Residents in the Ferndale Drive North part of the city are voicing their concerns about the amount of speeding in the area, and they hope the city does something about it after a recent fatal crash.
The deadly motorcycle crash took place on June 12 on Ferndale Drive near the city landfill, and saw police close the road between Edgehill Drive and Benson Drive for their investigation at the time.
As for the status of the collision investigation, the final report has not yet been completed, “but it is accurate to say that speed may have been a contributing factor,” police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon told BarrieToday recently.
Sharon Curtis, a resident on Pringle Drive, near the bottom of the hill close to the entrance to the landfill site where the motorcycle crash occurred, calls the roadway “a racetrack.”
“It’s absolutely crazy,” she tells BarrieToday while out for a walk. “I’ve been almost run over at the bottom of the hill and at the top of the hill.”
Curtis sees a police presence there “the odd time” when an officer will sit where the entrance to the landfill is.
“When I’m walking you can almost tell there is a police officer there, because all of a sudden the traffic starts to go real smooth,” she adds.
As far as the large gravel trucks go, of which there is a near steady stream of them travelling through the neighbourhood, she isn’t too concerned. “They are alright for the most part.”
Curtis thinks the main problem is when vehicles travel down the hill at a high rate of speed.
“Maybe they need more (speed limit) warnings like flashing lights,” she says.
“Ferndale Drive has always been a road that has received attention from the Traffic Unit and will continue to be,” Leon said of the police effort to slow down speeders in the area.
Deputy Mayor Robert Thomson, the councillor in Ward 5 which includes this part of Ferndale Drive, is aware of the issue with the hill and the speeding.
“There’s no homes, it’s downhill, it’s wide — that’s the formula to drive fast,” he told BarrieToday on Friday.
Installation of advance-green signals at intersections, and adding a flashing warning light at the top of the hill by the landfill to warn oncoming drivers when there is a red light at the intersection, will minimize traffic running red lights, Thomson said. “These are safety measures to deal with speeding.”
Council has previously deployed technology to record speeds in the area, which then gets a police response to perform radar enforcement in the area, he added.
“But right now, there is nothing in the works to change the design of the road as it is an arterial road as it brings in traffic from Springwater (Township), said Thomson.
Speed zone cameras — which are currently in use throughout the city — are solely in community safety zones for the time being.
Yamilk Palacio lives on the other end of the area of concern on Ferndale, at the top of the hill.
She said it’s hard to get out of her driveway sometimes due to the amount of speeders coming up over the hill by her house.
“A lot of people go too fast, especially motorcycles in the summer,” she said. “It is very bad.”
Palacio thinks more should be done, “as there are a lot of kids (in the area). It should be better.”
Nearby, Carlos Bettencourt pushes a stroller along the sidewalk and passes by Palacio’s home. He visits Barrie regularly to spend time with his young grandchildren and take them out for walks in the sunshine.
Speeding is definitely his main issue with Ferndale Drive, although he isn’t sure the best solution for slowing people down.
“Maybe set up some cameras?,” he says.
His young grandson points and waves to the traffic going by. He loves to see the big trucks, but Bettencourt would love to see them slow down.
