A community design plan is proposing that some of the busiest one-way downtown streets go two-way in an effort to reduce the volume of traffic during rush hour.
The plan created by Urban Strategies Inc., a Toronto-based design firm, suggests eliminating “unsafe and unpleasant conditions.”
In Ottawa, one-way streets such as Metcalfe and O’Connor, act as ramping systems for the Queensway. They allow high-speed travel in to and out of the city with less time spent at intersections.
George Dark, managing partner for Urban Strategies Inc., says many downtown areas originally experimented with one-way streets to speed up traffic in central areas with too much congestion.
“It was a very prevalent technique of transportation planning in the late ’70s and ’80s,” he says. “And from a car-movement capacity standpoint, it works.”
But the new plan suggests it’s not the best method. The current system serves the needs of Ottawa’s commuters, but the new plan could slow traffic, improve access to businesses and make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
“What cities are doing now is re-evaluating central core areas as very important places to live and build schools and to populate,” says Dark.
The plan suggests that streets should do more than cater to suburban commuters.
“Are streets just for the movement of cars or are streets for walking and biking and rollerblading?” says Dark. “It’s a kind of re-balancing act.”
The Centretown Citizens Community Association is not against the plan to change some one-way streets, but there is concern over how it could affect the movement of cars coming off the Queensway onto Metcalfe Street.
Vice-president Robert Dekker says the CCCA wants to know how the change would impact traffic on Elgin Street and around the Museum of Nature.
“We know the Ministry of Transportation is looking at that,” says Dekker. “Everything needs to be tied together and so far it’s not. That’s our concern.”
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes has said that while the possibility of converting one-way streets into two-way streets is interesting, it will likely be several years before city staff have a chance to look into the proposal.
The idea of converting one-way streets into two-way streets has been considered for downtown areas throughout Ontario, including Hamilton, Brantford, Oshawa and St. Catharines.
Dark says Hamilton converted sections of James Street, a main shopping district in its downtown area, from one-way to two-way to see how it would affect vacancy rates in stores, traffic movement and parking.
The city saw improvement in all of these areas one year after the conversion, says Dark. Two years ago, St. Catharines converted a main arterial through its downtown area into a two-way street.
Tisha Polocko, executive director of the St. Catharines Downtown Association, says the change helps calm traffic and makes the downtown more accessible to out-of-town drivers.
Polocko says it’s hard to tell whether the change had a direct impact on businesses.
“I have heard from merchants who feel that they get more exposure because of the two-way,” she says.