Former St. John’s mayor Shannie Duff says she doesn’t understand why the city plans to make large-scale changes to Rawlins Cross.
The project, which is awaiting final approval from St. John’s city council, will effectively transform Rawlins Cross into a roundabout.
The changes will see intersections of Kings Road, Rennie’s Mill Road and Monkstown Road form a loop. Traffic and pedestrian lights will be removed once the project begins in late spring or summer.
Duff, who has lived in the area for years, says the traffic flow in the area already works rather well, so she’s not sure what the city is trying to accomplish with the changes.
“It all costs money. If this isn’t something that’s being done because there are really serious problems with safety, I think leave it alone and focus your attention on other areas that have a lot more problems than this,” Duff said.
“This is an area of town where you have a lot of pedestrians, quite a number of small businesses clustered around that intersection. To the best of my knowledge, as someone who uses it probably two or three times a day, it seems to me that the people who use it drive carefully and know how to function.”
At Wednesday’s committee of the whole meeting, city staff revealed car accident statistics to give an idea of traffic confusion in the area.
From January 1, 2012 to December 21, 2017 the area saw 120 total collisions. One cyclist, four pedestrians and 29 passengers in cars were hurt in that time span. The city didn’t offer any broader context with those numbers, relating to how they compare with other notorious intersections around the city.
The city has tweaked the area before, changing a stop sign to a yield sign in 1996 and installing a crosswalk between Monkstown Road and Fleming Street in 2001. The proposed changes would be the largest reimagining in the area since the 1970s, when houses on what is now the Moo Moo’s parking lot were torn down.
Duff says she wrote a letter to council recently expressing her concern about the project. She says she was told a public hearing will be scheduled soon to allow residents to learn more and express their thoughts on the project.
Duff says one the main areas she is concerned about is the intersection across King’s Road on Military Road.
“That’s probably one of the worst places. You have people making a decision around an almost blind corner, that tells them whether they get into the outside or inside lane,” said Duff.
Previously, council transportation lead Coun. Debbie Hanlon has said the intersection sees the highest number of complaints from residents in the city. She says the plan for the pilot project is to improve traffic flow, reduce confusion and, in turn, reduce accidents.
david.maher@thetelegram.com
Twitter: DavidMaherNL
Traffic accident statistics at Rawlins Cross from January 2012 to December 2017
120 total collisions
1 cyclist injured
4 pedestrians injured
29 vehicle occupants injured
86 collisions with only property damage
