The new lights at Ninth Avenue Northwest and Caribou Street West continue to cause problems for some motorists and have led to near misses and collisions.
Several residents have again reached out to Coun. Dawn Luhning about the changes to that intersection, along with the addition of middle turning lanes on First Avenue Northwest. She, in turn, brought those concerns to city council during its recent regular meeting.
“I think we have to really think about doing something different at Ninth and Caribou West in the winter,” she said.
Luhning explained that she was driving home one night after a council meeting and pulled into the left lane to go north. However, she found another motorist driving straight at her while coming south and nearly collided head-on.
“It’s pretty dangerous there because people are not really paying attention to those lanes, and when it’s winter, there’s no paint that you can pay attention to,” she said. “I’m not really sure it works great there at Ninth and Caribou in the winter. We need to think about having more lights there or something.”
Luhning singled out Calgary for having overhead signs with red Xs to indicate whether motorists can drive in those lanes. She wondered if city administration could review this intersection, along with addressing the issues on First Avenue Northwest.
Bevan Harlton, director of engineering, said his department can review the problems with that intersection and provide a report to council. He added that he hasn’t heard about any major accidents at that intersection since the lights had been upgraded but would investigate it.
Coun. Doug Blanc agreed with Luhning’s concerns, noting the previous traffic light sequence rotated so that motorists in one direction could drive before it switched to another direction.
“People were comfortable with that. So, we need to look at that,” he added.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, March 14.
