Slowing down on Centretown roads
By John Besley
Local governments’ empty purses may prevent action on a consultant’s plan to slow dangerous drivers in Centretown.
At a public meeting March 2, city and regional engineers jointly presented a final draft of the traffic-calming strategy for streets between Bronson Avenue and the canal.
The $120,000 plan, begun more than three years ago, will go to both levels of government in the next few weeks for review.
But officials at the meeting warned residents not to get their hopes up.
“Under the current financial situation, the only way to implement measures like these is to do them at the same time as other repairs to sewers or during major construction” to save money on road crews said Robert Orchin, Ottawa’s manager of transportation services.
Orchin says that some intersection narrowings have occurred in a few instances where the city was doing other work at the corner of MacLaren and Metcalfe streets.
The total cost of the proposed improvements — such as narrowing roads by adding parking, creating more than a dozen raised intersections at major crossings and putting in about 160 speed humps on minor streets — may amount to more than $3 million.
Because major roads such as Kent or Somerset streets are generally the responsibility of the region and smaller roads that of the city, Ottawa’s cost would be about $2 million with the region picking up the rest.
City Coun. Elisabeth Arnold says finding money for the road work “is certainly a problem,” but says she hopes the city will provide funds for a few, simple projects.
“If traffic calming is a priority for people, they have to make that apparent during the pre-budget meetings” in March and April says Arnold.
The plan is not meant as a definitive blueprint for Centretown’s roads. Instead, regional and city staff recommend using it as the basis for future changes to the area.
Orchin says the idea of traffic calming is relatively new and each project will have to be studied individually.
For example, regional staff have asked that no “vertical measures” such as speed humps (not to be mistaken for the harsher speed bump) be implemented until their effect on OC Transpo and regional emergency vehicles is known.
Regional Coun. Diane Holmes says she’ll ask council to disregard staff recommendations and put a few humps on Lyon Street this year. Such a measure would cost only a few thousand dollars, whereas raising an intersection to sidewalk level is estimated to cost $30,000.
In addition to lack of funds, several residents attending the March 2 meeting complained that the slow-down plan relies too heavily on asphalt and concrete and not enough on making the community more attractive.
The consultants suggest incorporating greenery into any project undertaken but Robin Higham, a Centretown homeowner and the co-chair of the city’s urban forest committee, says that isn’t enough.
“My argument is that if a street looks residential then drivers will act like it’s residential and slow down,” said Higham.