A new permanent three-way stop could be on the way near Chez Nous.
At the last Timmins council meeting, Coun. Cory Robin brought up exploring if stop signs should be permanently installed on Mountjoy Street North at Vimy Avenue. He asked for a report to see if there is evidence to support having stop signs at the intersection.
“It is an intersection I take many, many times a day and I have been approached by basically every one of my neighbours in the area almost to the point of a petition to put the detour stop signs back,” he said.
During the 2022 Connecting Link work, a temporary three-way stop was put at the corner of Mountjoy Street North and Vimy, where Chez Nous is located.
There is already a stop sign for vehicles on Vimy turning onto Mountjoy. After construction season wrapped up last year, the stop signs on Mountjoy Street North were removed.
Other councillors supported the need for stop signs at the intersection, noting challenges with the line of sight for vehicles turning left and as well as pedestrians crossing the road. The report being brought back to council will also include the impact on emergency services response time.
Coun. Andrew Marks, who uses the intersection to get to work, said the area was much safer when the stop signs were temporarily used during the summer. The majority of people in his office, he said, would like to see the stop signs.
“I think we’ve seen new traffic patterns because of the Connecting Link detours and I think there’s some discussions that should take place around the way traffic patterns have changed and/or can be safer within the City of Timmins,” said Marks.
Based on the success of the summer detour, Coun. Bill Gvozdanovic was supportive of moving the request forward at the meeting.
“We get bogged down in these administrative reports. That detour was there for six months, it was effective, that’s a dangerous area,” he said.
Robin, however, said he wants to make sure that a three-way stop makes sense for everyone using the intersection.
“I don’t want to inconvenience and put other people at risk in other areas of the city who use Mountjoy as a thoroughfare at the benefit of a few of us on Laurier,” he said.
