Millburn Boulevard in Fergus was back on the council agenda here on Monday, and will likely return again next month because council is waiting to obtain more information about school bus traffic.
Councillor Walt Visser, the chairman of the township’s operations committee said talks with the Upper Grand District School Board means the township has now “diverted a lot of buses.”
Public Works Director Ken Elder said he had talked to the transportation coordinator at the school board, and there was a notice sent to the board’s bus drivers and companies to avoid using Millburn Boulevard. Residents there have complained that school buses make the road unsafe, and they still have concerns about high speed traffic on that road.
“Unless they are picking up or dropping off, they can’t use Millburn” Elder told council of bus drivers.
But, he said, while the township has agreements with the public school board, it cannot control the Catholic board. Plus, Elder said, there are two drivers of buses who live on that street and they use it.
Elder said he considered the number and the time buses spend on the street. He said a check from 8:30 to 9:15am and from 3 to 4:15pm over several days last week showed the amount of use school buses were making of the road.
He said on the Tuesday, there were 18 buses, with 12 on the Wednesday, and 17 on a Thursday. He added there were more buses in the afternoon than the morning.
Elder added that in the morning, most of the buses had driven through in a 15 minute time span.
Councillor Kirk McElwain wondered if Elder could talk to the Catholic board about its drivers using the street.
But Morris said the complaints are not just about school buses.
He noted that in 2004, council’s operations committee heard 19 different recommendations for the street to improve safety, and said that as far as he is aware, the township acted on two of them, placing stop signs to slow traffic.
Morris said one resident asked to reduce the speed limit to 40km/hour from 50, and said, while it is not a lot of time difference for drivers, psychologically, such a reduction would slow traffic.
Councillor Walt Visser pointed out that the last time the OPP monitored driving habits on the street, it found there was no issue with speeding drivers.
Morris said he is aware that the police found a low percentage of speeders, but he has more confidence in residents who live on the street to determine if there is too much speeding.
Visser said he travels the road four times a day, and sees no evidence of people driving too fast.
Morris said there is a big difference between living on the street and driving it four times a day.
Visser also added that when MacQueen Boulevard is finally opened, that will reduce traffic on Millburn.
Councillor Bob Foster asked if there is a standard for street speeds.
Elder said it is 50km/hour, with 40 set for school zones. He said he could set up a traffic counter and get up to date statistics on the number of vehicles, their speed, and the type of vehicles using the road.
Morris said he would support that.
Foster asked if an extra stop sign at St. David Street would help the situation. Elder said it would not, and most of the problems seem to come from the mid-section of the road, which runs from Scotland Street to Highway 6.
Council agreed the study should be done. Elder said he will likely report to the first or second meeting of November.
