Traffic Calming Response

Our community association executive has a response to the recent traffic calming discussions on the mailing list:

“The executive has read and discussed the recent list serve comments on Traffic Calming. Attached is their response. No further comments have appeared from community members during the past few days, so we feel everyone who wished to comment has had an opportunity to do so via the list serv, to the Councillor’s office or website, or to the Traffic Management Department, as invited by the flyer delivered to homes on the main traffic calming routes. As a result, we consider the discussion finished for now. Thank you to everyone who participated.”

Exec response re Traffic Calming 31July2012.doc

Executive Response to List Serve Discussion about Traffic Calming  31 July 2012

The Executive’s role when there are complex issues such as this, is to help ensure that discussion takes place and that everyone has the opportunity to be informed and to participate.

Summary:

  • There is significant, long-standing concern about the speed and volume of traffic in Champlain Park.  Parents of younger children are particularly concerned;
  • Numerous measures have been undertaken over many years (road closures, signage, enforcement) with the goal of slowing traffic and/or discouraging drivers from cutting through the neighbourhood.  Regardless, the problems persist;
  • Consequently City Council, based on recommendations from the City’s Traffic Management Department, and in consultation with the former and current City Councillors, (who also assessed public opinion), have decided that this warrants action from the City in the form of installation of physical traffic calming measures;
  • Funds for traffic calming are limited.  Many communities compete for them;  The City can undertake installation of traffic calming measures only following full and complete study and analysis of current data.  The measures must be relevant and the expenditure justifiable;
  • In Champlain Park, traffic calming measures now are being implemented after exhaustive study and public consultation.  “The limited funds are being utilised to install measures that will have the maximum impact on reducing traffic speed throughout the neighbourhood” (Katherine Hobbs, May 2011 CP list serve);
  • The most recent communication from the City regarding traffic calming was to let residents know that the project was being implemented.  It was not intended to reopen the consultative process.

Details:

Attempts to resolve the problem of speeding and cut-through traffic in the neighbourhood go back many years.  Two years ago, the entire community was invited to attend a meeting at the Fieldhouse where the Councillor and engineers from the City Traffic Management department presented current data and traffic calming proposals, and answered questions.  Then, groups of residents circulated through representations of neighbourhood streets which had been outlined in masking tape on the floor, writing comments on stickies and setting them on the relevant spots.  The meeting was very well attended.

Residents were invited to continue commenting to the Councillor and City staff and the Executive members know that they did so, though we were not privy to the comments.  Meanwhile, the Traffic Management staff compiled more numbers and developed a plan based on the up-to-date data and input from residents. As noted in the recent communiqué from the City, the plans were modified to respond to the comments and considering current data.

The Councillor’s office reviewed the data and gave full consideration to residents’ ideas and opinions.  Now, the City is implementing some solutions to address a number of the documented problems.  To quote from the memo from Katherine Hobbs, which appeared in the May 2011 edition of the Champlain Speaker, “After waiting 12 years for funding and three years of banking the funds for this project, the City will be moving forward with the following measures, following an additional traffic volume study completed in May 2010.”

There has been and continues to be significant concern about the speed and volume of traffic in our neighbourhood. While there is opposition to physical methods of traffic calming among some residents of the community, it is offset by strong support for these measures from a number of others. We have confirmed that the Councillor’s office has read the most recent list serv comments, and note that both the Traffic Management Department and the Councillor’s office invited additional comments and questions when the implementation phase was recently announced.

The members of the Champlain Park Executive are not traffic experts and do not have the resources to manage an issue of this magnitude.  The Councillor’s office is best suited to collect and analyze the many comments that were received from the public before, during and after the public meeting two years ago and to consult internally with the Traffic Management Department.  The Executive  entrusted the Councillor’s office to assess public opinion, and respects the competence of City traffic engineers to collect and analyze relevant data, and to formulate and implement a traffic management plan. City Council reviews and prioritizes such expenditures.  They chose to approve this one.

Unfortunately, time lags between the steps in the process resulted in uncertainty regarding the stage that we are at.  The recent memo from the City was not intended to reopen the consultation process but to inform residents that work would be going ahead.  We note that the Councillor’s office, in consultation with the Traffic Management Department, is in the best position to assess whether the ideas from the most recent discussions can be considered for future action.