Speeding vehicles, too many cars and drivers shortcutting through residential neighbourhoods – Cimarron-area residents have a list of concerns about traffic in their community.
Michelle Reid wants to make it easier to get in and out of her home. She lives on the south side of Cimarron Boulevard and said heavy traffic on the road makes it difficult for residents in her area to get anywhere else in town.
“Some days I’ve been there five minutes trying to get out,” she said.
Reid was one of more than two-dozen area residents who shared their concerns at a Feb. 25 meeting hosted by the Town to kick off a new Cimarron traffic calming study.
Concerns raised at the meeting included frustration among drivers and residents, including incidents of road rage, resident’s not being able to use their front yards due to noise, high traffic levels and speeds, vehicles making U-turns on Cimarron Boulevard, poor access to the road and cars shortcutting through Cimarron Estates.
Some called for increased enforcement, lower speed limits, putting up more three or four-way stops and making it less convenient to use Cimarron Boulevard over Highway 7.
The Town is not making any specific recommendations at this point. It is launching an online survey to gather feedback from residents at the end of March and will be available for two months.
The Town will also form a community advisory group to guide work to prepare a vision for the area, develop questions for an online survey and review feedback.
Municipal engineer Marley Oness said the traffic calming study was recommended in an earlier safety review of Cimarron Boulevard.
He said the Town has already implemented a number of changes along Cimarron Boulevard in recent years, including repainting lines on the road, improving visibility and sight lines as well as adding pedestrian lights and curb extensions.
The Town is now looking for long-range solutions.
“We have already implemented some of what I would call the low-hanging fruit, the easy fixes,” said Oness.
He said the first step is to form the advisory groups and feedback from the online survey will guide discussions on what changes the Town could make to roads in the area.
Some at the meeting have a few ideas of their own for what they want the Town to do.
Reid would like to see more three or four-way stops set up along Cimarron Boulevard. She said it’s hard to make a left-hand turn onto Cimarron Boulevard and more stop signs would make it easier for people living on the south side of the road.
“My main concern is on the south side of the boulevard, we have no other options to get out of the subdivision,” said Reid.
She said it’s usually faster for people to use Highway 7 and said the Town should work to encourage drivers to use the highway instead of the boulevard.
Ray Hoogveld hasn’t moved into his new home in Cimarron Estates yet, but he has already noticed several problems on area roads.
He said a lot of vehicles are using Cimarron Estates Drive as a shortcut between Southridge Drive and 32 Street.
He said the Town should cut off access between the two thoroughfares through the area.
“What are the solutions to do that?” said Hoogveld.
He said there is a trade-off between congestion, speed and safety on the roads that needs to be struck.
Dwayne Dell doesn’t want access cut off, but he said the Town should put up more barriers to traffic in the area to make it inconvenient for drivers looking to shortcut through Cimarron Estates.
“If you just make it more inconvenient for people to cut through the neighbourhood it will help,” he said.
Ultimately, Dell said there wasn’t enough thought put into traffic in the area when it was first planned out.
