‘Near misses on a daily basis’: Richmond Hill residents call on city to fix accident-prone intersection

Multiple collisions at the intersection over the past three years

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 24, 2021
Sheila Wang

Without a stop sign, the intersection of Laverock Avenue and Lucas Street is nothing but accidents waiting to happen.

This was what Barb Orr and her neighbours had been saying for years until a car crash happened in front of their houses on Jan. 28, the second in three years.

The residents said they have been asking the City of Richmond Hill for three years to ramp up their traffic calming efforts in their neighbourhood, nestled at the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Elgin Mills Road, but little action has been taken.

“I’m finding that the city is not taking this seriously at all,” Orr said. “Near misses almost on a daily basis. I hear honking, I hear screeching. The people that are trying to cross the road, it’s impossible.”

When she moved into the corner house at the intersection in 2018, Orr said, she soon realized the residential area was not as safe and quiet as she expected it to be.

The resident was alarmed that there was no stop sign or any traffic calming measure placed at the only two-street intersection in the neighbourhood, she said.

All the other intersections are T-junctions, some of which do have stop signs.

Orr and her neighbours started reaching out to Ward 4 Coun. David West for their request for a four-way stop sign three years ago, she said.

It’s no simple task to install a stop sign, West said.

The councillor said city staff investigated the traffic volume at the intersection of Laverock and Lucas and determined that a four-way stop sign was not “warranted” in accordance with the Ontario Traffic Manual.

“Stop signs where they’re not warranted have the potential for drivers to ignore them. When the pedestrian is crossing the road at that location, they’re expecting the car to stop. If the car doesn’t stop, we’ll have a much bigger problem,” West told the Liberal on Feb. 9.

For a minor road such as Lucas Street, the manual requires at least 350 vehicles for the highest hour recorded and an average of four collisions per year over a three-year period.

“Do you need someone to get horribly injured or killed for you to actually change something?” resident Revital Anava asked, still reeling from the shock of the Jan. 28 crash right in front of her house, just before she took her kids out.

“It’s a free fall here,” Anava said. “The cars coming from Trayborn Drive go as if they’re on the highway.”

West agreed that there was an issue on the local street, but a stop sign was not a solution that would be recommended by staff.

It doesn't have to be a stop sign, Anava said, noting the neighbours are open to any other traffic calming measures.

Some common types of traffic calming measures are speed humps, raised crosswalks and curb bump-outs for the purpose of reducing the speeds of vehicles, reducing the number and severity of collisions and improving safety.

These measures, however, are hardly seen anywhere across Richmond Hill.

The city does have a number of digital speed signs which are installed in the community on a rotating basis.

Orr said the temporary signs were placed on Lucas Street in 2019, but were removed last summer despite the request from the community.

In order to request traffic calming measures for their neighbourhoods, residents are required to submit a petition by 75 per cent of the property owners, or council may direct staff to proceed with traffic calming, according to the city.

Coun. West said that the traffic calming efforts were inadequate.

Last October, he proposed to conduct a city-wide traffic operations and safety study, which was first approved in 2016 but was delayed due to a staffing issue.

The study was recommended after staff saw a spike in traffic-related complaints from the residents five years ago, mainly about speeding and requests for traffic calming.