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City of Maple Ridge talking to parents and school about intersection

Grade 7 student hurt in recent collision in crosswalk
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Darlene Mercer is happy with the traffic improvements made to Park Road in Pitt Meadows, including the brightly coloured crosswalk outside her home. Colleen Flanagan/ THE NEWS

Maple Ridge has spoken to the parents at Glenwood elementary to see if there’s a way to improve pedestrian safety at the corner of 121st Avenue and 214th Street.

A Grade 7 student was hit in a crosswalk at the intersection, which has only a two-way stop sign, near the school on April 20. The boy had a broken shoulder and leg and is recovering.

Ridge Meadows RCMP are doing a report on the incident, while the city’s engineering department will go over the findings of its review.

The city will also meet with the parent advisory committee to review recommendations.

The city points out it’s an older area that grew up before modern street standards, such as curbs and gutters.

The meeting with the city and the parent advisory committee at Glenwood elementary took place Tuesday morning, along with Jenny Saranchuk, a mother who witnessed the collision and who is leading the campaign to improve the intersection.

She said that putting a four-way stop sign there would be considered a traffic-calming measure, and would require the consent of residents who live on the street.

Speed bumps, raised crosswalks and traffic buttons or circles are also considered traffic-calming measures.

Saranchuk said she’ll deliver letters to those home to make the case for some kind of traffic calming.

The city is also putting out traffic and speed counters.

A total of 307 people have signed a petition requesting road improvements there, which she’ll present to council.

The city will come back with some options in a few weeks.

Pitt Meadows resident Darlene Mercer went through the same struggle in her neighbourhood at the T-intersection of Park Road and Somerset Drive.

She said she spent years trying to improve safety. She found that four-way stop signs at a nearby intersection only slowed motorists, with some doing rolling stops.

But speed bumps have helped along with reflective green paint, highlighting the crosswalk and flashing LEDs on the stop sign.

“Motorists and residents all have commented on how more aware they are of the crossing with this particular upgrade,” she said in a letter.

“The speed cushions have really slowed down traffic,” she added later.

The models used also allow emergency vehicles to drive between the gaps in the humps.

She said the combination of measures have helped slow down trafffic.

“The neighbours are happy with this. It’s working really well.”

She advised residents, though, to not always take the city’s word that nothing can be done and to keep pressing for solutions.