SASKATOON — The City of Saskatoon transportation engineering staff, in collaboration with thousands of residents, recently completed 77 traffic reviews in all established neighbourhoods. This was the first Neighbourhood Traffic Review planned for this program done since 2013.
“Rather than looking at each traffic concern individually, we took a step back and considered the traffic movements, safety requirements and local input for the entire neighbourhood. Public consultation with residents in the neighbourhood was key to understanding and solving each issue,” said Transportation Director Jay Magus.
The NTR program was established to address concerns about speeding, pedestrian safety and shortcutting traffic from residents in a holistic manner, one neighbourhood at a time.
Each review included community meetings, followed by traffic studies to measure vehicular speeds, traffic volumes and pedestrian usage. The data was then analyzed and reviewed to develop recommendations that were presented to residents, businesses and stakeholder groups for review and feedback.
“Our neighbourhood approach to traffic safety was very efficient for reviewing the issues, and also for budgeting and installing any recommended signage, devices and traffic calming measures. A minimum of eight reviews would occur in one year, then we would do the majority of the work for those neighbourhoods the following year,” said Magus.
The city’s NTR program was recognized by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan in 2019 with the Exceptional Engineering/Geoscience Project Award and by the Project Management Institute, North Sask Chapter, with their Project of the Year Award in 2016.
The city would like to thank all residents who participated in the public engagement, as well as the Saskatoon Police Service, City Councillors, community associations, Saskatoon Public Schools, Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools and Great Works Consulting for their partnership.
Neighbourhood Traffic Review final reports and implementation status are available at saskatoon.ca/ntr.
Residents can request a traffic review for speeding concerns by using the Traffic Calming Guide and form at saskatoon.ca/trafficcalming.
Other traffic concerns can be reported to our Customer Care Centre at 306-975-2476 or transportation@saskatoon.ca.
