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Okotoks residents concerned about speeding, volume on Westridge Drive

A group of Westland residents is once again expressing concerns over a collector road after the Town deemed it a low priority.
NEWS-Westridge Drive BWC 9463 web
A car drives up Westridge Drive on May 5. Residents on the street have raised the alarm over frequent speeding, citing the lack of traffic controls for much of its length.

Residents in Okotoks’ Westland community are still concerned about the volume of traffic and vehicle speeds along Westridge Drive months after the Town decided to direct resources to higher-priority areas.  

Don McKenzie, who has lived in the area for nearly three years, has dedicated much of his time to the cause, which he said sparks stress and frustration amongst those in the community.  

“I started thinking about it and I thought you know, is this just me? Or is there a real feeling of concern?” he recalled. “So, I thought I'm just going to hammer on some doors and just get the feeling and it was absolutely overwhelming.”  

McKenzie said he has knocked on 87 doors along the road during his pursuit, 86 of which expressed similar concerns to his.  

He made a presentation to council last November, where he outlined his issues with traffic on Westridge Drive.  

Among his concerns were speed and volume, compounded by the fact that Westridge Drive is a major school bus route with many of the homes having front-facing garages.  

His proposed solution to the problem was the installation of three, three-way stops along the road, which he said would allow the traffic to be self-managed and require little intervention from municipal enforcement.  

news-Westridge-Drive-Map
A digital map created by resident Don McKenzie outlines his proposal for volume and speed mitigation on Westridge Drive. Don McKenzie

Administration was directed to bring back possible solutions to council before Jan. 31, 2022.  

During the Jan. 24 regular meeting, it was decided no action would be taken to address Westridge Drive, given that it was considered a low priority.  

That determination was made using a conclusion from the transportation network screening tool, a data-driven approach to ranking road priority, that was adopted just prior to the decision on McKenzie's request.  

The tool assigns point values to roadways based on different factors, daily traffic volume, proximity to high-risk pedestrians such as schools and seniors’ homes, posted speed limit, available collision data and resident comments.  

For example, an intersection with a speed limit of higher than 50 km/h would receive a point value of three, while an area less than 50 km/h would receive one. 

Using this system, the highest a road could score is 13 and the lowest is four.  

Westridge Drive received a score of five using this tool.  

McKenzie said he was disappointed that nothing was going to be done to address his concerns.  

“This area is not asking for the world,” he said. “All we want is some common devices like some three-way stop signs that are strategically located which act as a deterrent for people that think this is a thoroughfare.” 

Westridge Drive is considered a collector road, which means it is designed to handle 8,000 vehicles per day. According to the Town, the road currently sees volume in the 700 to 2,300 per day range.  

McKenzie isn’t alone in his concerns.  

Janet and Trevor Landage have lived in the area for more than a decade and said they have often considered moving because of the issue.  

Janet said having constant streams of vehicles avoiding the lights on Southridge Drive was never a consideration when the couple bought their home.  

“We never would have thought that people would come off of Southridge Drive,” she said. “We thought they would take Southridge Drive to Westland Street.  

“But they don’t, they come up here.” 

Trevor said that members of his community have said they will cover the cost of the signs and installation, should the Town decide to move forward.  

Darrell Honish has lived on Westridge Drive for 32 years. While he would like to see an increase in enforcement, he said that is only one piece of the puzzle.  

“If you were to put a stop sign there, at least even if you didn't stop, you would have slowed down,” he said. “And ultimately, that’s all we're looking for at this point is to reduce the speed. 

“Enforcement is one aspect of it, but they're only here for that brief period of time.” 

As part of following up to multiple requests for action on the road, Okotoks municipal enforcement conducted two speed studies on the road - one in July 2020 and one in December 2021. The former saw a maximum recorded speed of 112 km/h while the latter saw a maximum of 69-72 km/h.  

“We do speed studies with equipment to determine whether or not there is an issue and whether or not it’s at a certain time that can help us do targeted enforcement to make the most of our resources,” said municipal enforcement manager officer Peter Stapely.  

He added that during the two-week study period, 19,521 vehicles used that road, for just under 1,400 cars per day.  

One per cent of that traffic, or 106 cars, were recorded driving at a speed that would have resulted in a ticket. 

So far in 2022, six tickets have been issued on Westridge Drive; last year there were 20.  

“What the study showed, with there being a one per cent ticketable rate on that road, is that there really isn’t a lot of offences occurring,” said Stapely. “It’s difficult for officers to catch people on that road because they’re so spread out, it’s not at a certain time. 

“So, we certainly have other roads in town that have a much higher violation rate that the officers also have to focus on.”  

Trevor said he considers himself a car buff, as does McKenzie, but that he made alterations to his cars when he moved into the neighbourhood so he wouldn’t be a nuisance to his neighbours.  

“I love the sound of a nice sounding car,” said McKenzie. “But it's all about respect. And you only get respect when there's consequences.”  

Jeremy Huet, community development and engineering manager for the Town, said there have been no updates to the structure of Westridge Drive since council's decision in January. 

At the time of the decision, Mayor Tanya Thorn expressed concerns that the addition of the network screening tool to the Town's transportation policy would do little to address residential or collector road complaints. 

“I think it’s a good tool to start but I don’t think it should be the tool to decide where we make improvements," she said at the time. 

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