School bus drivers raise questions about mini Charlottetown roundabout

Some school bus drivers say improvements are needed at a traffic circle at the intersection of BrackleyPoint Road and Oak Drive in Charlottetown.

Described as a smaller-than-normalminiroundabout, the project was intended to improve traffic flow and safety.Theproject cost was estimated at $765,000 when it was constructed in 2016.

A representative from theunion that represents school bus drivers on P.E.I.says it slows large vehicles downand can't have been built with school buses in mind.

"I find that it is tight to navigate and have heard members say it was very tight to get through," said RobertCoughlin, vice-president of theCUPElocal 1145 and a school bus driver.

School bus driver Jason MacKinnon navigates the roundabout on his route every day.

He said there's simply not enough room for large vehicles to get around, especially in the winter.

With a build-up of snow and ice, it can make approaching the intersection stressful.

"When we come down there, we are watching everything," MacKinnon said.

"We have sevenmirrors to navigate, we have kids on board, we come across a small roundabout like this we have to put that into our portfolio as well, to navigate around this properly, safely, so nobody gets hurt and we don't cause accidents, or traffic delays and things like that."

'Holding up the traffic'

Another problem, he said,is that cars waiting to enter the roundaboutoften don't give vehicles inside it enough room to get by.

"The fact that when the vehicles come to the stop of the roundabout, they are not navigating it properly for us to get around," MacKinnonsaid."So when that happens we are holding up the traffic behind us, and the traffic that's coming on is waiting for that vehicle to go through."

The pair would like to see the roundabout widened and thestop lines at each entrance to the roundabout moved farther back. That wouldkeepvehiclesat a safe distance when buses or trucks are trying to get around.

The city says when the roundabout was first installed, there were several complaintsbut that it hasn't received any in over a year.

City says no complaints in past year

"How it is designed, it is designed for larger vehicles, including buses," said Scott Adams, Charlottetown's manager ofpublic works.

He says the centre area is designed to be "mountable" meaning rear tires of the larger vehicles couldgo on top of the centre circle.

But he said,no modifications are in the works for the roundabout because they have not had any official complaints.

"We would have to receivecomplaints and then we would review it and determine if there would be any need to modify it," Adams said.

He saidthestop lines have faded out over the winter, but will be repainted in the spring.

In a statement to the CBC, the Public Schools Branch says they have not received any complaints from drivers about this roundabout.

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