Traffic calming on Port Moody’s Moray Street will become permanent.
But it could be awhile before the temporary curb bulges and plastic lane delineators are replaced with concrete structures.
Last Tuesday (June 13), council unanimously endorsed a staff recommendation to allot $75,000 in the 2024 capital budget for detailed design work to make the calming measures permanent.
The process will also include further consultation with the neighbourhood to make improvements and address concerns.
Port Moody’s general manager of engineering and operations, Jeff Moi, said it might be “several years” before the process is complete and concrete structures built.
During public input, some residents said the temporary measures that were put in place last summer actually made things worse, especially for those living on the western side of Moray, where there is no sidewalk and drivers exiting their driveway had trouble seeing oncoming vehicles.
“It may have calmed traffic on the east side, but they’re going faster on the west side,” said one resident.
Auxiliary traffic engineer Geoffrey Keyworth said the city will look at constructing a sidewalk or multi-use path on the western side as part of the permanent solution, which might also help improve sightlines for drivers entering Moray as some bushes and landscaping on private property would likely have to be removed.
“We don’t want to make the problem worse,” he said, adding the city is also talking to neighbouring Coquitlam to come up with a better plan to accommodate cyclists who lost their lane up Moray to accommodate the calming project.
In a report to council, Keyworth said the temporary measures slowed motorists on Moray by five to six kilometres an hour — according to observations made before the pilot project began and twice afterward.
Some of the traffic calming measures included:
- painting new lane lines and centre medians
- installing plastic delineators to create new temporary curbs and centre medians
- constructing new concrete letdowns and installing signs at a new crosswalk put in at Pinda Drive
- putting in a temporary sidewalk on the western side of Moray, south of the Pinda Drive crosswalk
The project cost $70,000.
Keyworth said while residents were generally supportive of the calming measures, there were some criticisms about the look of the plastic delineators and their maintenance, as well as challenges for large vehicles like garbage trucks to navigate them.
Moi said with the temporary features to remain in place until permanent structures can be built, the city will step up its maintenance efforts and replace markers that have been damaged or destroyed.
“We’ll bring them up to better condition,” he said, adding it could take “several years” for the permanent solution to be in place.
Coun. Amy Lubik said the speed reductions achieved by the temporary traffic calming project can’t be understated.
“I think the safety improvements are impressive,” she said. “Traffic calming is such an essential part of the work we do.”
Coun. Callan Morrison agreed.
“We need to make sure this is a safer road for residents,” he said, adding that a lot of the complaints about broken delineators will be solved when the concrete structures are in place.
“I want to see our community benefit from reductions in speed.”
