Council will not be adding another crossing guard at the Dundas Street East and Daniel Street intersection in Erin for the upcoming school year.
Chief building official Paul Evans presented a crossing guard study to council on July 10. He said the town received a request from a resident in the fall of 2017 for an additional crossing guard.
The crossing guard study, completed by Triton Engineering in February, showed there wasn’t enough traffic and pedestrian interactions to warrant another crossing guard. The additional person would cost approximately $12,000 per year.
The study uses the exposure index created by the Town of Oakville. It measures all traffic entering the intersection, not just conflicting traffic, which are vehicles that cross where pedestrians cross.
Counts were completed on Feb. 12 and showed 318 vehicles and 38 pedestrians during 8 to 9am and 378 vehicles and 46 pedestrians during 3 to 4pm.
The two numbers for each time of day are multiplied to give a numerical value to the intersection. The values, 11,766 for the morning and 17,388 for the afternoon, are both below the recommended 19,000; therefore, the study states, a crossing guard is not warranted.
Councillor Jeff Duncan noted the study was done in February.
“I would assume the number of pedestrians would be higher when it’s not the dead of winter,” he said.
Council voted in favour of not adding a crossing guard at the intersection. Councillor Matt Sammut was absent.
