Calgary community tests traffic-calming polka dots

Residents of a northeast Calgary community are hoping that a series of polka-dots painted onto the shoulder of a road will not only make the street more colourful, but more safe.

The intersection of 1st Avenue and 9th Street N.E.has poor visibility and cars often go whizzing by, despite it being a quiet street shared with plenty of pedestrians and cyclists.

"Cars were going really fast through this area and cutting through the neighbourhood and so it wasn't really serving the needs of residents in this community," said Ali McMillan, the planning director for the Bridgeland-RiversideCommunity Association.

"This is kind of the heart of Bridgeland. It's a place where we want a lot of people to walk and gather."

To combat dangerous driving, the city has extended the curbs with long lines of white paint and put up plastic traffic delineators making pedestrians waiting to cross the street more visible, and shortening the time it takes for them to cross.

But, residents wanted to make it a little more visible.

So on Sunday, as part of the traffic-calming pilot project which was funded with a microgrant from Activate YYC they took to the street with paintbrushes.

Activate YYCprovides small grants to temporary local projects, and is funded by theFederation of Calgary Communities, the City of Calgary and non-profit pedestrian advocates Walk21.

The bright colours make the road seem narrower and draw drivers' attention to any pedestrians that might be waiting to cross.

Greg Hart, the program director for Safer Calgary, said he hopes suburban communities look at this project and see opportunities in their own neighbourhoods.

"We would like to see more dollars committed to this kind of infrastructure," he said.

"The basis of a design like this is really to change the psychological perception of people using a space."

He said the only real detriment to drivers is they may have to slow down for about 10 to 15 seconds of their commute.

"Vehicles are in all spaces for only short periods of time whereas the people who live around them are here 24 hours a day, they've invested their lives in living in these places and the notion that we should somehow prioritize the easy movement of a motor vehicle above the requirements of the rest of the population it's a reasonable trade off," he said.

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With files from James Young