By Brandy Zimmerman
One-way streets could be a thing of the past in Centretown if a group of community and business leaders gets its way.
The proposal to eliminate one-way streets was among 100 proposals put forward by more than 80 delegates on Jan. 29 at the Downtown Revitalization Summit sponsored by the City of Ottawa.
The proposals are being brought to city staff to decide which can be implemented quickly and which may need further review.
Converting streets to two-way traffic was presented as a way to calm traffic by slowing motorists and to make driving in downtown less complicated.
“Two-way street traffic is a good idea. It’s a way to calm traffic on those streets affected, which will be good for residents,” says summit delegate Dennis Carr, development co-ordinator for the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation.
“It will also make it easier for people to get around,” he says.
Opening streets to two-way traffic would serve as a traffic calming measure because people tend to drive slower when facing on-coming traffic, says Marey Gregory, a member of the Federation of Citizen’s Associations. With motorists driving slower, the two-way streets would be safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
“Wide-open lanes lead to speeding,” she says. “Whenever drivers have a wide lane, they put their foot on the gas, but when there are cars on the street or there is on-coming traffic, people drive slower.”
While eliminating one-way streets may sound like a good idea, more research has to be done into the positive and negative effects of the proposal, says Somerset City Coun. Elisabeth Arnold.
“It’s a very complicated proposal that probably needs more study,” she says.
All of the proposals from the summit will be put into a report for city staff to decide if the proposals require more study, if they can be implemented quickly or if they should be left for the new city council taking office next year, Arnold says.
A final report will be brought to the city planning committee in April.
Public consultation will take place after a traffic study is completed.
Before one-way streets can be converted, the city will have to decide if streets are wide enough to handle two-way traffic and what impact the change would have on traffic patterns.
“If there are streets where it can happen without negative impacts, then the city might be able to do it quicker than other streets,” Arnold says. “We’ll also have to circulate information to the residents and businesses in the immediate area that would be affected.”
The city would have to look into the costs of converting one-way streets, such as new traffic lights, says city traffic analyst Rick Zarzosa.
The proposal could also mean less on-street parking for residents, he says.
“Some streets are really narrow. To allow two-way traffic, we may have to remove on-street parking, which could be controversial,” Zarzosa says. “Residents might not want to have to park a block away from their homes.”
A study of traffic patterns would be needed to see if the plan is feasible and if it would actually make driving downtown easier, he says.
Public consultation would also be needed to see how residents feel about the possibility of losing on-street parking.
“A lot of the roadways were historically two-way, but it’s still not something that’s completely feasible,” Zarzosa says. “We’d definitely have to do a study and public consultation.”