By John Chenier
In the urban redevelopment of the 1960s, two of Lowertown’s main streets that used to connect the community, St Patrick Street and King Edward Avenue, were transformed into noisy, multi-lane arterials that effectively divided the community. Fifty years later, these arterials are filled with cars, trucks and buses carrying people and goods through Lowertown from morning till night. During the evening rush, the line of westbound traffic on St Patrick backs up past Cobourg Street, while northbound traffic on King Edward creeps up into Sandy Hill.
The long lines of traffic encourage hundreds of drivers to thread their way through the side streets of Lowertown East in search of a quicker way home. Cars speed through neighbourhoods to join the shorter line of cars nudging their way onto the main arterials as close to the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge as possible. Finally, after years of complaints from the residents on these streets, the City agreed to study the matter and, if necessary, put measures in place to stop cars from using Lowertown East as a shortcut to home.
Ways to reduce traffic
Many residential neighbourhoods in the city use different measures to curtail cut-through traffic. One means is using physical barriers to close off streets or to at least make it difficult to turn onto them. Another is to simply put up signs that prohibit access, either around the clock or only at certain times. Some streets have a combination of both a physical barrier and a sign.
Sections of Lowertown West and The Wedge have had traffic-control measures in place for more than 20 years. Barriers that close the road completely at one end have been the most-used option in the residential part of the Lowertown West Heritage Conservation District. In The Wedge, partial barriers and one-way signs are in place along St Patrick to prevent drivers from taking a shortcut through the neighbourhood from St Patrick to King Edward. However, more drivers in a hurry seem prepared to ignore the signs, make the illegal turn and speed through the neighbourhood.
Traffic signs, it seems, are like locks, they only keep honest people out.
New this Fall
In Lowertown East, two streets, Wurtemburg and Nelson, are at the focus of efforts to control cut-through traffic. A combination of physical barriers such as speed bumps, bulb-outs and stop signs will be used in the Wurtemburg Street corridor to discourage traffic from Rideau to St Patrick.
On Nelson Street, the City is relying on signage to curb the flow of rush-hour cut-through traffic. Left turns onto the streets that connect Nelson to King Edward are prohibited from 3:30 to 5:30pm. Work has not yet started on the Wurtemburg project. Meanwhile on Nelson Street, from observations made over several days, it is clear that the signs are not proving to be effective in stopping cut-through traffic.
Vision Zero:
“Vision Zero” is a road-safety concept that began in Sweden and has since been imitated, more or less, by cities around the world. The goal of Vision Zero is to reduce traffic fatalities — vehicle, bike and pedestrian — to zero through a combination of lower speed limits and effective barriers separating the various modes of traffic.
The most effective and also the most expensive way to reduce speed are through street design. Narrower streets make cars drive more slowly. In most cases, it also leaves more room to create separate paths for bike and pedestrian traffic. A less expensive way to narrow streets is to allow on-street parking. However, allowing curbside parking does not lead to safer bicycling conditions. Lastly, the least expensive way to pursue a Vision Zero strategy is simply to set lower speed limits.
While Ottawa has not formally adopted the Vision Zero concept, elements of both approaches have been implemented in the City. “Complete Streets’ projects such as Main Street are examples of what designing roads for Vision Zero look like, and what it costs. Encouraging on-street parking in some areas is also part of the strategy to make roads narrower.
In the ByWard Market precinct, closing roads to create pedestrian-only spaces and control traffic have been successful, and there are plans for more of the same in the future.
In general, however, the City has mainly relied on the least expensive way to go about it: reducing the speed limit to 40 kph in parts of the city and painting green strips on roadways to mark bike lanes. But, as we are seeing, it doesn’t accomplish much.
In a recent edition of Toronto Life, Mark Pupo noted: “The cities where Vision Zero works all have one thing in common: they’ve dedicated lots of money and resources to swift and universal changes to infrastructure, policing and safety awareness. Most importantly, they’ve cut speed limits on most or all streets. The strength of Vision Zero comes from an all-or-nothing approach—to achieve zero deaths, you need to force drivers to change their behaviour all at once.”
The policy-implementation disconnect
The reactions of callers and tweeters to Councillor Shawn Menard’s plan to reduce the speed limit in the Glebe to 40 kph were scornful. The underlying tone of the comments was that it was a hollow gesture that would accomplish nothing. “Stop signs have become pause signs in the Glebe,” noted one caller.
In Lowertown, standing on Nelson Street at the corner of York, you would have to be blind not to notice the signs prohibiting left turns from 3:30 to 5:30 pm. Yet, stand there during those hours and you will see nearly every car make that left turn. The few that don’t proceed on Nelson for one more block to Clarence Street where a similar sign awaits — and turn left.
Ottawa, we have a problem.
prohibited from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
We have politicians passing laws at a rate where either the ability or a willingness of the police to enforce them doesn’t exist. We have designed roads like King Edward Ave where the police are unable to enforce the speed limit because it is unsafe for them as well as other drivers to stop cars and issue tickets. It’s possible the police could have a better system of deploying officers that would improve compliance, but it’s impossible for them to be everywhere at once. Compounding the problem is a public attitude that demands better policing while reacting badly when it happens.
“Haven’t you got something better to do than give me a ticket for driving through a stop sign?”
Perhaps the police should be employed doing better and different things. We no longer use police officers to issue parking tickets. That job has been delegated to bylaw officers. We use cameras to ticket cars that go through red lights. One thing is certain; somehow the means of improving compliance must be found.
Ottawa a SMART city?
Ontario, in general, and Ottawa in particular, have fallen way behind in adopting modern means to enforce traffic laws and save lives in the process. Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and even our neighbours in Gatineau have adopted cameras at intersections that capture both speeding and red-light infractions to discourage drivers from speeding up before intersections or running red lights.
Toronto has tread carefully through a year-long pilot project so as not to provoke the Ford government, which has a strong inclination against the use of photo radar. It now plans to install several hundred cameras in designated “safety zones” over the next year. Mayor Watson doesn’t think we need such things, although in the article on traffic calming on King Edward you will note that more than 3000 cars tripped the red-light cameras on the avenue.
Perhaps in 20 years, when all are using driverless cars programmed to follow the rules of the road, compliance will not be an issue and our neighbourhoods will be safe and tranquil. Until then, we should be concerned that when we merely go through the motions of introducing ineffective measures with poor implementation we are running the risk of turning a First-world problem of traffic congestion into a Third-world problem of disrespect for the law.
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