By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
The County of Essex’s Infrastructure Department looked to Council for support to develop a Road Safety Management Program, seeing as staff has noticed an increase in the number of safety-related concerns.
Council for the County of Essex received a report regarding the County’s Road Safety Management Program for information during the October 2 meeting.
The County of Essex has a road network consisting of 1084 intersections and 1085 interconnecting road segments.
“Administration carries out regular assessment and reviews of road safety,” Jerry Behl, Manager of Transportation Planning and Development, explained to County Council.
The information is provided through an annual collision database provided by police, road inspectors, members of the public, and County-driven site inspections, Behl said. That includes collisions, intersection operation, issues with visibility, and excessive speed.
County staff also reviews safety concerns forwarded from members of the public.
“We do review these and prioritize locations for safety modifications,” Behl said. “The work is quite detailed.”
A typical review of a traffic signal at an intersection would include, for instance, manual traffic counts of around eight-hours, covering the turning movement of vehicles and pedestrians crossing, a site-review for site lines and geometry, and reviews of collision data and traffic volumes.
Then an analysis takes place to determine, based on traffic volume and turning movements, if signals are needed.
The County has two individuals as technical traffic staff, Behl and a traffic engineer.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of safety-related concerns, so administration is looking at an improved road safety program.”
The program would follow four stages.
The first stage would be to identify safety opportunities to provide an analysis of all intersections and road segments, considering the number of collisions and the severity of those collisions. This is also known as network screening. Traffic volume would also be analysed. Predicted collisions would then be developed based on comparison with similar sites.
Behl noted this is being done with consultants at this time, for a cost of under $10,000. This report should be completed by the end of November. Funding was approved through the 2024 Intersection Safety Budget.
The result of this analysis will develop a ranking of all County road intersections and segments, based on potential for road safety improvements.
The second stage would include developing potential safety solutions for the highest-ranked locations.
“We would look at the collisions, look to see if there were any trends or patterns. We would look at site geometry. And then, we would pick some possible site modifications and carry out some design,” Behl explained.
A cost benefit analysis would then be done, comparing the cost of design and construction to estimated benefits in potential reduction in collisions.
That will set a foundation for the third stage, which would help County staff in selecting locations for modification and developing an implementation strategy.
The fourth stage would take place following construction, and include evaluating the safety measures. County staff will monitor collision sites to see if implemented measures have been effective.
Once consultants have completed the networking screening report, Behl will follow up with a list of projects to be completed within the next few years. The plan would be to update that network screening every five-years, just to see if anything has changed and to update the priority project list.
“We value the input from the community, as residents, taxpayers, and users of the infrastructure. Residents, however, are usually focused on a specific location. The information we get from them is useful and we will continue to review those locations,” Behl said, noting, however, it is County Administration’s responsibility to assess locations throughout the County and focus resources where it is believed would be most valuable.
In 2025, Behl said County staff will propose an increase to the Intersection Safety Budget of $100,000 an additional $200,000 to cover design costs that come out of the review currently being conducted by consultants.
There will be a separate $100,000 requested in the 2025 Budget from the reserve to cover any construction that may be appropriate for that year.
For Tecumseh Mayor, Gary McNamara, this report identifies the high-cost of infrastructure when looking to consider signalization or other modifications.
He believes the report was missing simple possible solutions, such as speed reductions. Some may be low-cost but result in a higher-level safety.
McNamara would have liked to see the report identify the high, medium, and low requirements that could be looked at.
Perhaps a recommendation should be having transportation staff at the County and local municipalities meet to talk about intersections that may need attention.
When residents have a concern with road safety, the majority of the time they contact their municipalities, not the County.
Over the last several months, McNamara noted municipal reps around the County Council table have brought forward requests for the County to look at.
LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche spoke on how the County is in the middle of developing a Transportation Master Plan, which is looking at safety, enhancements, and growth. She was not sure why this safety review was being done separately.
To her, this review is more of a reaction to the requests being brought forward from the municipal reps on County Council regarding road safety on the County network, which she understood.
Without seeing the Transportation Master Plan and results to come from that, she did not understand looking at a completely different policy, with another $300,000 combined requested in the 2025 Budget.
Behl noted the Transportation Master Plan is underway and it is a very high-level visionary document. It will look at the road network plan, if the County would want to invest more in active transportation, transit road safety, and if residents are being dealt with fairly across the region.
Road safety will be one component of the Transportation Master Plan.
The road safety review being conducted will provide a list of locations where collisions are high, and rank them as to where improvements will be most cost-effective.
The road safety review will look at suggestions of possible needed roundabouts to street lighting, improved road surfacing, or reduction of speed, Behl added.
Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy asked if there is desire for the County to work with the local municipalities.
When a concern is raised in her municipality concerning a County road, Bondy is unsure what to do. The issue is usually raised at the municipal-level, then brought to the County.
Municipalities understand the County road network is larger than municipal. Working with local municipal engineering departments would be helpful.
She also wanted a list of intersections to be looked at through the Road Safety Review, so municipal reps can notify residents of what is planned.
“When it comes to County intersections, I feel like I am kind of blind, because there are so many,” Bondy said. “I want to have an answer I can give to residents when they ask.”
She added that not all collisions are reported.
Bondy supported the report and requests.
“This is something we are potentially behind on, that now, we are playing catch-up,” Bondy said. “This Term of [County] Council has raised many intersections, so that tells me that we are potentially behind on doing these reviews.”
She called the review a step in the right direction.
Behl said he is always happy to speak with municipal infrastructure departments. He added County staff will follow up with a report in the spring with the results of the network screening.
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