The 4-way stop at the Murray Street and Reaume Avenue intersection has officially been removed in Wallaceburg.
Mark Ceppi, engineering technologist for the Municipality, told the Sydenham Current at the location that crews turned on the pedestrian crossover and removed the lights and signs for the all-way stop on Friday morning.
Ceppi said the pedestrian crossover devices are easy to use.
“Whenever you come up to the edge of the roadway to start crossing, always hit the button,” he said.
“Then your next step would be to look at the traffic and make sure there is a gap and make sure they are stopping for you and then you go. Then per Highway Traffic Act regulations, as long as someone is on the cross walk, all vehicles have to stop. They cannot cross the crosswalk at all. Even if a pedestrian is on one side of the road and you are travelling on the other side of the road, you still have to stop until all pedestrians are completely off the crosswalk.”
Ceppi said even if the light is flashing if you are a pedestrian just coming up to the crosswalk, it’s always good to hit the button again.
“That will reset the timer and add the full time again,” he said.
“If you are arriving after some other pedestrians you may not have the full amount of flash time. We have them programmed for 19 seconds and that is based on the crossing distance and plus an initial flash time which is kind of like a reaction time for people to know that traffic is stopping. So whenever you come to the crosswalk, press the button whether it is flashing or not.”
Ceppi said Municipal crews have replaced all the applicable signage in the area as well.
“Right around where we use to have the ‘stop ahead’ signs, we now have ‘pedestrian crossover ahead’ signs. It is a yellow overhead sign that shows the crosswalk symbol, and then right above that we have the circular ‘new sign’ to emphasize that it is a new device that we have installed. We will be keeping the new signs up for the next month or so.
Ceppi said once people are used to it, the ‘new sign’ portion will come down.
In the spring of 2016, Ceppi said municipal staff visited the Murray Street and Reaume Avenue intersection and conducted traffic counts.
“The result was that the pedestrian crossover was warranted for this intersection but the all way stop was not,” Ceppi said.
“We can’t run both, so the decision was made to install the pedestrian crossover and remove the all way stop.”
With the first day of school slated for Tuesday, Ceppi said he plans on being at the intersection to help children and parents with the new pedestrian crossover device.
Chatham-Kent council originally approved the removal of the 4-way stop back in August of last year.
Multiple reports on social media say a crash occurred at the intersection on Friday afternoon, only hours after the 4-way stop was removed.
However, few details are available at this time.
– Photo credit: Aaron Hall
There was a crash at around 3-4 , about 4 hours after they changed it . Looks like a van stopped and a truck didn’t , both on Murray.