A petition signed by dozens of Ward 4 residents, requesting a permanent four-way stop near their homes, has been successful.
On Monday, city council reversed an earlier decision to return the intersection to a traditional two-way stop.
"We were outraged to hear that council had turned down the motion to retain the four-way stop at our corner, with a vote of five to four," said Peter Stranks, who lives two houses away from the corner of Matchedash and Brant streets.
"In just four days of canvassing door to door, we have gathered 94 signatures from concerned neighbours immediately impacted by your decision. Not one person refused us," wrote Stranks in his letter to all council members, the OPP and OrilliaMatters.
"Every person had their own horror story of near misses, accidents, or disturbing witness accounts of what it was like to live with the two-way stop. Everyone mentioned that there were no issues after the four-way stop was implemented," noted Stranks.
Two four-way stops were temporarily erected last summer during Laclie Street reconstruction at the intersections of Brant Street East and Matchedash Street, and Tecumseth Street at Lightfoot Drive, close to French's Stand at Orillia's waterfront.
At the Jan. 13 meeting, Coun. Tim Lauer asked council to make the two four-way stops permanent, but it was voted down. Staff informed council that traffic in the area did not meet the criteria outlined in the Ontario Traffic Manual and warned the city would be opening itself up to liability by deciding to keep them.
Lauer, who lives in and represents Ward 4, opened up the issue again at Monday's meeting, saying the stop signs improve safety in the area.
"We received a lot of input from that neighbourhood. These people have lived there for years. I live up in that area. We've all had close calls at that particular intersection," said Lauer, referring to the intersection at the corner of Brant and Matchedash streets.
He added that while "close calls" are not data, he thought the risk of crashes at those intersections should play into the equation.
Lauer said he researched the Ontario Traffic Manual and discovered the manual provides "guidelines" rather than being "law." In legal cases, it wasn't the details of the manual that decided the case, rather negligence was the No 1. determinant, he told his fellow councillors.
In his his letter, Stranks suggested it was more litigious to put the intersection back to a two-way stop.
"Popular opinion among the neighbours suggests that there is every possibility that people experiencing damages to body or property at a two-way stop in the future will be counselled to consider litigation," he wrote.
Speaking to council, Lauer said the level of liability in keeping the stop signs isn't any different than other risks council takes with its decisions.
"As a council, we are exposing ourselves to liability with almost everything we do," Lauer said. "So I am asking council to defeat this," he said, referring to the earlier decision to remove the stop signs.
In a recorded vote, council voted to keep the four-way stop at Brant and Matchedash.
The four-way stop at the Tecumseth and Lightfoot intersection was also maintained — for now.
Lauer said even though they don't have data at that intersection, there were no complaints last summer about the new four-way stop there. Also, it has acted as a pedestrian crosswalk to the waterfront park and people are used to it, Lauer explained. If it was removed, it may cause confusion, he said.
In light of the fact that Centennial Park is very busy in the summer with a lot of pedestrian traffic, that French's will be open this summer and there is not going to be any construction to slow traffic down, it would be prudent to keep the four-way stop until at least the end of the summer, Lauer suggested.
If there are problems brought to council's attention, they could change the decision at that time, argued Lauer.
In the end, council agreed to maintain the four-way stop at the waterfront intersection.
At the Jan. 13 meeting, council voted against making the all-way stops permanent at either intersection, as per staff’s recommendation, but they amended the motion to receive the report as information at this time — meaning it could be brought up again in the future. That caveat allowed council to reverse their decision at this week's meeting.
