Greenwood Drive Safety Improvements

Over the past few years the City received numerous complaints of speeding and requests for traffic calming and sidewalks on Greenwood Drive and Dafoe Street. The City, with the help of a Traffic Consultant, reviewed the concerns and identified changes to improve the overall safety for all residents and users of the neighborhood streets. In July, 2021, the City wrote to advise you of these proposed changes, which were planned to be phased-in over time, as budget permitted.

Phase 1 was implemented in 2021, and included a speed reduction to 30km/hr on Greenwood Drive, Dafoe Street, Greenwood Court, Greenwood Place, Laird Place, and Dafoe Place, as well as a reduction to 20km/hr for the advisory speed for the lower corner of Greenwood Drive. Following the signage change, the City conducted speed monitoring and unfortunately, as residents have likely observed, the signage changes had very limited impact on driver behavior. The City is now planning to proceed with both Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the identified recommendations. The City is notifying residents about the works and gathering any feedback before it proceeds.

What does it mean for residents?

• A sidewalk on the north side of Greenwood Drive, connecting along Dartmouth Drive to Pineview Road, will be installed early next spring. In order to minimize the impact to adjacent properties, the new sidewalk will mostly be placed within the existing road width (ie. the existing North curb will become the back of the new sidewalk). As a result, parking will be restricted in some areas to one-side only (primarily along the lower end of Greenwood Drive).
• Following the construction of the new roundabout at Pineview Road and South Main Street planned for next year, further changes will be made to prohibit the cut-through vehicle traffic on Greenwood Drive. This will be accomplished by installing a traffic diverter island on Greenwood Drive at Dafoe Street.
• While both sections of Greenwood Drive (lower and upper) will permit two-way traffic, only motorists driving uphill from the bottom section of Greenwood Drive will be able to access the upper section. Motorists on the upper section will be redirected via Dafoe Street to Pineview Road. As Greenwood Drive will remain a Cycling route, the diverter island will be designed in a way which will permit Cyclists to utilize Greenwood Drive in both directions.

The draft plans for all of the work can be found in the Documents section. You are invited to submit feedback and sign up for an upcoming online information session on October 13 beginning at 6:30 pm. The City recognizes that this is a critical route to school for many kids, and that it has endured increased vehicle traffic as a result of the signalized intersection at Green Avenue and South Main. We appreciated your patience while we assessed the best way to address these issues, and look forward to hearing your feedback about the proposed changes.

How can I get involved?

1. Review the materials on this site.
2. Register to attend the online information session on October 13 between 6:30 and 7:30 pm
3. Submit your feedback in Let's Discuss by October 16. If you prefer, you can email your comments to getconnected@penticton.ca.
4. Have questions and can't attend the info session? Share them in Let's Discuss below or contact staff by emailing Chandra Moncrieff or phone 250-490-2500.