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Originally Posted by Arts
And Wanuskewin/Hwy11 intersection proves fatal again, this time taking an entire family. My blood is boiling over this. How many more?
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Agree 100%. We are well past the time to do something about this deathtrap. Even though this most recent tragedy can be blamed on drunk driving, the mast majority of the all-too-regular serious collisions at this location cannot. Oddly enough, I don't think that there is anything particularly wrong with the design - if it was a lightly used interchange. Unfortunately, it is not and deaths will continue to mount.
As a Warman resident for many years, I have been through this intersection approximately 10,000 times, so I am aware of the high collision frequency and am very cautious when driving though it on the way into Saskatoon. For simplicity, I will refer to Highway 11 as running north-south and Waneskewin Road running east-west. Almost all of the collisions are the result of driver error, most of them due to visibility for west bound traffic on Waneskewin Road trying to cross Highway 11 being restricted because of long lineups of vehicles southbound on Highway 11 wanting to turn east onto Waneskewin Road. The vehicles wanting to cross the highway cannot adequately see the traffic approaching the intersection southbound on Highway 11. As a result, they either nose into the left through lane until they can see (meaning that they are partially blocking that lane) or, far worse, try to make a quick sprint through what they hope is an adequate break in the traffic.
I was shocked when the 90kmh speed zone was not placed at the Waneskewin corner at the same time that one was set up on Highway 12 adjacent to Martensville . Though lower speeds might not significantly lower the incidents of collisions, it would certainly impact the severity of them.
Although it will cause a delay in commuting time, I believe that the vast majority of Highway 11 users would be in favour of the immediate erection of traffic lights at this interchange. Is this the best solution? Certainly not, but until the Perimeter Highway is undertaken and the impact on Waneskewin Road is determined, we cannot realistically expect to see an overpass constructed there. One of the news reports on this tragedy mentioned the possibility of a
high-speed traffic circle. In my opinion,
high-speed and
traffic circle don't belong in the same sentence. I'd be curious to see how that would work. I've also heard calls for the elimination of left turns from Highway 11 onto Waneskewin Road, however, I don't see that as being a realistic option, given the volume of traffic currently making that turn.
It's terrible that an entire family had to be killed in order to get some action, but I do believe this incident will finally be the straw that breaks the Highway 11/Waneskewin Road back and will result in changes being made.
Update: No Lights to be installed
Doug Wakabayashi from Sask Highways announced today that they would not be putting in lights at the corner, nor would there be and interchange as this intersection will be abandoned when the Perimeter Highway is constructed.
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"It's an urban fringe environment where drivers aren't expecting traffic lights," he said, adding they have studied data from other jurisdictions. "When you put traffic signals at those sorts of environments, any reduction you see in right angle and t-bone collisions is typically more than offset in rear end collisions and at highways speeds, rear end collisions can be very serious."
Residents won't see an overpass at the intersection either because of the future Saskatoon Freeway. The section of the freeway that connects with Highway 11 will create an overpass right next to the Wanuskewin turn. Once the overpass is complete, the Wanuskewin intersection will be closed.
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Full story:
http://ckom.com/article/450674/minis...s-intersection
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