By By Ana-Maria Tarres
King Edward Avenue is a dangerous street for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. Just this past July 19, a pedestrian walking her bike was struck while waiting to cross the street by a vehicle turning right onto Rideau Street from King Edward Avenue. Further north on King Edward, the Murray and St. Patrick intersections are not well designed for pedestrian and cyclist safety. These intersections see very high amounts of traffic flowing in all directions, and pedestrian crossing is limited and constrained to permit traffic to flow. The bike lane on St. Patrick has yet to be connected east and west of King Edward.
The City has been dragging its feet to connect this stretch of the bike lane specifically because it is such a busy and dangerous intersection. Many cyclists traveling east-west on St. Patrick take a detour to the St. Andrew intersection in order to safely cross King Edward. However, the crossing at St. Andrew is poorly designed, with southbound vehicles regularly blocking the path for pedestrians and bicycles when the light is red. Northbound vehicles frequently run the red light at this intersection. There have been a high number of close calls for pedestrians and cyclists crossing at this intersection.
In fact, the two red light cameras on King Edward — the one at St. Patrick for southbound traffic and one at St. Andrew for northbound traffic — see the most red light infractions in all of Ottawa. In 2016, these two cameras flashed 3,000 times!
Residents and users of active transportation have been lobbying for effective calming measures for many years. This past March, Councillor Fleury was successful in passing a motion at City Council’s Transportation Committee to have permanent traffic-calming measures put in place. The motion acknowledges the concerns brought forth by residents: that King Edward Ave is partly residential; that speeding is a persistent and dangerous issue; and that speeding trucks cause noise and vibrations for nearby residents.
Re-designing King Edward to accommodate the transportation of all persons is the only effective solution. More than 40 measures to slow traffic are already in place on this Avenue, but as City staff acknowledge, these have not worked. City transportation staff are proposing a reduction of the outer lane northbound and southbound, from the current 4.5 meters to 3.5 meters. While this would certainly be an improvement, there is a risk that it will not calm traffic or improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
One design alternative that would meet the objective of improving safety for all travellers and slow traffic down closer to the 40kmh range than the 60kmh range it currently moves at, are crosswalk “bulb-outs”. With the opening of the LRT, STO buses will be rerouted away from King Edward Ave. While residents have asked for the third lane to be permanently closed off, City transportation staff maintain that this lane is necessary to allow traffic turning into the side streets to slow down without impacting the rest of the flow. A bulb-out crosswalk would block off the third lane to flow-through traffic and permit the lane to be used exclusively as a turning lane only. With two lanes remaining for flow-through traffic, the speed at which vehicles move would be reduced as they would be more constrained by street design and less comfortable speeding. These crosswalks are also a much more cost-efficient way to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
This matter will be discussed at the LCA meeting in October. Come out to share your views on the best way to effectively slow traffic down on this dangerous Avenue.