Rainbow Road traffic counts are holding steady from the February count.
The manager of roads and fleet of community operations Mel Bohmer presented the traffic data collected from February to March, during the April 12 Committee of the Whole meeting.
“This month the numbers have come down a little bit,” Bohmer said.
The north counter counted 22,314 vehicles in February, and 21,681 in March, while the south counter counted 17,020 in February and 17,240 in March.
The north counter indicated a three per cent decrease in traffic counts from February, while the south counter indicated a 1.4 per cent increase.
“Virtually, very similar numbers,” Bohmer said.
The hourly peak travel times are still between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
“We saw an improvement of speeds, with a four per cent decrease of speeds going northbound, and a three per cent increase of southbound traffic on the north counter,” Bohmer said. “The south counter recorded a decrease in traffic going north and south.”
The average speed of travellers on Rainbow Road is between 40 to 49 km/h, with some drivers travelling over 80 km/h.
“We have a couple who are over the 80 km/h. They are few and far between,” Bohmer said.
The city installed flashing speed signs to ensure drivers are aware of the speed limit and installed two additional 50 km/h speed limit signs at the midway point.
The city is also applying a dust control product to the road and increasing maintenance to a weekly schedule.
“All in all, it’s looking pretty good,” Bohmer said.
Councillor Shannon Dean expressed his concerns about where the road turns from gravel to pavement, with vehicles having to stop and take turns passing.
“It’s an important road for us to have open, I’m wondering about our long-term development strategy for that road,” Dean said.
Bohmer explained that the long-term strategy is to twin the road as development happens on the north side.
“I don’t believe there’s a current plan to upgrade the road, we have no services there, it’s very rural standard,” Bohmer said. “The area where we’ve opened it from pavement to asphalt, it doesn’t quite align with the current condition, we opened and widened it, there’s some room for improvement there.”
Bohmer is hopeful that the dust control product and regular maintenance will help with long-term repairs.
