By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Oliver Town Council is awaiting cost estimates for various projects addressing traffic calming and active transportation networks that could be undertaken by Public Works. At their Jan 23. Council meeting, Manager of Public Works, Sean Kennedy, brought a review of two reports on the issue from 2018 and 2021 for council’s consideration.
The review took the Traffic Calming study from 2018, and the Active Transportation study from March 2022, and created a map of the areas of concern and the overlap between the two reports to address concerns around traffic calming and active transportation. This review was then brought to council for their consideration.
There was a bit of hesitation from both staff and council as the council wanted cost breakdowns before prioritizing, but staff wanted priorities before conducting a cost analysis on everything.
Mayor Johansen for example wanted to maximize the benefits received for the cost and that would ultimately determine exactly what council would focus on. Most of the councillors agreed that they would like to see costs for the various projects, and just how much the council has to spend.
Councillor Grice said that her gut tells her to start by focusing on school zones. Councillor Veintimilla had a list of her own priorities, such as building sidewalks on Fairview, between Spartan and Princess Place for safety and traffic calming, to give just one example.
Mayor Johansen was interested in outfitting some speed signs with LED lights to get people’s attention as an example of something to look into.
All the suggestions, along with the crossover points of interest between the two reports will be taken into consideration and council will be given a cost analysis before anything is decided. But it is clear that traffic calming and active transportation is a priority for the council and is in motion to address the towns network.
