Okay, good evening, everyone, and welcome to the municipal safety committee meeting of November 13th, 2025.

Joining uh me this evening as chair, our committee members, counselors Gamash, Higgins, Peach, and Rosignal.

Also, it looks like we have a full compliment of the councils this evening.

Uh with that, there are a couple of items on the agenda.

And uh we will start with an update from Captain Richards regarding the Lowell Street and King Street and Cott Street intersections.

Captain Richards, thank you for joining us this evening.

I know you have um you're very busy, and uh we appreciate your time to address these important issues.

So with that, I'll turn it over to you for the moment.

All right.

So I'll just give you a quick update on that intersection.

As you know, uh in years past we had um uh a plethora of motor vehicle accidents at that intersection.

A few years back, we actually updated the um striping on the road to create a left-turn only lane coming uh eastbound on Lowell Street towards the um square.

And then last year, uh actually it was about a year ago, we installed a new mass light, uh, a mast arm with traffic lights and traffic signals at that intersection.

Um I've done some accident data um on that intersection going back about five years, and it appears that the accidents uh were reduced somewhat in 2024 um by I think uh some of the striping that helped, and in 2025, they went down a little bit.

Actually, they were a little higher in 2025 than 2024.

But going back to 2020, we had nine recorded accidents at that intersection.

In 2021, we had 11.

In 2022, we had 14, which was the high number, and then in 2023, they slightly come they come down to about seven or eight, and then in twenty-four they went down to four, and in twenty-five we had six.

Of those six motor vehicle accidents that we had in 2025, or since that mast arm and the new traffic signals were installed, three of those were simple rear renders where people were not paying attention when the person in front of them stopped at the light and they rear render them.

So that doesn't have anything to do with the lights or the geographical setup of the uh intersection.

That's just people not paying attention.

Um one of the accidents was somebody coming eastbound on Lowell Street, taking a left into the Ampett gas station who cut right in front of an individual that went through a green light at the intersection and cut right in front of them and got hit.

Another one was somebody taking a left-hand turn heading uh westbound on Lowell Street to go up King Street.

Scenario is just reversed.

They took a left right in front of a car that was coming through a green light going up the hill because they didn't want to wait.

That's a patience issue.

It has nothing to do with the lights or anything.

And the sixth accident that we had there was uh the young uh kid that got hit on a um electric uh bike that was going through the intersection, and that uh unfortunately that was unavoidable.

That was the the kid on the bike and and the other kids that uh were at fault at that.

So those are the accidents we had in 2025.

Um it's not a huge number.

I think that the installation of the mast arm and the lights and the new visibility of the lights has certainly improved things there, and I think the striping a year or two before that of the uh lane taking the left onto Endercross Street has certainly helped.

Um that's what I have for that intersection at this point.

Thank you, Captain.

Uh with that, I'll uh defer to Councillor Daigle.

Do you have any questions?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

No, um that thank you, Captain Richards.

I know that's a little bit of deep diving to look into for the past five years, but I I I am pleased to hear that the mast arm seems to be effective.

Um I'm not there all the time, but I did witness a lot of accidents prior to that installation, and maybe if it's coincidence, but I haven't seen any, so I think I think that's effective.

I think there are other factors.

It's it is a tough spot, and as you know, as we move on, there are um certainly other factors that might play into a lot of these traffic incidents.

But I I appreciate you doing that research, and I think this was worth our investment of what we called four years ago the most dangerous intersection in the PBD in PBD.

Maybe we've changed that.

So thank you and thank you, Councillor Manning Martin.

Thank you, Council Dagle.

Any other counselors have any comments?

We also have somebody on Zoom this evening.

And uh if we have any other uh residents who would like to participate on Zoom or or present this evening, I'll open it up.

So we do have someone on Zoom this evening.

Uh would that has that person indicated that they would like to speak if they raise their hand?

If so, would the resident please do so if you'd like to comment on this subject?

No reaction.

Okay, we'll with that we will move on to item B, which involves um e-bikes.

And would like Captain Richards to discuss what ordinances we have in place, what issues we have in enforcing those ordinances, and in particular what the agenda item is um Main Street and downtown sidewalks, um and the use of e-bikes on those sidewalks.

But we have uh heard from a lot of residents on regarding other issues areas uh where e-bikes may be um need to be addressed.

If you could tell us what could be addressed and specifically in addition, would be the bike path, if you could.

Thank you, Captain Richards.

Well, e-bikes are are a fairly new phenomenon around here, and they're becoming much more technical and much more uh easy to use, even for kids, uh and they're becoming faster and faster, and they can be modified to go faster than they're they're built to be.

Um so we are having an issue uh with electric bikes in in the area, and and of course, I going back to what I mentioned earlier about the accident at Endercart and Lowell, um, the individual that got hit by the car wasn't on an electric bike and and went through that intersection on an electric bike.