The City of Saint John will get $150,000 from the federal government to help improve active transportation infrastructure in the city.
Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long was on hand at City Hall on Tuesday morning to announce the funding.
The money will be used for several projects aimed at improving the city’s crosswalk, sidewalk and trail systems, among other things.
“We hear a lot from the community on active transportation and get a lot of requests for crosswalks and sidewalks around the city,” Tim O’Reilly, the city’s director of transportation and public works, said following the announcement.
The city will prepare a plan to identify locations where there is a need for crosswalks and incorporate them with accessible design features.
It will also create a strategy to prioritize and construct missing sections of sidewalks and trails around the city.
O’Reilly said those strategies will rely on several pieces of key information, such as land use throughout the city.
“Land use beside the infrastructure plays a part in where the demand is,” he said. “Also just pure data around where traffic volumes and pedestrian volumes are expected to be.”
The data they collect will also support the community input they have received, said O’Reilly.
The city will also use some of the money to create a road safety strategy that will focus on educating residents and improving safety for all.
O’Reilly said speeding will be the biggest focus area, noting it is a huge concern within the community.
“The number of requests for traffic calming has extremely increased over the last couple of years,” he said.
“Educating road users, especially drivers, around the risks and issues around speeding, especially on neighbourhood streets.”
The city also plans to focus on distracted driving along with other topics that are identified throughout the process.
Deputy Mayor John MacKenzie said active transportation infrastructure like sidewalks and crosswalks are critical as the city continues to grow.
“We need this growth and we need to make sure that we are growing in the right places and adding the right kind of infrastructure,” said MacKenzie.
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