Mandy Kovacs, Centretown News
A person j-walks across the Queen Elizabeth Driveway. Residents in the area argue there should be more crosswalks and stop signs along the road for the safety of pedestrians. Centretown blogger and cycling advocate Kathryn Hunt has raised alarms about a safety risk facing local residents who cross Queen Elizabeth Driveway to reach the Rideau Canal Skateway.
In a column recently published by Metro, Hunt says the real winter experience in Ottawa means standing in a snowbank, clenching your skates at the edge of Queen Elizabeth and waiting for a gap in traffic scurry across the canal to go skating.
We don’t want to paraphrase so closely the actual words. Let’s just quote the actual words:
In a recent column published by Metro, Hunt says the real winter experience in Ottawa means “standing in a snowbank at the edge of Colonel By Drive or the Queen Elizabeth Driveway, clutching your skates and watching for a gap in traffic so you can scuttle across to reach the canal.”
Hunt argues the two parkways on either side of the canal need to have more stop signs and crosswalks to serve car-dodging pedestrians.
“I love the canal and I love skating on it,” says Hunt. “I often bike to my crossway on the canal and then I wind up having to stand there in a snowbank with my bike looking for traffic and it’s just an annual frustration.”
Hunt says this is a serious problem for Ottawa due to the influx of tourists to skate on the canal in the winter months.
“It’s one of the city’s major attractions,” says Hunt. “And there’s this embarrassing thing where you can’t actually get to the canal without having to dodge cars.”
Alongside cyclists, who have raised concerns about safety issues around the canal, Hunt says this situation affects individuals who move slowly or suffer from visual impairment, joggers and families using baby carriages or strollers.
According to Hunt, the National Capital Commission appears to be aware of the problem.
During Winterlude weekends and on Family Day, Queen Elizabeth Driveway is closed between Laurier and Preston streets. This measure is meant to help accommodate the peak times for skaters getting to the canal.
However, Hunt says the issue still remains outside of those weekends. “It is not practical for the whole winter.”
But the NCC says it has taken steps to improve safety along the canal.
“Queen Elizabeth Driveway, from Laurier Avenue to Preston Street for many, many years, has been closed to traffic during the Winterlude weekends to facilitate special snow bus shuttle services,” says NCC communications officer Cédric Pelletier.
“The NCC installs temporary yellow caution signs along the Queen Elizabeth Driveway and Colonel By Drive to advise motorists of the presence of skaters in the area,” he adds.
Creating more traffic stops on the parkways or adding other infrastructure is challenging, says Pelletier.
“The parkways are historical gateways into Canada’s capital region and offer beautiful perspectives of the capital to locals and visitors,” he says. “Nature and shorelines are key features of the parkway system.”
Eric Darwin, a community activist and blogger on urban planning says Queen Elizabeth Driveway is convenient for automobiles and motorists to drive along the canal.
“You can interact with the canal through the car window and you can look out at it,” he says. “Therefore the continuous drive without stop signs and intersections is the way it was designed.”
Darwin says that the parkways, with a speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour, have a value for scenic drive.
“A large chunk of the population will not be biking it or walking it, they will be seeing it out of their car window,” he says. “What you’ve got to do is lower the speed down so they can still enjoy it but pedestrians can cross the roads safely.”
Over the next few years more crosswalks at intersections may come, adds Darwin. In the meantime, creating raised crosswalks and slowing down traffic speed to indicate pedestrian crossings could help alleviate safety issues.
In general terms, says Darwin, lobbying and involvement from local residents is necessary to raise awareness for more pedestrian-safe roads.
“Each individual can’t do everything by themselves, you have to support groups like Walk Ottawa or a pedestrian advocate at city hall,” he says. “You need to have a group that is for pedestrian-first design.”