From: Kim the traffic reporter
Re: "Active Transportation": Hay/Jubilee bike paths
Upon arriving at the open house on Wednesday night I noted an older couple who were sitting in a small park outside the Leisure Centre. I spoke with them, turns out they were there for the open house, in fact they were eager to see what plans were being made for their area in regards to future pathways. They enjoy cycling and walking. However, this couple do have serious security issues with the current multi-use pathways along the river.
* Their home is on Osborne facing onto the river, it is a seniors complex. The residents have been subject to kids throwing poles at the building along with threats to "rape all the women".
This has been discouraging to the seniors in the building who might want to use the river pathways. Corney and Joy want more security patrols so that people can feel safe using those pathways. Joy indicated that many of these kids are from 12-18 yrs of age.
* Hay will have traffic circles at Bartlett, Oakwood, Ashland, Claire and Montogmery. Montgomery at Casey will be using yield signs to control vehicle movements. The plans are to link up at Churchill Dr. both north and south ends.
* Jubilee on the other hand will face significant changes. A multi-use path is being planned for the South side of Jubilee from Pembina to Cockburn. The new path will encompass the existing sidewalk but will take out the grass boulevard up to the curb. There will be a loss of approximately 12 trees and new driveway approaches will have to be built.
* A future overpass is planned exiting onto Pembina by Argue. There is a current bike path at this point it is unknown if that particular pathway will be kept or if it will be moved. Near the traffic lights at Argue there is a guard rail which is to protect against turning trucks, this area needs to be widened to accommodate this multi-use pathway. In order to provide this width, a 1.9mX60m (6ftX200ft) property requirement is needed.
* Four properties are facing expropriation. Letters have been sent to the registered owners informing them they face losing some of their property. Of the four properties, two or three are rentals. $900 000.00 is slated for the Jubilee/Hay project. No loss of parking is expected.
* One older gentleman was very unhappy that he is forced to make right hand turns off Kylmore onto Argue and that you cannot access Argue from Lilac. He said that there are planters on Argue to force drivers to make these turns. He cannot get onto his street from Argue and is forced to take an alternate route to go home.
* There were numerous comments from people who loved the idea of the Jubilee multi-use pathways, though some wished that Churchill Drive and some of the riverwalk could be better paved.
As opposed to many other open houses, there was a good representation of ages from young to old. There also seemed to be an a good mixture of cyclist/non-cyclist. However, for some the active transportation seemed to be an after thought and the BRT was the real star of the show.
My thoughts:
1) Expropriation, kinda had a thought that at some point that word would raise it's head in regards to active transportation.
I'm sorry, but to take someone's property even if it's only a few meters or feet is wrong. But then I suppose the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... I'm still waiting to hear that phrase uttered.
2) I'm feeling a tingle of Disraeli here. Doesn't matter that you take out private property. Oh hang on, there is already active transportation on Argue ... why not move the multi-use path to the North side and connect the two, but wait, plans are uncertain as to whether or not the Argue path will even be kept, so if it's scrapped, what a waste of money.
3) The older gentleman who is unhappy about Kylemore. I wonder if he was ever consulted about that forced right turn onto Argue? Don't think so. Wonder if he realizes that further to the north along streets such as Warsaw, another forced right turn could impact south Osborne? Corydon will become even more congested which will force some motorists to find alternative routes. Which means there could be an increase in traffic on Jubilee, which means those who choose to avoid that crush of an already heavily used area could decide to head down residential streets.
But the consultants say no when I brought up that issue. I think it's a little shortsighted. What affects one area, will affect the neighbouring areas as well.
5) The mainstream media didn't even report on the active transportation plans for Jubilee and Hay. The news I caught was a 2 minute blurb on, you guessed it..BRT. I did note that CKUW 95.9fm (U. of W) was taking a close look at the AT side of things. Now that I think on it, he and I were the only reporters to stay for the whole event. After 6pm the other media outlets disappeared.
6) Lastly, I noted that for a change there didn't seem to be enough consultants and city planners on hand. They all seemed to be swarmed for most of the event. I was told that there were 15 on hand. I counted nine, but then I could be wrong. But some of the ones who were there weren't actually working the event.
Guess the BRT/Active Transportation people didn't expect the turnout they got.
