Regional council to review roundabout safety

With a few recent collisions taking place at Waterloo Region roundabouts, regional staff completed a report on road safety and methods used around the area and in some cases, around the world.

Director of Transportation at Region of Waterloo Steve van De Keere delivered the information to council via a PowerPoint presentation, with statistics, information about the Road Safety Program and methods of traffic calming, which included an entire segment about roundabouts.

Statistics show that for pedestrians, roundabouts are much safer than traffic signals, contrary to popular belief. Each year from 2016 to 2020, there were more collisions with pedestrians per signal than per roundabout.

The council meeting was running behind, so unfortunately van De Keere was not able to field questions, however he did speak to a few of the suggestions the public have made about roundabout pedestrian crossings.

“Most design guidance suggests that the crosswalks be set back 1-2 car lengths from the entrance to the roundabout,” said van De Keere. “If you locate the crossings too far from the roundabout, then guess what, it's not along the desire line of the pedestrians and they're going to walk and cross at the roundabout anyway because they're not going to want to walk out of their way. Also, vehicle speeds are higher as you get away from the roundabout, so those crossings tend to be less safe. We are going to be looking at the review of the need for flashing beacons at pedestrian crossings… mostly from an accessibility point of view, but also to help with some safety concerns as well.”

He also responded to a suggestion made about safety for the drivers regarding landscaping in the centre of roundabouts.

“We get a lot of comments about landscaping in the middle makes it dangerous because drivers can't see the other side. Well, you don't need to see the other side, although people may want to. I think in places like Australia, where they used to have wide open roundabouts, it actually led to higher operating speeds, people taking more chances because they could see more. Central island landscaping also makes the roundabout more visible at night.”

Anyone is open to ask questions about the presentations, and if councillors have any concerns, there still could be more to come.

For now, the region will focus on the Road Safety Program, with a vision to reduce or eliminate all serious injuries and fatalities in road collisions.