COMMENT: Fix the Carp-Hazeldean intersection

Glen Gower
Photo via Wendy Wright / @wrightofwayCFRA

(ABOVE: Photo via Wendy Wright / @wrightofwayCFRA)

Yet another collision at the intersection of Carp Road and Hazeldean Road, and residents are again calling for safety fixes at the intersection.

Is there any reason to believe the City will respond any differently this time?

Last night, police charged a male driver with impaired driving in a two-car collision at around 7:40pm. At least one person went to hospital with injuries.

City staff say that traffic isn’t heavy enough to justify any configuration changes. According to the latest collision stats, it isn’t among worst ten collision spots in the city.  (We tried to find out the number of collisions at Carp and Hazeldean over the past few years, but it costs $108 to get the numbers.)

But the city’s data doesn’t capture the frustration and near misses that happen all the time at the intersection.  The hill and the curve leading to the intersection create a sort of blind spot, especially for drivers heading north on Carp.  Add a bit of speed (or alcohol) and you’ve got a really bad intersection.

Do we really have to wait for the number of collisions to climb — or a fatality — to get some action?

A quick (and presumably inexpensive fix) would be to add an advanced left green arrow for northbound cars.  It won’t prevent every incident but it would be a start.

“I think the city needs to look at how the intersections are being designed. I think they need to get their eyes out there to actually see what’s happening in person,” said Tanya Hein, president of the Stittsville Village Association, in June 2016 after another bad accident.

Well said.

Carp and Hazeldean intersection
Carp and Hazeldean intersection. Via Google Maps

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Some recent tweets about the intersection:

https://twitter.com/UncleRickee/status/912500245304659968

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