‘Afraid for my life’: Half Moon Bay residents raise alarm over traffic safety as Barrhaven grows

Residents on Regatta Avenue, including Kerry Nicholson, say speeding traffic, a lack of safe crossings and growing congestion are putting their families at risk, as they question whether infrastructure is keeping pace with development in Barrhaven. (Leah Larcoque/CTV News Ottawa)

For residents living along Regatta Avenue in Barrhaven’s Half Moon Bay neighbourhood, crossing the street can mean waiting several minutes for a break in traffic.

“It’s very difficult to cross safely because it takes me about maybe five minutes to wait until there’s no more traffic so that I can get to the other side,” says resident Stella Kim.

Kim says she has had frightening encounters with drivers.

“I was afraid for my life because that was a near miss. And it happened twice.”

Anges Kittoe-Affum says the family has had several close calls, forcing them to keep their children away from part of their own yard.

“My children cannot play in the yard outside of the makeshift fence (on our lawn),” Kittoe-Affum said, adding that vehicles have spun out onto the lawn during the winter.

“Fingers crossed. Hopefully none of them go really fast into the home.”

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Residents say new homes continue to go up but the infrastructure needed to support them isn’t keeping pace.

“There’s a lot of houses that are actually being built, but I don’t see the infrastructure that’s keeping up,” Kim said. “I don’t see proactive infrastructure that’s actually being managed to accommodate the planning of new housing and people.”

Residents argue that combination creates a dangerous situation when pedestrians are also forced to navigate busy roads without convenient or safe crossing points.

“You have people crossing trying to get through cars. You have drivers that are distracted, that are frustrated and just wanting to rush to get places, and the two just don’t mix,” said Kerry Nicholson.

Nicholson says drivers use Regatta as a throughway, with little to interrupt the flow of vehicles.

“This is the only road in all of Half Moon Bay that does not have stop signs halfway down to break up the traffic,” Nicholson said.

‘Extremely high growth ward’

The area’s councillor, Coun. David Hill, acknowledges the pressures that come with the neighbourhood’s rapid growth.

The councillor describes the ward as an “extreme high growth ward,” saying its population has increased by more than 30 per cent since the 2022 municipal election.

Hill says managing that growth while keeping up with infrastructure, amenities and changing traffic patterns is a significant challenge.

“All of Cambrian is going to see some modifications as a result of the Greenbank realignment. In the case of Regatta at this time, it’s unwarranted to put in any kind of a three way stop or modification there, but it’s still on the inventory and we’re still going to be keeping keep an eye on that because it’s a concern area for sure,” Hill said.

The councillor says the street remains on the city’s inventory of areas being monitored because of safety concerns.

About a year to a year and a half ago, Hill brought forward a motion at the city’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee asking staff to revisit how the city manages its traffic-calming process.

The motion followed the collision involving a young child near San Juan Diego School, which prompted immediate modifications to the area.

The councillor says rapidly growing neighbourhoods can require infrastructure changes that weren’t anticipated when communities were originally planned five or 10 years earlier.

“We use a system, it’s data driven. We bring traffic engineers to take a look at all of the different sites where there are concerns about safety, because certainly I don’t want to see any more accidents and there already are,” Hill said.

“There’s too many as there are. So, we get traffic engineers to look at these sites and also get more police out here to enforce inappropriate compliance on the road.”

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