The City of Medicine Hat has received numerous complaints about speeding vehicles on Eighth Street SE.  (Photo Courtesy Kevin Kyle)

By Brendan Miller

City testing pilot projects to reduce speeding on residental streets

Jun 7, 2023 | 4:22 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Only one block from Kiwanis Central Park on the Southeast Hill, speeding on Eighth Street is a major concern for area residents who say it’s making their neighborhoods more noisy and dangerous.

That’s why the city is rolling out a pilot project to try and reduce the amount of speeders on city streets and improve the flow of traffic at the same time.

Numerous complaints led the city to set up cameras and some motorists were recorded traveling up to 80 km/h.

Resident Colleen Pennington told CHAT News she constantly hears people speeding down her street.

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“At night, when everything else is quiet, you can hear them squealing their tires and speeding and I have heard the cops chasing them and they were speeding through town,” says Pennington.

Christy Starling told CHAT News she doesn’t like parking her vehicle along the road outside her home.

“My boyfriend’s truck, his mirror got taken out, it was parked on the street. This lady across the street, the same thing hit and run. And then a person down the street here got her car totaled and waited months so this street is bad. I don’t even know why I park on this street,” says Starling.

To make the road safer, the city is implementing traffic calming measures. A report presented to council Monday night saying posting lower speeds or increased enforcement won’t be enough to create a safe environment.

So as part of a pilot project, the City of Medicine Hat will install two mini roundabouts along Eighth Street.

“It’s not intended to slow traffic to a crawl but to actually slow traffic down. We don’t have an overwhelming problem, not 100 per cent of people driving through these areas speed, we’ve got about 15 per cent that do,” says Pat Bohan, director of city assets.

Speeding is also an issue in several other areas around Medicine Hat including downtown and Ranchlands.

Over the next year the city plans to introduce more traffic calming measures including larger sidewalks, expanded pedestrian crossings, and speed humps along Ranchlands Boulevard.

Officials say they want to find a balance between maintaining safety and keeping traffic flowing.

“It does serve the community in a positive way around speeding by also the intersecting traffic that has stop signs today. They won’t need the stop sign, just yield and we are hoping it will demonstrate that we can improve the flow of traffic in both directions,” explains Bohan.

The two mini roundabouts are currently in the design phase and installation is expected next year.

The city says as traffic calming measures are relatively new to Medicine Hat, the pilot project will be monitored before additional installations are considered.