Radar trailers on Bronson Avenue, between Brewer Park and Holmwood Avenue, track the speed of passing cars as part of increased enforcement of speed limits.
Residents driving in or out of Centretown on Bronson Avenue will have to contend with an increased police presence until as late as March, says Coun. Marianne Wilkinson, chair of Ottawa's transportation committee.
At the committee’s last meeting, Wilkinson announced Ottawa police will be increasing its presence immediately along Bronson Avenue between the crosswalk at Brewer Park and Carleton University and Holmwood Avenue.
Meanwhile, city staff is researching the most effective solutions for making Bronson safer for all who use the route to get in or out of the downtown core.
After the death of Krista Johnson, a cyclist killed on Bronson near Carleton University in October, citizens and citizen groups across Ottawa have been pushing city councillors to find ways to make Bronson safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
Until enough data on traffic patterns on Bronson is collected, Wilkinson says Ottawa police will be strictly enforcing the current speed limit.
They have already set up radar trailers along Bronson to try to make drivers more aware of how fast they’re travelling.
Capital Ward Coun. David Chernushenko, responded to the public pressure early on. He proposed an immediate reduction of the speed limit on Bronson between Brewer Park and Holmwood Avenue, which is currently 60 and 70 km/h, to 50.
“We know a lot of things about speed, there’s a reason why there’s a saying out there that’s sort of universally used, which is ‘speed kills,” says Chernushenko.
Hans Moor, president of Citizens for Safe Cycling, says he wants the city to make a few changes to Bronson.
The first is to lower speed limits and narrow the current street to change the feel of Bronson Avenue from a four-lane highway to a city street.
Another suggestion Moor has for convincing traffic to slow down on Bronson is to redesign the onramps leading from Heron Road onto Bronson and the onramps leading from Riverside Drive onto Bronson. The idea is to make the curve of the onramps sharper so drivers have little choice but to slow down while driving onto Bronson.
When Chernushenko brought his proposal to the roads and transportation committee, many councillors voiced concerns over the tangible good a speed limit change on Bronson might actually bring compared with any negative effects it might cause.
The issue, Wilkinson says, is not so much the speed limit, but rather the overall design and feel of Bronson Avenue while you’re driving on that stretch of road.
“When a road is wide and open as it is when you’re getting towards Carleton as you’re coming from the south, cars tend to go fast,” Wilkinson says.
“And when it gets congested in narrower lanes they tend to slow down. So slowing the speed limit won’t cause a lot of people to drive slower.”
The committee decided to refer the question of whether or not to lower the Bronson speed limit to 50 km/h to city staff. Wilkinson says there just isn’t enough data collected to make such drastic changes to Bronson with the sense of urgency Chernushenko had originally advocated for.
She says the average speed a car travels on Bronson on that stretch is 84 km/h. What Bronson really needs is a new design, which could take years to fully complete.
No matter what solutions city staff comes up with, they have to be workable within the current width of Bronson. After hearing from a representative of the city staff research group, councillors at the committee meeting agreed that Bronson cannot be feasibly widened without first purchasing many of the properties bordering the street, which would cost too much and affect too many people.
Wilkinson says the full report on Bronson traffic, complete with recommendations, should be presented at the February or March city council meeting.