Council urged to address speeding on Pacific Avenue

Maple Creek town council has been asked to address the issue of speeding along Pacific Avenue.

Facundo Rodriguez
Maple Creek Times-News

At Thursday’s council meeting, Mayor Barry Rudd and town council addressed the continuing issue with speeding throughout Maple Creek.
The town is very familiar with the issue as this has been an ongoing problem for years. In a letter dated July 14, Maple Creek & District Opportunities expressed its concerns.

“We are writing to you once again (fourth correspondence in four years) to inform Council that the excessive speeding on Pacific Avenue, east of Herbert Street, continues to put Maple Creek citizens, and in particular venerable adults with a developmental disability, at risk.”
The speeds on Pacific Avenue, as reported by a former traffic control officer, are estimated in the 80 km/h to 100 km/h range. The letter, which was signed Chuck Sutberry (executive director of Maple Creek & District Opportunities) and forwarded to the RCMP, emphasized the importance in addressing the matter.

“It is our belief that the residents of our group home, participants at our day centre, are at risk of serious injury or death due to a speeding driver … the fact we haven’t already experienced a tragedy is a matter of luck more than anything else.”
The town approved the placement of a radar sign east of 60 Pacific Ave. back in 2015. The sign is not operational, and the impact on stopping speeding has come into question. The request at hand is that the town considers installing a speed hump east of Lonsdale Street. A speed hump is not identical to a speed bump; humps are wider and have a gradually raised area.
Council was adamant on the matter.

“I still believe one more try would be to put up a decent speed sign there, one of the flashing ones,” Rudd said. “The one that we put up before was not sufficient. If we get one of the big ones like the ones out on the highway that they flash at you in red, it’s got a camera that tells how many vehicles sped by here … we can relay that to the RCMP and present them the information.”
Council said it will do everything possible and attempt different strategies to tackle the problem, perhaps even implementing a cross walk in that area.

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