North Saanich’s Gerald Donaldson shows a piece of fencing damaged when a vehicle failed to navigate the McTavish roundabout near his home in expressing concern about pedestrian safety. Crews have since repaired the fence. (Wolf Depner/News Staff)

A North Saanich is concerned about pedestrian safety near a roundabout.

Gerald Donaldson, who lives off McTavish Road, said vehicles have in the past hopped onto the pedestrian curb that runs along the roundabout leading towards the airport. Along the way, vehicles hit the fence that runs along the curb as evident by dents along it. Most recently, a vehicle actually crashed the fence, he said.

“We have six hits on this fence [over a year and a half],” said Donaldson, who started to notice the dents while talking walks with his wife. “So your chances get less and less all the time.”

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Donaldson said drivers appear to be driving too fast, but also questions the engineering of the roundabout.

“Coming around, that is just too tight of a bend,” he said. “This way, [the car] leans out and it is easy to lose control. It is like walking a gauntlet out there.”

Donaldson said he has raised the issue with the provincial government, the road maintenance contractor, as well as the municipality, in pleading for improvements, so far unsuccessful.

Donaldson also expressed frustration about drivers heading into the roundabout coming out of the airport. Drivers, he said, are not yielding to inside traffic, a behaviour that has caused accidents, as well as countless near-collisions.

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A spokesperson for the ministry of transportation and infrastructure said its new maintenance contractor, Emcon, has fixed the damaged railing.

The spokesperson also pointed that the McTavish roundabout is clearly marked with a 30 km/h speed limit.

For more information on how to drive through a roundabout, see here.

WATCH: Signal early, have patience when negotiating roundabouts

wolfgang.depner@peninsulanewsreview.com