By Thia James

City looks at ways to prevent 15th Street traffic jams

Mar 6, 2015 | 5:48 AM

A section of 15th Street between First Avenue East to Second Avenue West could see a third lane added in each direction as the City of Prince Albert considers removing on-street parking in that area.

The City is looking at ways to ease congestion and improve safety on 15th Street between First Avenue East and Second Avenue West. Public works director Amjad Khan presented a plan aimed doing both during Monday’s executive committee meeting.

Khan and transportation and traffic manager Mohammad Kraishan propose that the City remove the on-street free parking and on-street metered parking in that area and convert those stalls into a third lane in both directions. The on-street free parking is located in front of the police station and the metered parking spots are just outside of the Gateway Mall.

The removal of 15 metered parking stalls will mean lost revenue for the City. According to Khan, this means the City could lose out on $14,000 per year.

Khan told the committee that this part of 15th Street has an average of about 20,000 vehicles flow through this stretch of road on a daily basis.

Lighting it up

P.A.'s Zablocki leads Regina to victory on Day 4 at Esso Cup

9h ago

WORLD SOFTBALL

Group stages officially set for Men's Softball World Cup in P.A.

15h ago

Safety first

Safety concerns and tips surrounding discarded needles in P.A.

Apr 23, 2024

“With 20,000 vehicles a day, we see a lot of congestion especially in peak hours. Like in morning peak hours and afternoon peak hours,” Khan said.

At the same time, Khan said the on-street parking and the pedestrian movement from the parked cars poses a safety hazard.

Coun. Rick Orr called the plan to remove the parking stalls, especially those in front of the Sears store, a “bonus.”

“Because that’s probably one of the most dangerous spots to try to get out of a driver’s seat into oncoming traffic and it’s just amazing that no one’s been hurt there for a long time.”

But for Mayor Greg Dionne, the report is missing a solution for congestion for traffic turning left onto Second Avenue West.

“The congestion is caused because we can’t turn left,” Dionne said. He said he was expecting to see discussion about having two left-turning lanes at the intersection of 15th Street West and Second Avenue West. He added that the left-turn arrow light is set to allow five cars to turn before two-way traffic flow is allowed at the intersection.

“So that’s an issue, because you just said, we have 200 metres of cars backed up and we’re only getting rid of five,” Dionne said.

He said he would also like to see a two-lane left turn at the intersection of 15th Street East and Sixth Avenue East. He said when you want to turn left to go up the hill, it’s congested all the past the Fatburger restaurant.

Khan responded, telling the committee that his department would analyze traffic and return with more information in a second report.

The report presented to the executive committee was in response to a March 11, 2013 request to have administration look into the necessity of a left-turn traffic signal at the 15th Street and Central Avenue intersection – which was installed this past January, before the report was completed – and to look at traffic flow improvements for 15th Street.

In 2013, the City raised the possibility of constructing a dual-left turn lanes at the 15th Street East and Sixth Avenue East intersection. In that proposal, the left turn lanes would take traffic onto 15th Street East, rather than off of 15th Street East. 

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames