Halifax asks whether controversial traffic-calming islands in Cole Harbour are working

Halifax will look at a series of traffic-calming islands in Cole Harbour, after residents and the area's councillor argued they are ineffective and dangerous.

On Wednesday, Coun. Trish Purdy asked Halifax Regional Municipality staff to report on options to remove the islands on Colby Drive that were first installed in 2019 as a pilot project. They are oblong, concrete median islands with signposts in the middle of the roadway, found between Flagstone and Greenwich drives.

Purdy said she's heard regular complaints about the islands, and a traffic analyst with Halifax has told her drivers' speeds have not gone down as expected.

"This pilot project has not been repeated anywhere in HRM because it was a failure," Purdy said during the transportation standing committee meeting.

Walter Strachan lives near the traffic islands, and said he's seen them cause multiple near-misses and two serious collisions. In one incident, Strachan said a car left the roadway and hit a power pole, while the other saw a driver hit the island and roll their car over into a neighbouring lawn.

"Thank God the kids that normally play there weren't there that day," Strachan said.

"Someday, someone's going to … hit somebody walking on the sidewalk and they're going to get injured or worse."

Strachan said narrowing the road in this way creates pinch points where cyclists can't be safely passed by cars.

'That's not on us'

But Coun. Waye Mason said the point of traffic-calming tools is to slow vehicles down — and people should not be driving fast enough to flip their car if they hit an island on a residential street.

"That's not on us. That's on them. Don't drive like that," Mason said.

Coun. Shawn Cleary amended the motion to ask for more data on the islands' effectiveness and any changes that might be needed, which could eventually include removal. He said it's important to get hard numbers on collisions and driver speeds before taking them out.

"What I've heard is anecdotal and suppositional rather than evidence," Cleary said.

The committee passed Cleary's amendment, so a report with data will come back to the committee at a later date.