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City bylaw now requires commercial sites on arterial roads to have exit safety triangles

The City of Grande Prairie has amended the traffic safety bylaw so that any commercial sites or industrial zones sitting on arterial roads are now required to have exit safety triangles.

Senior Planner Dan Whelton says the idea was brought to council after members of city staff identified a need to address what they believe is safety when larger industrial sites are adjacent to arterial roads.

“We felt that by putting this section into the land use bylaw, we’d address a potential safety hazard,” he says.

Whelton feels that drivers and pedestrians in these commercial sites will feel more comfortable with the changes in place, as drivers can see oncoming traffic or pedestrians on the sidewalk. Whelton adds these are common in other provinces and that was helpful when contemplating the amendment.

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“Having the safety triangles in place prevents any buildings, signs, or tall landscaping from going up in a particular zone in industrial areas in the city,” he says.

“The regulations that we have are similar to what we found in other bylaws. We identified two in Ontario that are very similar to what we have added to our bylaw.”

Whelton says the amendment mirrors the existing provisions in our bylaw that address traffic safety triangles and traffic safety at intersections.

“Throughout the city, there are intersections of two roads. The bylaw ensures that there’s nothing within safety triangle areas to maintain a safe amount of traffic visibility. We’ve now applied that same principle for exiting onto arterial roads from commercial and industrial properties.”

The changes took effect following Monday’s city council meeting.

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