Council approves all way stop downtown

North Bay City Council has approved a 4 way stop sign at Main West and Cassells.

Chair of Engineering and Works Councillor Tanya Vrebosch says it’s being done for safety reasons.

She says there have been 18 collisions over the last 3 years including 9 last year.

She says they could have been potentially prevented.

As well, Vrebosch says staff predicts traffic will increase from its current 500 vehicles an hour so there’s some preventative medicine going on here too.

Vrebosch says more businesses are going in the area, there’s the health unit moving to Oak Street and Marina Point could be expanding in the future.

Vrebosch says there’s a 2 way stop sign there now and they want to make the area safe for pedestrians.

The city looks at putting in all way stop signs when the average amount of collisions is 6 a year over a three year period and that’s where Cassells and Main is right now.