for pedestrians only.
Brian Murphy, Duncan’s director of public works and engineering, told council that it was known when the scramble crosswalk was first installed that it would have some negative impacts on traffic flows through the intersection.
He said that, while that’s not ideal, it was decided that in the best interests of protecting pedestrian safety, staff had suggested trying out a scramble crosswalk at the intersection, and several “tweaks” were made over the past year to make it more efficient, including eliminating five seconds of unnecessary intersection clearance time from the timing cycles there.
“Given the concerns, particularly of drivers, the committee of the whole met in April and looked at alternatives, and collectively decided on a protected left-turn only signal for southbound traffic on Canada Avenue turning left onto Ingram Street,” Murphy said.
“If that was implemented, it would have improved the overall traffic flows through the intersection and still have that measure to protect pedestrians as well.”
But the city finally decided to defer the decision to shut down the pilot project and add the protected left-turn signal until after the summer to allow more time to monitor the scramble crosswalk.
Coun. Jenni Capps, who put forward the motion to make the scramble crosswalk permanent, said there has been a significant increase in housing in the downtown core and in adjacent areas recently that is still ongoing.
She said she thinks the city has to start to increase the safety and accessibility in the downtown area in such ways, and the city can look at alternate routes to channel vehicles away from using the intersection as a main, first-choice, thoroughfare.
“This will increase the safety of pedestrians and cyclists, as well as cut down on driver frustration by providing them other options to get around downtown,” Capps said.
Coun. Garry Bruce said he thought the original plan to discontinue the scramble crosswalk and add the protected left-turn signal was the best option.
He said he thinks continuing with the scramble crosswalk is tortuous for the city.
“It makes no sense whatsoever to me,” he said.
“Even on Sundays, there’s no one on the crosswalks and traffic is still backed up. I keep getting lots of people asking me when this is going to end. We promised them we would put this thing back to a reasonable situation this fall, but we rescinded on that so we could look at this a bit longer and, as far as I’m concerned, it hasn’t gotten any better. Enough is enough.”
Coun. Mike McKinlay, who served as acting mayor at the meeting as Mayor Michelle Staples was attending the Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting, said he sat in the parking lot of nearby Merit Furniture Store and watched the intersection for two hours.
“I watched 30 people cross that intersection, and just five used the scramble while the rest went on the regular routes,” he said.
"I agree with some aspects of what Coun. Capps is saying, but I don’t think we need a scramble at that intersection. ”
The motion to make the scramble intersection permanent passed in a 3-2 vote, with Bruce and McKinlay opposed.
