Speed sign one step closer to safer traffic

As part of a greater initiative to improve pedestrian safety along the King’s Highway corridor, the Rainy River District Community Policing Committee has deployed a new mobile radar sign in town that clearly shows motorists just how fast they’re going—and hopefully makes them cognizant of the fact they should slow down.
“What I have learned a police officer, and in my research, is that a driver, on average believes they’re doing the speed limit but in actuality, they’re doing 10 km over the speed limit,” OPP Cst. Anne McCoy said in an interview last Wednesday conducted near the sign, which was located near The Place at the time.

“What the speed sign will do is help them [motorists] realize what their speed is and they’ll focus on lowering their speed,” Cst. McCoy reasoned.
“We’re hoping it will keep people closer to the 50km/h speed limit, especially as we’re entering into the school zones,” she added.
Because it is mobile, Cst. McCoy said the radar sign can—and will—be moved anywhere police feel there is an issue in Fort Frances, or the rest of Rainy River District for that matter.
“If there’s an issue on Second Street or Crowe Avenue, in the Robert Moore area, we can move [it] to that location,” she noted. “And if we have a situation out on the highway, and we want to alert drivers of their speed, we can move it.
“It’s mobile, so we can take it wherever we need to take.
“We can put it on the trunk of a cruiser, so if we’re doing a R.I.D.E. check or a seatbelt clinic, we can put the sign on our vehicle and set it up that way,” she remarked.
The mobile radar sign was purchased thanks to a grant from Safe Kids Canada while Pinewood Sports donated the battery to power it.
Cst. McCoy said having community partners like Pinewood Sports is important and appreciated given the local groups working on pedestrian safety, the Active Transportation Committee and Community Policing Committee, are non-profit groups of volunteers who have to get all of their funds through grants and donations.
She reiterated the sign marks the completion of another phase of the King’s Highway and McIrvine Road Corridor active transportation strategy which has been a project of the Rainy River District Community Policing Committee, along with Safe Kids Canada, the Active Transportation Committee and Safe Communities Rainy River District.
Last April, the Active Transportation Committee and Community Policing Committee got together and, partnering with Safe Kids Canada, did a pedestrian safety initiative and Photovoice project with Grade 6 students at nearby J.W. Walker School.
They studied pedestrian safety, why it was so important, and what needed to be changed in order to make pedestrian safety better in the community.
“The students of JW Walker should be very proud of their accomplishments and we value the input they have made to identifying pedestrian safety concerns within their community,” said Cst. McCoy.
Also at that time, the OPP did a two-week traffic initiative along the King’s Highway corridor. Over the course of a two week period, OPP officers charged 18 motorists with moving violations and issued four warnings.
“Putting all of these components together, we recognized there was some pedestrian safety issues,” said Cst. McCoy. “One of them was the speed of the vehicles on King’s Highway, in specific, the school zone around J.W. Walker.
“There were also issues of pedestrian safety, with motorists failing to stop at the stop lights at Keating Avenue and King’s Highway,” she noted.
“Also, accessibility was an issue in terms of sidewalks—where there isn’t sidewalks, where there are sidewalks in rough condition, and [where sidewalks need lowered curbs].
“There were a lot of issues identified, so we went to Safe Kids Canada with these issues,” Cst. McCoy added. “We saw speed was the main concern—slowing the vehicles down so that children could have the time to cross the roadway safely in order to go to school.
“And Safe Kids Canada gave us $4,300 to put towards the purchase of a mobile radar sign, which would help us, in turn, change our environment.”
Cst. McCoy called it a traffic calming measure.
“And because we’re changing the environment with traffic calming, we’re hoping it will assist with the other two tiers, which are enforcement and education,” she remarked.
“The Active Transportation Committee is going to look at different initiatives we can do to teach the students the importance of pedestrian safety and what they can do to improve their own safety, as well as educate the community,” she explained.
“And this speed sign will help educate the community.”
Looking to the future, Cst. McCoy said they’re still working with the town to hopefully implement a community safety zone from the Legion Park to the McIrvine Road intersection, and then north on McIrvine to the north side of the Fifth Street West intersection.
The zone would encompass J.W. Walker, St. Francis, Fort Frances High School, and Confederation College. It also would include a park and very busy pedestrian area through the highway and First Street West intersection.
Such a designation would double traffic fines incurred within the safety zone.
This would be followed by florescent yellow school zone signs, crosswalk lines being painted at intersections, repairs to curbs, and signage to control direct movement and to clearly mark school zones.
There is ongoing discussion concerning the possibility of having a crossing guard or supervision of King’s Highway and Keating Avenue for children crossing there during school hours. The discussion has been directed to the town’s Traffic Safety Committee to determine the best possible solution, and Cst. McCoy said she is looking forward to participating in that process.
In related news, the Rainy River District Community Policing Committee will be hosting its next committee meeting on Monday, April 12 at 5 p.m. at the Fort Frances ambulance base located at Scott Street and Butler Avenue. Community members are invited to attend.