A Facebook post from a local mother is drawing attention to the four-way stop at Milligan and Okotoks Drive after two close calls for her son.

Eleven-year-old Rain walks, bikes, or scooters to and from school every day, and as such, has been educated on proper pedestrian etiquette and intersection rules.

Despite that, Rain complained to his parents of nearly being struck by a vehicle at the intersection on two consecutive days.

His mother, Jolene Shewchuk, says one vehicle actually made contact with him.

"The first one that he complained about was a car that was stopped at the intersection. Before looking up, they took their foot off the gas and started to roll into the intersection, so they didn't actually see him crossing, and the car actually touched him as the driver looked up and realized he was there."

The next day, a truck sped past Rain, having blown through the intersection.

Frustrated and seeing how shaken her son was, Jolene posted to a local group hoping to reach any locals who regularly commute in the area and get them to slow down and take their time.

It turns out quite a few fellow group members have a bone to pick with that particular intersection.

"I didn't know what to expect when I posted it. I just hoped to reach the most amount of people to be like 'pay attention, there's obviously something going on, we're in too much of a rush.' I didn't actually expect to get 95 per cent of people saying 'yeah, that's a terrible intersection.'"

The intersection is situated close to the recreation centre and both Okotoks Junior High School and Percy Pegler School, with many students using the crosswalk when travelling to and from school or visiting the Circle K on the other side of Milligan.

Shewchuk doesn't place all the blame on irresponsible drivers disregarding pedestrians and says the intersection is fairly unconventional when it comes to four-way stops, something commenters seemed to agree on.

"With so many lanes of traffic across Milligan, representing a four-way stop properly is hard to do. Especially if you aren't from the area and aren't familiar that it is a four-way stop. Then add to the fact that you could be in high-traffic times with kids letting out of school. It gets hairy!"

One commenter said they often see police and bylaw officers in the area, though Shewchuk says they're likely looking out for speeders rather than enforcing the way drivers interact with the intersection, which she'd like to see.

She's hoping the Town of Okotoks is already aware, or might soon take notice of her concerns, and would consider changing the intersection in some way.

One option would be a pedestrian crossing, similar to the one further west where Milligan meets Veterans Way.

While that might address the issue of pedestrian safety, Shewchuk says drivers probably wouldn't benefit from the change.

"Any intersection that has a pedestrian crossing is a great start because it flashes and lets drivers know that someone is crossing, but this intersection with it being so large, before and after school at those specific times of day, those pedestrian lights would be linking for an hour straight. So I can't see that being the solution.

Instead, she thinks traffic lights would be a better fit.

"If there were lights put in at that intersection, it seems like it'd be a more fair split of time for both pedestrians to cross safely and the drivers to have their time that they can logically cross that street without having to worry about pedestrians... and it'd give everyone an equal amount of safe time at that intersection."

She plans to bring her concerns to the town and to offer a suggestion or two for how they might be remedied.

 

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