‘The street has become a commuter route’: Fergus residents want more done to curb traffic woes

FERGUS – Several Garafraxa Street East residents want local government doing more to calm speeds on the street, which currently forms part of a construction detour.

“The street has become a commuter route,” said Tony Smith, who lives near the St. David Street North and Garafraxa Street East intersection.

“I just think there’s a huge catastrophe in the waiting here.”

He noted families use the sidewalks to and from Victoria Terrace Public School, and houses aren’t set back far from the street.

The two-lane, 40km/h county road (Wellington Road 19) forms part of a bypass diverting traffic in a boxed route around St. David Street North.

A 50-metre portion of the road, which doubles as Highway 6, has been under construction since April. Construction is anticipated to finish next month.

A seven-day speed study on the road in March recorded 21,388 vehicles. The slowest speed was 22km/h and the fastest was 108. The average speed was 46.

According to Smith, the detour is also being used by heavy trucks, despite a dedicated truck detour along Wellington Roads 7 and 17.

County roads manager Joe de Koning said the detour is suggested as an alternate route, but Garafraxa Street East is an arterial county road, not a local road.

“The option is that they use the provincial highway system or the county road system and this just happens to a segment of the county road system that’s within [Fergus],” de Koning said.

Following a “flurry” of complaints after construction began in the spring, the county responded with a radar sign displaying drivers’ speeds and installed centre-line road bollards provided by Centre Wellington.

(The bollards and radar have since been removed for snow removal.)

Centre Wellington did not make anyone available for an interview, deferring to the county.

De Koning said complaints have dropped since the summer.

Following surface repaving work anticipated for St. David Street North next spring, a speed study to determine whether permanent traffic-calming measures are needed could be done, de Koning suggested.

Smith said the county’s measures don’t go far enough and suggested police enforcement, speed bumps, more stop signs and better-marked intersections would all help.

Smith has made the rounds, bringing attention to the street’s traffic woes, but he said the issue isn’t being treated seriously.

Since June, he has reached out to county and township staff, local politicians and police.

Smith said he also knocked on neighbours’ doors from Highway 6 to Gartshore Street, and hand-delivered letters.

Kathy Schnell, who lives near the Cameron Street and Victoria Terrace intersection, said she was relieved to find a neighbour shared her concerns.

On Oct. 16, she was working from her home office when she heard a bang outside.

“It was ... loud enough that we all ran out of our houses,” she said.

Neighbours saw a two-vehicle crash and a pedestrian that had been struck at Garafraxa and Cameron streets.

An 82-year-old Brantford driver was charged for not stopping at a stop sign, and the pedestrian was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

“We knew this was going to happen,” Schnell said.

She added she’s not a complainer, but wants more done to increase safety.

“I was deeply concerned when I learned of the most recent accident,” Centre Wellington councillor Barbara Lustgarten-Evoy stated in an email

Garafraxa Street East falls within Lustgarten-Evoy’s Ward 3 constituency, but the township councillor said she has no sway on how the county road is managed.

Lustgarten-Evoy said she appreciates neighbours’ efforts to bring change.

“It truly escapes me why people continue to speed so much,” she said.

County Ward 5 councillor Mary Lloyd said traffic volume on the street is too high and she wants to see the March vehicle count more than halved to roughly 10,000 vehicles in a seven-day period.

“We want to for sure keep an eye on that road for volume,” Lloyd said, noting a major development planned on Forfar Street, down the road from Victoria Terrace.

Yet she’s not currently pushing for additional measures beyond what the county has already done.

“We’re not saying that there isn’t a problem,” Lloyd said.

But she wants to see a traffic study done after construction on St. David Street North is complete.

“Hopefully … we see a significant decline in traffic on Garafraxa Street.”