Orleans residents question city’s decision to remove street from list to prevent speeding

Residents in Orléans say more needs to be done about speeding on their residential street after the city says it no longer qualifies for traffic calming measures.

Dmitri Tcheboterav analyzes data for a living and lately, he’s been analyzing data on Hunter’s Run Drive, where he lives.

He says he’s frustrated by constant speeding along the street towards the intersection of Jeanne D’Arc Boulevard.

"The light is incredibly short which creates an incentive for drivers to try and make the light,” said Tcheboterav.

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In 2021, the city installed temporary measures to slow drivers down, but they were too confusing for some and were removed the following year.

The city also installed a speed board which clocks drivers and collects data, but residents say there’s a problem – it faces the wrong direction.

“The section of Hunter’s Run between Beausejour Drive & Jeanne d'Arc Boulevard was withdrawn from the city’s NTC program’s waiting list for future study in the spring of 2023 based on more recent speed data that no longer met the minimum criteria for NTC screening," read a statement by Heidi Cousineau, the City of Ottawa's manager of traffic safety and mobility

But Tcheboterav doesn’t agree and says the city’s data is flawed. The biggest problem he says, are the solar powered boards used to collect data which don’t always work.

"It’s off during rush hour which is the most dangerous time. I’m looking at my watch, it's 12:17 p.m. in broad daylight and the sign is giving the low power indicator," said Tcheboterav.

Based off an hour of footage he recorded, he thinks the city’s board is reading traffic on the wrong street most of the time.

"It’s such an obvious issue – three quarters of all the data being logged is from cross-traffic," he said.

Over the holidays, a pedestrian was hit crossing the intersection and sustained minor injuries. The 70-year-old driver was charged with failure to yield.

Local resident Randolph Cormier says he crosses the intersection nearly every day and has had four close calls of his own.

"The intersection is poorly designed. The city needs to build a bow nose to push the cars out so the person crossing is further out to the left as you are crossing over," said Cormier.