Westlock RCMP are opposed to changing the speed limit zones on Highway 18 at the east end of town, Staff Sgt. Bryan Clayton said in an e-mail to council, which was discussed at the Sept. 12 meeting.
The e-mail was a response to a request from the Aug. 8 council meeting, in which mayor Bruce Lennon asked for the RCMP’s input on the ongoing debate.
“I’ve consulted with our traffic-oriented members and we are all of the belief that the speed limits should remain the way they are,” said Clayton in the e-mail.
The speed limits at the east end of town have been an ongoing source of discussion and debate for the town council. There are no traffic lights between the town limits and the intersection with Highway 44, and many motorists have complained it’s difficult to turn left onto the highway.
The intersection of particular concern is at 108 Ave. near the UFA.
Town CAO Darrell Garceau has said Alberta Transportation will not pay to put traffic signals at that intersection because at last count, traffic was at only 78 per cent of the threshold they use to determine the need.
Council has discussed several ways to address this issue without lights, one of them being changing the speed-limit signs to increase the speed of traffic flow closer to the downtown core.
Coun. Robin Brett took issue with this approach, saying it just didn’t seem to make sense given council’s goals.
“I have a hard time believing that you can reduce the number of accidents at that intersection by speeding it up,” he said.
Lennon agreed, adding the speed issue isn’t the only problem on that highway — at one point the eastbound travel lanes go from two lanes to one lane back to two lanes, seemingly with no reason.
“This is not rocket science,” he said.
Clayton said from a law-enforcement point of view, the goal should be to get traffic slowed down before it hits those intersections along the highway.
He indicated the despite the speed limit, traffic is often going too fast through that area.
“Quite often we’ll have speeding enforcement set up there and quite often we’ll have a large number of speeding tickets written there,” he said.
Recently, a driver was ticketed for going 100 km/h in the 50 km/h zone.
He would not say, however, if a traffic light would be a good solution to the problem, saying that decision would have to be made by Alberta Transportation, or the town.
The matter will come up for discussion again at a future council meeting.
