The traffic circle at Foothills and 18th is a waste of public money.
The verbiage the city put out in announcing the project talked about it as an “uncontrolled intersection.”
Not sure if anybody from the city has visited the location, but it is in fact a corner (where Foothills turns into 18th). Traffic around this corner is free flowing and there are no “network capacity” issues. There is no “adjacent development” to serve west or south of 18th and so there is no traffic flow to control. There has never been an unsafe incident at this location and while traffic circles promote intersection safety for vehicles, they increase the hazard for pedestrians, a concern when so many pedestrians use the Foothills walkway.
Is this a dishonest attempt to announce the extension of the Foothills Blvd. to the south? The city frequently uses the "city was projected to have a population of 120,000" card to justify the high cost of servicing the city now. The only reason there would be to warrant a traffic circle would be if Foothills Blvd. was extended to the south, which if done in the short-term and in light of the population not meeting projections, would be irresponsible.
Citizens for Ginter's Meadow, be afraid.
If it came, future development could fund the traffic circle, but until then, and when needed (definitely not now), a $1,000 dollar three-way stop would provide a safe mechanism to tide things over. There are just so many places in the city that the $1.6M could have been better spent.
Julian Haysom
Prince George
