Jobs training centre for adults with disabilities calls for new crosswalk

For Jared St.Germain, every trip to the bus stop is now an adventure.

"Couple of near misses there," he says, pointing to the Saint John Transit bus stop across from the Catena Jobs Plus Centre on Grandview Avenue.

St.Germain, who uses a powered wheelchair to get around, works at the Jobs Plus Centre.

The bus stop sign is planted into the gravel shoulder of the two-lane road, which resembles a country highway where it passes the centre.

Because St.Germain can easily get his wheelchair stuck on the soft shoulder, he sometimes has to park it right on the road while waiting.

He says he's also had a couple of close encounters with cars that pulled around to pass the bus while he was attempting to roll across the road.

St.Germain says on one occasion a city fire truck used its lights to stop traffic so he could safely cross.On others, school bus drivers have assisted him by stopping and turningon their flashing lights.

Other near misses

Two other clients of the Jobs Plus Centre, Bill Judge and Faith Wright, also described near-misses while crossing Grandview to the bus stop.

Judge,who walks slowly with the assistance of a cane, says drivers coming from both directions are often speeding.

Senior room supervisor Heather Adams estimates about one quarter of the approximately 70 clients working at the centre use city transit to get to and from work.

"We have no crosswalk, and the bus stop on the other side of the road is, it's not adequate," said Adams. "There's no shoulder, there's no sidewalk down there."

"I'd like to see a better bus stop and a crosswalk with lights. Just so, 'Hey, there's a crosswalk here!'"

Crosswalk approved, but no funding

City traffic engineer Tim O'Reilly says a crosswalk has been approved for the site but the department is working with "limited resources" and there's no funding for the work in the 2019 budget.

He could not give a timeline, but said the cityis piloting a solar powered strobe light system in the area as a traffic calming measure.

The strobes are mounted on speed limit signs near two intersections on Grandview. They begin to flash when a speeding motorist approaches.

"We completed a pre-installation survey of vehicle speeds last year and plan to complete a follow-up survey this year, after the system has been operating for a while, to determine if the system has caused a reduction in recorded speeds," said O'Reilly.

Charles Freake, Transportation Manager with Saint John Transit, says he has had discussions with theCatena training centre about moving the bus stop, but any decision depends on where city traffic officials choose to place a crosswalk.

Harrowing journey across busy street for disabled adults

5 years ago

Duration 0:57

People who work at Catena Jobs Plus Centre, a Saint John jobs training centre for the disabled, say it's not safe to cross the road to a nearby city bus stop.