WATERLOO REGION - You can find good, bad and ugly in the newest traffic safety collision report of our busiest local roads.

The good news: Total collisions, traffic deaths, and cyclist collisions are all down.

The bad news: The number of pedestrians being hit has been trending up.

The ugly news: A notorious Kitchener roundabout has been officially declared the region's most dangerous road. It replaced a traffic light in 2011 near St. Mary's High School at Homer Watson Boulevard and Block Line Road. Crossing guards help students cross it.

Worried about replicating its dangers, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board has helped stall a proposal to replace two traffic lights with roundabouts near St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge.

But it turns out both traffic lights near the high school are also unsafe, now ranked seventh and ninth among the region's most dangerous roads.

"There are challenges and benefits with both roundabouts and signalized intersections in front of the school as the volume of traffic is significant," said Shesh Maharaj, treasurer for the Catholic board. "Our hope is the region will closely monitor this intersection if it is modified to ensure our students and community members are safe."

Stalled traffic circles proposed near St. Benedict will be reconsidered after the roundabouts installed elsewhere along Franklin Boulevard have time to operate. A public survey at regionofwaterloo.ca is soliciting roundabout feedback until March 31.

Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig figures residents are warming to roundabouts. "I think the discussion will be less emotional and more rational on how to implement (roundabouts) and also how to still secure the safety of students," he said.

Politicians hailed good traffic news Tuesday while debating the latest safety report.

"The trends are good," said Coun. Tom Galloway, of Kitchener.

The new report is limited to regional roads, the busiest routes carrying the most traffic, along with all traffic lights in the region. Here's what it found for 2016:

• Total collisions, now at 16 per day, have fallen to 20-year low, measured per resident. Cycling collisions, now one every four days, have also fallen to a 20-year low, per resident.

• Six people were killed on regional roads, a 19-year low when measured per resident. Typically 10 people are killed each year on regional roads.

• Pedestrian collisions have been trending up over 20 years, measured per resident. There were 126 pedestrians hit and injured in 2016. One pedestrian was killed.

"There are more people out walking," said Bob Henderson, regional manager of transportation engineering.

Steps are underway to make streets and crosswalks safer for pedestrians, including installing countdown signals, setting crosswalks farther from turning traffic, and making crosswalks more visible.

Coun. Geoff Lorentz, of Kitchener, is dismayed to hear that regional government has no new answer to fixing the unsafe roundabout on Homer Watson Boulevard, after tweaking speeds and paint and signs and lanes and sending educational brochures to every household.

"It seems to me we engineered this, and there's got to be a reason we can make it safer," he said.

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The Homer Watson roundabout, the worst of 29 traffic circles built by regional government, saw 494 collisions over five years, more than double the collisions of any other road among the top 10 most dangerous.

As with other roundabouts, most collisions were minor fender-benders, with no fatalities and few serious injuries. It does not rank among the worst locations for pedestrians.

The Homer Watson roundabout has not until now been directly compared to other roads because it lacked five years of collision records. Now that it does, it has vaulted to the worst ranking, displacing the nearby traffic light at Homer Watson and Ottawa Street, now ranked the second-worst road in the region.

Two other roundabouts rank among the top 100 most dangerous roads, including Ira Needles Boulevard at Erb Street/Erbsville Road in Waterloo (ranked 55) and Ira Needles at Highland Road in Kitchener (ranked 96). A dozen roundabouts are still excluded from danger rankings because they have fewer than five years of collision records.

Traffic planners argue that the Homer Watson roundabout challenge is not its design, but poor driving by motorists who are typically in middle age and who don't understand how to yield. If so, this may only be solved by time, and continuing education.

"People have to learn patience," Wilmot Township Mayor Les Armstrong said.

Regional government is being sued for $17 million over the roundabout's safety by a St. Mary's student who was hit and injured by a bus while crossing there in 2011. The lawsuit is not yet resolved, after expanding to include consultants who helped design the roundabout. The bus driver was acquitted of careless driving.

Three sections of Homer Watson Boulevard now rank as the top three most dangerous roads in the region, the traffic report reveals. Planners suspect this reflects its 70 km/h speed limit, its limited access, and the mindset this induces in drivers.

A study is underway that could see recommendations to alter parts of the road. Simply reducing the speed limit is unlikely to work, Henderson warned politicians, without physical changes to the road.

The dangerous traffic light at Homer Watson and Ottawa is to be replaced this year by a roundabout that's expected to move traffic more effectively, but also double the number of fender-benders.

Traffic planners have concluded that motorists are generally OK with trading more fender-benders for better flow at roundabouts, understanding that it's far harder to be hurt or killed at a roundabout.

Top 10 most dangerous roads, 2016

1. Roundabout at Homer Watson Boulevard and Block Line Road in Kitchener.

2. Traffic light at Homer Watson and Ottawa Street in Kitchener.

3. Traffic light at Homer Watson and Manitou Drive/Doon Village Road in Kitchener.

4. Victoria Street between Bruce and Edna streets in Kitchener.

5. Franklin Boulevard between Clyde Road (Samuelson Street) and Savage Drive in Cambridge.

6. Traffic light at Fairway Road and Wilson Avenue in Kitchener.

7. Traffic light at Franklin and Can-Amera Parkway in Cambridge.

8. Traffic light at Hespeler Road and Bishop Street in Cambridge.

9. Traffic light at Franklin and Elgin Street/Saginaw Parkway in Cambridge.

10. Eagle Street North between Hespeler and Industrial Road in Cambridge.

