By Ana-Maria Tarres
There is a speeding problem on King Edward Avenue (KEA). Around 25,000 vehicles use this interprovincial corridor each day, of which 2,500 are heavy trucks carrying freight, logs and dangerous substances. A study conducted by the City of Ottawa last summer showed that 95% of vehicles drove over the 40km/h limit, and close to 20% drove above 60km/h. Given the high amount of traffic and density of population in this area, it is a serious concern to users of active transportation. And given the weight of heavy trucks, when these speed down a residential street they produce loud noises and vibrations, which impact the quality of life of residents.
The politics behind this outrageous mistake of urban planning are too numerous to cover in this article, but it`s worth mentioning that the City and the Province have each committed $2.5 million to fund the environmental assessment needed for a proposed truck tunnel, but the Federal government has not, and it does not look like it will. It is likely that a final solution to downtown trucks will not arrive for at least 10 or 20 years. For this reason, the LCA’s Transportation Committee (LCA-TC) has met with our councillor and staff from the City’s Transportation Department to discuss measures to make this interprovincial route safer for users of active transportation and more tolerable to residents.
Ensuring that vehicles abide by the speed limit requires a road reconfiguration. KEA was designed for a speed limit of 50km/h and City staff insist that maintaining six lanes is necessary to accommodate high traffic flows for a total of 15 hours per week (3 hours x 5 days). Given this limitation, the LCA-TC has proposed a number of measures which may succeed in reducing the speed of vehicles. These include: making the right lane north of St. Patrick Street a turning lane only by using curb pins; using photo radar on KEA; restricting the time during which trucks can travel on KEA to daytime hours; confining trucks to the left lane; enforcing red-light tickets on vehicles registered in Quebec; having more regular police enforcement of the speed limit; and reducing the pedestrian wait time at the St. Andrew crossing. Several of these measures are being studied by City staff at this time. We will provide an update on their outcome later this year.
The LCA-TC plans to hold a transportation workshop for the entire Lowertown community this year. Stay tuned.