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Glenmerry parents push for better traffic safety

Neighbourhood Residents Association has crafted a traffic safety report that has been passed along to City of Trail for review.
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Glenmerry principal Patrick Audet is backing the neighbourhood’s drive for improved traffic safety around the elementary school. The school has rounded up its own crosswalk identifiers at the corner of Carnation and Woodland (in front of the school)

Glenmerry parents and residents have made some distance on traffic safety improvements for a community that centres around an elementary school.

The Neighbourhood Residents Association has discussed concerns in its own backyard and has crafted a report that was just passed along to the city for review.

Traffic safety was the top item, with specific mention of excessive speeding along Carnation and Highway drives, lack of signage for crosswalks and visibility around the school and inconsistent speed limits, which has lead to disorganized congestion during school hours. This all together equals a recipe for disaster, according to Glenmerry principal Patrick Audet.

“We've got kids trying to use the crosswalks, buses trying to turn and parents trying to park and pick up their kids all at the same time,” he pointed out at the poorly identified crosswalk at the corner of Carnation and Woodland.

The area is heavily congested at about 2:15 p.m. when about 80 per cent of students load four buses while parents pull in to pick up their children.

“Parents are sort of competing for parking spots near the school so they don't have to walk that far but what it means is that people in the community are having their driveways blocked and there is so much parking on the corner of Carnation and Woodland that buses have trouble making it around the corner and the corner involves two crosswalks,” he added.

Glenmerry's Parent Advisory Council previously purchased florescent green crossing flag men and recently started putting out pylons in front of nearby homes to ensure parents don't block driveways during pick up and drop off. But their efforts are not enough and a push for proper signage is a community effort.

“Student safety is a huge thing for us,” said Lisa Stewart, Glenmerry PAC chair. “We always are looking to identify issues around school safety and have those discussions with the principal in how we can make things safer for the kids.”

The residents association is drumming the same beat, documenting traffic safety concerns in its report.

“Glenmerry has commercial activity down at one end of the community, we draw a lot of workers from the suburbs that come into work in our neighbourhood every day and they all happily want to get out of here and scoot home,” explained Ingrid Enns, Glenmerry's association community chair.

While the report remains for city eyes before being released to the public, Enns highlighted a request for additional stop signs to curb speeding.

“If you're on a long, straight street people will just boogie along,” she explained. “But if they know they have to come to a stop sign, they'll decelerate.”

The group, which is sanctioned by the city and reports to Trail Community in Bloom, has only been active for two months.

The association has many sister groups throughout Trail neighbourhoods that also receive help from the city to put out a community newsletter as well as a one-time contribution for a beautification project and potential in-kind services and supplies.