Rawlins Cross traffic circle ends Friday, lights going back on

Starting Friday morning, the traffic lights will be back on at the complicated Rawlins Cross intersection in St. John's ending a pilot project that cut down on accidents, but concerned some pedestrians.

The City of St. John's says by 8 a.m. Friday, the signs and barriers will be goneand the following changes will be made:

• Traffic lights will resume operation on Military Road at the intersection of Monkstown Road and the intersection of King's Road.
• The yield sign at the top of Prescott Street will be removed, and drivers entering Rawlins Cross from Prescott will have the right-of-way.
• The yield sign southbound on Monkstown Road will be removed. Drivers entering Rawlins Cross from Monkstown Road will have the right-of-way.
• The temporary crosswalk that crosses Monkstown Road near Rennies Mill Road will be removed.

The pilot project infrastructure at the intersection of Flavin and Prescott streets has already been removed, and a stop sign remains in place.

The flow of vehicle and pedestrian traffic through the unusual downtown intersection has been a source ofdebate since council voted in favour of the pilot project in March 2018.

Council voted to scrap the makeshift roundabout and turn the traffic lights back on in late March.

City staff recommended making the traffic circle permanent, as the average number of accidents per month had dropped nearly 53 per cent during the pilot project. Some members of the public felt the roundabout was not safe for pedestrians, however, and submitted a petition to the city reflecting that.

The city said it will expand its Key2Access pilot project to the two traffic control signals at Rawlins Cross, however, allowing pedestrians to request a crossing without needing to reach a button on a pole and removing barriers for people with mobility and vision challenges.

The technology provides access to the pedestrian push button using a fob or free mobile app and creates an audible signal.

'Pedestrian concern carried the day'

Coun.Sandy Hickman, council's lead on transportation, says the traffic circle was safer for drivers, as the closure of part of Military Road eliminated the possibility of T-bone collisions, but there was concern for pedestrians crossing at busier sections.

Hickman said he felt enough was done to mitigate risk for pedestrians, but public pressure resulted in council reverting to the previous arrangement at Rawlins Cross.

"I felt that traffic was flowing well.I felt that pedestrians were protected," he told The St. John's Morning Show.

Hickman said it's a huge challenge to keep drivers, cyclists and pedestrians moving safely together on the seven roads that flow into the intersection, but he believed the city's traffic engineers came up with a workable solution.

"It was well researched by staff, that's why I was satisfied it would be safe and the most appropriate thing to do, but again, as I said, the pedestrian concerns carried the day," he said.

Hickman saidRawlins Cross will function just as it did before the pilot project began.

"It's gonna be pretty well exactly the way it was until this thing was put in place," he said.

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