Peace and Environment News * May 1995

Sandy Hill Traffic to be Calmed

by Heather Burke

In the future, Sandy Hill will be a safer, quieter place to walk and cycle. Action Sandy Hill (ASH) has been working with the City of Ottawa and the Region to form a traffic calming plan for their area. Delcan Corporation, an engineering and planning consulting firm, was hired to investigate the traffic problems which Sandy Hill is experiencing and to propose possible solutions.

Traffic calming encourages the reduction of automobile use in an area. In doing so, it encourages the use of other forms of transportation such as walking, cycling and public transit. Goals also include reducing noise and pollution and improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

Sandy Hill residents have long been concerned about the amount of traffic flowing through their neighbourhood. Drivers bypass congested throughways such as King Edward, Laurier and Rideau by taking shortcuts through the residential streets of Sandy Hill. A survey of licence plates during afternoon rush hour showed that about a third of the cars driving down selected Sandy Hill streets were simply using these streets to pass through the area. On one road 63 percent of the cars were using it for that purpose.

Drivers, having shaved a few seconds off the commute home by cutting through Sandy Hill, then want to cut a few more seconds off by driving over the posted speed limit. On Chapel Street, for example, 30 percent of vehicles drive above the posted speed limit.

Another concern is the use of Sandy Hill as a free parking lot for University of Ottawa students and customers of Rideau Street businesses. Residents with no driveway who have to park on the street often cannot find parking during the day.

Several methods of traffic calming have been proposed. A combination of these will ultimately be used.

• Roads may be narrowed at intersections to force drivers to approach with more caution, possibly reducing driver speed.
• Very wide streets such as Mann Avenue encourage drivers to increase speed (68 percent of vehicles drive faster than the speed limit on Mann). These streets could be narrowed.
• Pedestrian crossings may be emphasized by use of interlocking brick or paving stones.
• Some of the 2-way stops could be changed into 4-way stops, thus giving greater priority to pedestrians.
• No Parking signs may be added 9 metres from all intersections to encourage observance of this commonly ignored bylaw. This will provide greater safety to pedestrians and cyclists entering an intersection since they will not be obstructed from the view of drivers.
• Access to main entrances to Sandy Hill could be limited by not allowing through traffic at certain intersections. For example, someone would be allowed to turn left or right onto Chapel Street from Laurier, but they would not be allowed to travel straight through the intersection, a popular route for short-cutters.
• Traffic diversion using half-closures of streets (one-way ins or outs) would break up the long straight stretches that speeders love and take away the time-saving benefit of short-cutting through Sandy Hill. This tactic would encourage bicycle use, since bicycles would be exempt from these restrictions.
• Parking limits on some streets may be decreased from three hours to one. This would not only have the effect of decreasing traffic and parked cars in Sandy Hill, it would eliminate many of those cars from the downtown area entirely, since University of Ottawa students would rarely be at school for so short a time that they would be able to make use of one-hour parking. Although some students will choose to pay for parking on campus, many will forego the car altogether, choosing to walk, cycle or take OC Transpo.

The Sandy Hill Traffic Calming Plan has been approved by city council and is now being considered by regional council.

Keith Keyes of Action Sandy Hill says implementation will not really start until next summer, since there is probably not enough money left in the regional budget for much work this year. Even then, the plan will be brought in over time, and construction will be scheduled to minimize costs. For example, expensive changes to a street will wait until that street is due for reconstruction.

Although some of the traffic calming measures will simply push traffic from the neighbourhood back onto the main arteries running adjacent to the area, other measures will discourage automobile use within Sandy Hill itself. Sandy Hill residents may come to enjoy walking and cycling on their safer streets and therefore use their own cars less.

For more information, please contact Keith Keyes at Action Sandy Hill at 565-6200.

Heather Burke is a regular contributor to the Peace and Environment News.

Converted June 20, 2000 - Lg

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