Uptown West Neighbourhood Transportation Study -- Sidewalks

[tvot]

I think these streets shouldn't prioritize cars.  However, I also think that they shouldn't break the grid.

Stop signs, yield signs, mini-roundabouts, and neck-downs are great solutions that I would be on board with.

I agree, and thankfully at the open consultation he other year, it seemed most others did too. I think that's why it was mostly put on hold. Some of the grid-breaking that was proposed was cutting off residents from their preferred points of entry & exit from arterial roads into the neighbourhood.

I recommended turning some 2-way stops into 4-way stops as a preliminary step instead of breaking the grid.

Honestly, I haven't seen any increase in traffic with the construction uptown. The only day the traffic was noticeably higher was when Erb (near Westmount) was closed for an afternoon in the fall due to an accident.

[tomh009]

I think a lot of what things like this come down to, unfortunately, is what different people think a street should be. It can’t be disputed that these are public streets, but not all streets should prioritize fast car traffic.

I completely agree with that!

I think these streets shouldn't prioritize cars.  However, I also think that they shouldn't break the grid.

Stop signs, yield signs, mini-roundabouts, and neck-downs are great solutions that I would be on board with.

Right.  Driving from A to B is allowed on a public street, whether A or B is actually on that street or not.  Same for bicycling, and for walking.  We can discourage through traffic by slowing it down, as Markster says above, and that makes sense.  Some people may still choose to drive that way, though, depending on where A and B are, and that's also OK.

Incidentally, bicycle paths and sidewalks encourage bicyclists and pedestrians on the neighbourhood streets, respectively.  And I would hope such encouragement would be supported by most neighbourhoods, but sadly that's not always the case.

[chutten]

The study involved a comprehensive review of existing transportation conditions within the
neighbourhood, including traffic volumes, speeds and collisions. It was concluded there was no evident
traffic infiltration issue in the neighbourhood. A few isolated areas of speeding were observed on
Dunbar Road and William Street, and the City intersection of Park / Allen was noted as the highest
collision location. In general, the neighbourhood functions well.

(From the study's final report, dated June 2014)

So, all the fuss and bother for nothing. It seems as though, had the City simply presented the historical data, it wouldn't have needed to spend $UMPTEEN_DOLLARS on COLE Engineering's report.

Though COLE did put the traffic volume data on a map for us.

[Markster]

Stop signs, yield signs, mini-roundabouts, and neck-downs are great solutions that I would be on board with.

Actually, I take back stop signs. They're easy to overuse, and that just leads to auto-pilot-stopping, and people don't actually observe the intersection.

[MidTowner]

Actually, I take back stop signs. They're easy to overuse, and that just leads to auto-pilot-stopping, and people don't actually observe the intersection.

This is a good point. Stop signs are routinely not obeyed- putting more in places where they are not warranted (they are for controlling vehicle traffic, not traffic calming) by volumes means they’ll be ignored more frequently. They’re not even very good at traffic calming- motorists often accelerate quickly and loudly after a stop sign to make up for their perceived lost time.

Diverters, cul-de-sacing and other barriers that are permeable to people on foot and bike are good tools. They’re probably not warranted in many cases, but they’re tools that are called for in some, just like speed humps or bump-outs or whatever else.

[zanate]

Actually, I take back stop signs.  They're easy to overuse, and that just leads to auto-pilot-stopping, and people don't actually observe the intersection.

[Viewfromthe42]

Need to remove danger of turning in front of oncoming traffic. Yield sign? Yield to straight traffic? Space enough for a Union-Margaret-style roundabout, given only two entry points (though four exit points) might lessen space vs four in-out pairs?

[MidTowner]

Need to remove danger of turning in front of oncoming traffic. Yield sign? Yield to straight traffic? Space enough for a Union-Margaret-style roundabout, given only two entry points (though four exit points) might lessen space vs four in-out pairs?

There's no one to yield to, unless you happen to be turning left. We know to yield to oncoming traffic at every driveway we use- why shouldn't a low-volume intersection with no approaching traffic from the sides be uncontrolled?

We need fewer stop signs. Motorists don't obey them in many cases, anyway, and treat them as yield signs. And they are an unnecessary barrier to cycling.

[Andy]

Yeah this intersection is hilarious. I just moved to the neighbourhood and comment on it's redundancy every time I see it.

It's at least one intersection I'm confident to blow through the stop sign on a bike.

But with that in mind, there really is some rat running going on in this area. I know the construction sucks, but people feel they need to make up their time by speeding on the side roads.