Town council here is supportive of a proposal to switch school crossings throughout Wellington County to pedestrian crossovers.
Christine Veit, Heather Lawson and Gregg Davidson of Safe Communities Wellington County, which is promoting the concept locally, visited Minto council on May 2 to explain the idea.
With population on the rise and traffic flows increasing around the county, Lawson stated, “We need to be proactive in keeping our vulnerable road users safe.”
Veit pointed out many pedestrians incorrectly believe school crossings are safe to use at any time.
“This is only a designated crossing when a crossing guard is present, so roughly two-and-a-half hours a day during the school year,” Veit explained.
“At any other time this is not considered a crosswalk and road users do not have to stop for pedestrians.”
Pedestrian crossovers, on the other hand, must be respected by motorists at all times.
“All vehicles including bicycles are required to stop and yield the entire roadway to pedestrians until they completely make it across the road. A pedestrian crossover is a crossing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, making crossovers a much safer option,” Veit explained.
She pointed out pedestrian crossovers include distinctive “ladder” markings painted on the roadway to indicate where pedestrians should cross and “shark’s teeth” markings to clearly indicate where vehicles should stop.
The pedestrian crossovers utilize markings approved under the latest provincial legislation and Wellington County council recently passed a resolution to continue to sign and apply painted line markings at pedestrian crossing locations, in strict conformity to the regulations in the latest editions of the Highway Traffic Act and the Ontario Traffic Manual.
Safe Communities is asking member municipalities to consider switching school crossings to pedestrian crossovers, Davidson explained, noting the idea has broad support.
“This idea of removing school crossings and changing them to pedestrian crossovers is endorsed by the OPP, public health, EMS, so it’s not just something that Safe Communities wants,” said Davidson. “We have all those endorsements and school boards are coming on board too.”
Minto CAO Bill White pointed out some of Minto’s school crossings are on Connecting Link highways.
“That is a difficulty,” Davidson replied.
“I didn’t hear the MTO in your endorsements,” noted White.
Davidson said he could not to speak to the MTO’s position on switching school crossings to crossovers, but noted the county is looking into it as well.
“It is allowable to make pedestrian crossovers … it doesn’t say anything in there about replacing one with the other. We can do the county roads, we can do our own roads, it’s the Connecting Link roads that there would have to be a discussion with the province over,” Davidson continued.
Deputy mayor Ron Faulkner said he took that to mean it would be up to the town to approach the MTO about making the switch locally.
“This is great … it’s long in coming and I think this is a good step forward,” said Mayor George Bridge.
The mayor noted the town could easily handle the painting of line markings, but without the role of Safe Communities in providing public education on the crossovers, “it wouldn’t work.”
Bridge pledged the municipality would “seriously look into it,” stating, “We can work to get this done this year. I think I can make that commitment.”
Davidson advised council that for any crossovers on county roads, the county would take on maintenance and upkeep of markings once the local municipality puts them in place.
Switching school crossings to crossovers doesn’t mean municipalities won’t continue to employ crossing guards at key intersections.
In fact, noted Bridge, the new standards should make life easier for the workers and for students. “It makes our crossing guards safer. That is my biggest concern,” the mayor stated.
