The goal is ambitious – that no one is seriously hurt or killed in crashes on Ontario streets.
Traffic engineers are aiming for that result as they draft a new safety action plan.
They have finished up public meetings and closed out a community survey.
Now, they will sharpen their recommendations for the Ontario City Council for how to reach the goal.
“These may be smaller projects that improve a pedestrian crossing up to large projects costing the millions that might improve an entire intersection or multiple intersections,” according to John Ringert, senior principal engineer with Kittelson & Associates of Boise.
Changes could include changing traffic signals, improving lane and crosswalk striping and adding bulb-outs” to cut the distance across a street for pedestrians.
For example, the project description says, “Dedicated left turn lanes decrease opportunities for rear-end crashes.”
The work has been driven by a review of traffic accidents in Ontario.
From 2018 to 2022, Ontario logged 761 crashes. Of those, 371 resulted in an injury, 36 involved serious injuries, two resulted in deaths and 19 involved a pedestrian.
“This specific plan is focused on life-changing crashes,” Ringert said.
The safety plan in its initial draft proposed changes on East Idaho Avenue from the Snake River Bridge to Southwest Fourth Street, Second Street between East Idaho Avenue and Southwest Fourth Avenue and Southwest Fourth Avenue from South Oregon Street downtown to Oregon Highway 201.
“The project team has identified five emphasis areas as priority crash types and contributing factors to address and improve transportation safety in Ontario,” according to a safety plan presentation. “These five areas account for a high proportion of the fatal and serious injuries.”
That included identifying 14 “high priority” intersections. Six are along East Idaho Avenue with the rest scattered across the city. The priority intersections haven’t yet been ranked for which should get attention first.
City Manager Dan Cummings said the city itself owns nine traffic signals that are “pushing 50 years old.” He said the company that made the signal control wiring embedded in pavement has gone out of business and there is no other local source.
He said the state Transportation Department recently upgraded traffic signals on a portion of East Idaho Avenue and had funding to upgrade the city-owned signals.
Traffic is controlled by radar detection, triggering light changes to allow traffic to flow smooth.
“Now, you can drive down East Idaho Avenue and at the proper speed hit every light” as green, he said.
Replacing just the signal pole can cost up to $1.5 million per intersection. Adding the radar detection costs $35,000 to $55,000 per intersection.
Cummings said the city intends to seek federal funding for its safety work. First, though, the safety plan needs to be completed to make the case for why the improvements are justified.
Kittelson plans to take its final recommendations to the Ontario council in January with approval coming as soon as February. That would put the city in good shape to apply for new grants that are expected to become available in March.
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