‘It’s dangerous for us’: Richmond Hill residents raise road safety concerns on Church Street following collision

A 19-year-old woman was charged with drunk driving and dangerous driving among others following the accident in the morning of Dec. 22

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 16, 2023
Sheila Wang

Richmond Hill residents are sounding alarms over growing safety concerns on Church Street after two cars crashed into each other, sending a 77-year-old man to hospital with serious injuries in December.

Days after the collision -- the worst locals say they’ve seen in years -- shreds of car parts still lay scattered around a fallen tree on the street at the T-junction at Canterbury Court.

A 19-year-old woman was charged with drunk driving and dangerous driving, among others, following the accident in the morning of Dec. 22, according to the York Regional Police.

“You have to be a defensive driver and a defensive pedestrian here,” Green said as he stood at the junction watching cars passing by.

Green and his wife Martha Forge, who have lived in the area for 36 years, said they were worried about safety on Church Street which has been plagued by the rising speeding problem and the increasing traffic volume.

“It’s dangerous for us,” Forge said, noting she and her husband had had close calls in the past.

The crash took place four months after the posted speed limit on Church Street South was reduced from 50 km/h to 40 km/h in August 2022.

Richmond Hill spokesperson Lynn Chan said city council approved the speed reduction in response to community input.

The couple says the speed reduction doesn't seem to have made much difference. Green added that increased police enforcement would be his preferred solution to tackle speeding.

Church Street, designed to provide residents with direct access to their properties and encourage walking and biking, has become increasingly unsafe for the locals to use, Green said.

Mostly running parallel to Yonge Street, Church Street is a two-lane local street intended to move local traffic through the neighbourhood, according to the City of Richmond Hill.

It is frequently used by residents on Canterbury who have to cross the busy road to pick up their mail from the superboxes on the other side every day or walk to the plaza on Yonge.

There are no stop signs or traffic lights from Harding Boulevard to Weldrick Road on Church Street, which means cars can cruise through the neighbourhood without having to stop or slow down when passing three T-junctions, including the one at Canterbury Court.

With the corner of Church Street and Harding Boulevard being built with a 14-storey apartment building and townhomes, more than 364 new homes and some 500 parking spaces were added to the area over the past decade.

It has brought more traffic and street parking to Church Street, which came with a speeding problem, Green said.

The homeowner, who fought the developments and lost at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), said he was not surprised by the impact of the intensification as he conducted his own traffic study in 2004.

But Chan said the number of traffic inquiries received by the city regarding the Church and Canterbury area is low and has not increased over the last decade.

Although Green had not communicated his traffic concerns on Church Street last year, he did ask the city to add a right-turning lane on the Harding westbound lane as more highrise buildings may be built in the area.

A 22-storey and 10-storey have been proposed north of Harding Boulevard, which connects Church and Yonge Street.

The incoming intensification would lead to greater use of Harding to go to Yonge Street, where traffic is already often backed up to Church Street, Green said.

The homeowner said the city planned to adjust the signal time on Yonge Street to address the issue, which he does not agree with.

In addition to the volume of local traffic, speeding has become an even more pressing issue, he noted.

“It's interesting because it was much busier pre-COVID. It hasn't really come back to where it was before March 2020," Green said. "But they go faster.”