A Halifax city councillor is speaking out about road markings, or lack thereof, calling the situation a public safety issue.
Across the municipality, road markings have become mere scratches of paint, some wiped away entirely.
“When you get thousands of pounds of metal and plastic going towards each other, because they don't know which lane they ought to be in, that's a huge safety concern,” says Councillor Steve Craig.
Craig has requested a staff report to find out why this is happening. Many other councillors quickly agreed there's a problem.
“It's become a severe public safety issue,” says Councillor Linda Mosher. “This is the worst that I have seen it since I became a councillor, somebody dropped the ball.”
The councillors are not the only ones who are concerned; resident John Percy is also looking for answers.
“To me this is a relatively new phenomenon,” says Percy. “I've seen streets that have been painted and they last for years, and here we're looking at a season. This doesn't make sense.”
He says he understands there are budget constraints but says, someone needs to find the money to address this concern.
“What's a person's life worth? What's a child's life worth? Put a price on it,” says Percy. “Until someone does, you'll just have to keep searching for those crosswalks, that don't seem to exist.”
Craig hopes the staff report he's requested will help answer some questions about why the road markings are in the current state. Questions like, why does the municipality only paint once a year? Is the best paint being used? And is it being applied correctly?
“If there are options there and they have budget implications, we want to know that too,” says Craig.
Craig says he hopes to have that staff report before council starts looking at the next budget, which means residents are looking at another five months before councillors get a handle on why this is happening.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell
