Councillor Fleury votes against community Residents on King Edward: Traffic more Important
By Marc Aubin
Just how long do Lowertown and Sandy Hill have to wait for a new east-end interprovincial bridge? How long should we put up with trucks and other problems on the once beautiful King Edward Avenue and on Rideau Street? These are the real questions underlying the recent eruption of community disapproval of the City of Ottawa’s position on reducing lanes on King Edward Avenue. Between 2006 and 2009, a large section of King Edward Avenue was reduced from six to four lanes.
It was observed that traffic readjusted to the four-lane configuration after a few weeks. In fact, the King Edward Avenue Task Force did an analysis of traffic counts from before and after the reduction to prove these observations. In response, City Council asked city staff to undertake a study in 2007 looking at the impacts of permanently reducing King Edward to four lanes. City staff opposed the idea of a study and said that a new interprovincial bridge would be needed first.
After a year of delay, City Council had to order city staff – for a second time – in 2008 to undertake the study. An independent consultancy, Dillon Consulting, undertook the two phases of the study and the results were striking. Dillon concluded that the four-lane configuration would have no significant impact on downtown traffic and that there would be numerous benefits to the community.
Unfortunately, opposition and confusion still remain. City staff held to the position that a new bridge needs to be built first and added other conditions. Councillor Fleury and the Byward Market BIA are concerned about traffic spillover in other areas. However, no hard evidence supporting any of these arguments has been put forward.
In fact, back-ups in the Byward Market and other areas took place mainly during the summer of 2010 when King Edward was blocked in Sandy Hill and the was unprecedented construction in the adjacent area, with the Alexandria Bridge, Sussex Avenue and Colonel By Drive under repair.
In response to these concerns, the King Edward Avenue Task Force, the Lowertown and Sandy Hill community associations, and a number of residents put forward a compromise. They suggested that 24- hour parking should be implemented on King Edward Avenue to test out the conclusion that four lanes were possible. Unfortunately, councillors on the Transportation Committee, including our own Councillor, chose not to consider this compromise position.
Instead, they supported a motion to reduce King Edward to four lanes only when the interprovincial bridge is completed. Of course, nobody knows when this will be, if ever. The final decision on what to do will have taken place on April 27th (after this paper has gone to print) when the study goes for full approval at City Council.
The King Edward Task Force, the LCA and community members are working hard to ensure that this will not be another lost opportunity for King Edward Avenue, but it the outcome remains to be seen.
To find out more about community efforts to engage the City for solutions to improve King Edward Ave. visit the King Edward Avenue Task Force website at: www.kingedwardavenue –
Marc Aubin is President of the King Edward Avenue Task Force