Dear Editor:
The following is an open letter to the mayor and council.
Recently the Town of Osoyoos added bump-outs on Main Street with the intention of making pedestrians more visible to traffic at crosswalks. However, their design neglected to consider the safety of disabled persons using a wheelchair or walker.
When a disabled person removes himself or herself from a vehicle, they must do so by entering into the flow of traffic prior to accessing the sidewalk, as there is no ramp in the disabled stall.
With the rapidly aging population within Canada and within our own community, there is a strong concern for the disabled access I am referring to.
I believe this design is possibly beyond the scope of our town council, and therefore they hired an outside source to design the bump-outs. It is my opinion that council wasted their money because these bump-outs were designed without considering the disabled and elderly residents that reside in or visit the community of Osoyoos.
It is my request that the mayor and council rectify this mistake by designing a ramp for the disabled that allows an exit from a vehicle that is away from the flow of traffic.
Dan Lyver
Osoyoos, B.C.
The bump outs are a very badly thought out idea. Not only do they impede travel on a provincial highway but at least one very frustrated driver stuck behind a car turning left decided to just drive over the bump out in his SUV. Yes, that is illegal but that will be small solace to the pedestrian who gets hit and suffers life long injures or death next time. Those that decided these bump out were a good idea need to give their heads a shake. They should have installed flashing light cross walks at each corner instead.
I propose we raise taxes to pay for this, at least 5% on all goods.
They are dangerous..
The one at the bottom of main especially.
Early one morning the sun cast a tree shadow onto the boulevard
A motor cycle came around and thinking he had the full road
Almost hit the outcropping. Maybe a little more paint on it would help.
If everyone is unhappy with the bump outs, then go after Highways, not the town. It might be our Mainstreet, but it is still a Highway. They designed it, so go after the right people.
Valorie Paolera, you’re absolutely right.. it’s the highway that is responsible.. not the town. and no matter how great or how badly the design is, there will always be people bitching about it…
I am sure council had the best intentions with these bumpouts, however with all due respect to council, this was not well thought out. They are extremely dangerous. Many years ago, the town fought vigorously to keep it`s extra wide streets and won that battle…now that has been ruined. This is a provincial highway and a major thoroughfare, in fact the only route to get to the other side. Before we had these things, cars, RVs, and tractor trailers could get by a vehicle stopped to make a turn without coming to a stop and impeding the flow of traffic. As a previous owner of a trucking company before moving to Osoyoos, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, they do NOT stop on a dime. A `supertrain` is upwards of 140,000 pounds of moving weight, on a downhill grade going through town. If someone decides at the last second to hit the brakes to make a left turn, this truck driver is at risk of not being able to stop, running the vehicle over or swerving onto the sidewalk to avoid a crash, and possibly killing pedestrians. I`m sure none of the merchants wants this truck to come crashing through their storefront either. These things are poorly thought out obstructions, and should be removed immediately before high season hits us and our traffic load is quadrupled. Whether it`s a disabled person having to put themselves in danger, or a motorhome whose driver isn`t familiar with it`s braking system yet, or a truck that ends up jackknifed on Main street or worse still, running over people on the sidewalk, at some point someone is going to get killed because of these bumpouts. Good intentions, bad bad idea.
I am surprised to hear that a large vehicle travelling 50kph and keeping a safe stopping distance from the vehicle in front of it (A 2 second count for cars) is unable to stop if the preceding vehicle stops suddenly (many reasons for that, kids, animals, etc.) which could not only happen at a calming curve but in the middle of block. I do know as a pedestrian that before the calming corners I’ve had to check that someone wasn’t passing the car that had stopped forme to cross within a crosswalk. I am not a road engineer but to me it looks as if the calming curbs are as deep as a parked vehicle (pickup truck).
I do think that the blinking light signal on main should have side lights to show the pedestrian that it is blinking. And for the sight impaired the bird chirping from cross signals would be useful.
In Oliver, we’ve had those bumpouts for a while. I’d describe myself as neutral on their use, but no-one’s been killed or struck, to my knowledge. I agree they could use some hi-vis paint, but mostly it is getting used to something new. And, believe it or not, it improves pedestrian safety. Everything to do with drivers illegally passing on the right.
Is it just me, or did they draw the crosswalk lines in the wrong place for person’s walking up or down Main Street? For people walking on Main Street, they want you to walk out onto the Bump-Out, and cross there. That’s ridiculous. Myself and everyone else I observed continued to cross at the shortest point between sides of the road, which was well outside the crosswalk. Someone screwed up here.