By Robin Thorneycroft
With winter hitting Kent Street’s $600,000 traffic-calming project, the changes are creating as much confusion as calm.
Small sidewalk extensions have been erected at a number of intersections to narrow Kent Street and shift traffic side to side. The lateral shifts cause traffic to zigzag down the street from Flora to MacLaren. Traffic begins on one side of the street, and by the next intersection it is shifted to the other side.
The project, completed in November, aims to improve the streetscape for residents and to slow down traffic.
It is part of a pilot program to lower speeds to posted limits throughout the Centretown area. The changes made to Kent Street are not necessarily permanent. Doug Brousseau, project director, says city councillors will evaluate the project in six months
“I hate it,” says Gino Ianni.
“I don’t think anybody likes it. They didn’t do it right.”
Ianni, owner of Mico Angelo’s Pizzeria, says from his window he still sees people “screaming off the Queensway” as usual but now the streets are worse because people don’t know where they are driving.
“The two shifts can be confusing the first few times, as a driver I can admit that,” says Coun. Elisabeth Arnold.She attributes much of the confusion to the unclear lanes.
In some places it appears there are two sets of lines. The old traffic lines were ground out of the street but the dashed pattern still remains.
As well, the snow and slush of winter make the new lines virtually invisible, creating unclear lanes to guide drivers.
Arnold adds the street is scheduled to be resurfaced and repainted in the spring to get rid of the original lines completely.
Despite the unclear lines Arnold says the street is safer. She says she has had compliments from pedestrians who say the outcrops make the crossing distance shorter.
“There haven’t been accidents as a result of the changes,” says Arnold. “In fact the number of accidents has decreased [compared to same time previous years].”
Ianni says businesses are also unhappy with the changes to parking. Kent Street used to have three hours of free parking on one side. Now it has meters.
“We didn’t impact parking,” says Brousseau, “as a part of traffic calming we added parking to the other side of the street in off peak hours.”
The city considered other traffic-calming options, such as speed humps like those on Lyon Street and raised intersections. When all consultations were completed, the city decided to try lateral shifts, in part because they are easier for buses and emergency vehicles to use.
The project may be torn out completely if it doesn’t appear to be working or if the public is dissatisfied.
For now the lateral shifts and the poorly visible lines are staying. Arnold says the project is being monitored and the city is taking feedback from the public.
The earliest changes, if deemed necessary, will be in May.
Meanwhile, Ianni, the pizzeria owner says, “If they meant to slow down rush hour traffic, I guess they did that, but it was slow to begin with. Now, when it is not busy we have people going straight through as if nothing has changed.”