A traffic circle. For Renfrew.
Well how about that?
In anticipation of increased traffic flow, the Town of Renfrew has applied to the province for the $3 million in funding needed to install a traffic circle at the corner of O’Brien Road and Wrangler Street. For locals, that’s the turn-off for Canadian Tire.
This is a creative solution to an issue that will evolve once the Highway 17 expansion hits Renfrew. Traffic surveys indicate that there’s already a daily flow of some 12,500 vehicles at the intersection, both turning in and driving by. That’s a lot already.
But when Highway 17 transforms into Highway 417 (designating 4+ lanes), that number’s going to skyrocket, especially with the new $25 million interchange being built just up the street at O’Brien and the highway. Currently, the average vehicle passage count on the highway is somewhere in the area of 18,000 vehicles a day, a number that will gradually increase as growth follows the highway to Renfrew. These highway numbers have implications for the O’Brien-Wrangler intersection in that scores more vehicles will soon be passing by this point, which could easily become a choke point if traffic mitigation plans aren’t developed.
Some locals aren’t crazy about the idea, citing their view that it’s not necessary or that the installation of traffic lights would be a better idea. But in my view, they’re incorrect on the first point, and perhaps under-informed on the second. Traffic lights are certainly an option, but in this case, they simply won’t work. The highway interchange will be a couple of rock-throws away from the intersection, meaning a red signal on O’Brien Road has the serious likelihood of backing up traffic coming off the highway. That would be a nightmare, and most urban planners will agree it’s kind of mistake to piss people off just seven seconds after their arrival in town. This is the kind of stuff that keeps the folks on the tourism committee up at nights.
Newly elected mayor Tom Sidney, in speaking with CTV news, says Renfrew’s residents are hardy enough to handle the change to a traffic circle, pointing to Confusion Corner further in town as a place where seasoned Renfrew motorists have cut their teeth in navigating traffic infrastructure oddities. That said, maybe a traffic circle there might be in order, as well.
I’m delighted Mayor Sidney has confidence in the motorists of Renfrew, and maybe that confidence is justifiably placed, although a quick drive around Renfrew will leave many outsiders scratching their heads at the traffic layout of the town.
And the driving habits of its inhabitants.
Nevertheless, traffic circles have been around for a long time, not because they don’t work, but because they do. And the town is correct in anticipating a need for attention to be paid to this intersection. In doing so, they mitigate a potential problem.
In a roundabout way, of course.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 