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So what is happening with the traffic plan? When do the
measures get installed? Can we have them tomorrow? -- These are the questions that I get asked most often at
which point I usually turn the question back by asking What do you think of
what you have seen so far? Any concerns? Any showstoppers? Have you filled out
our traffic survey on the Internet.?
We (the traffic committee) really want your input we need your
input. We are trying extremely hard to do what the majority of the residents
of Mount Royal want but we need to know. So please fill out the survey or
call your traffic area representative! Before I delve into what the Plan is looking like at
the moment I would like to throw in a few simple Did you know? type
items. Did you know that the City is planning to make 10th
Ave better at moving traffic by making it cross 14th Street and
that 11th Avenue and 12 Avenue are becoming two-way roads? This is
good news for 7th Street and 8th Street since it will
allow the PM traffic a chance to get over to 4th Street, 5th Street
or 14th Street earlier before hitting the 17th Avenue
mess. Plus residents that presently go up 7th Street will be able to
get over to 8th Street more easily before entering our
neighborhood. Did
you know that the City is planning to make it possible for the northbound 14th
Street traffic to go east on Memorial? This will mean that residents from South
Calgary and beyond will not need to cut through Mount Royal on the way to the
Airport or Ikea. Did you know that our community has been waiting for
many years for this opportunity to address our traffic problems and that we get
one kick at the can? If we do not address our concerns now the City moves
onto the other communities. If we cannot achieve a general consensus we may
lose our chance to do anything. If we do nothing and the surrounding
communities are bottlenecking all of their roadways including the major ones
where do you think the traffic is going to go? By this point you are probably wondering What the heck is going on? Why on earth would the City be reducing the ability of the roadways in the Inner City to move traffic? Well it is all due to the VISION that the City has adopted for the Inner City. The City estimates that there is going to be 8000 more workers in the downtown area than there are working there today. The VISION is to make the downtown a people place rather than a giant parking lot. In an effort to facilitate this VISION the City is: o Encouraging Inner City Condos so that people live near where they work, o Raising Parking rates and not building parking lots so that people are encouraged to take transit, o Buying more buses and LRT vehicles, o Installing more bike paths, o Turning the arterial roads such as 11th and 12th Ave. and 5th Street into people friendly two-way streets even though it snarls up traffic (since in the Citys VISION we should all walk or take transit). o Allowing roadways such as Mission road, Sifton Ave. and our busy roadways to bottleneck themselves. o Not building any more river crossings. o Plus many more that you can see in the GO-Plan on the City Web Site. (Please note that this VISION is that of the City of Calgary if you like it or dislike it and wish to extend praise or disgust call your Alderman not your traffic committee) THE PLAN as it stands now Once we receive the mandate to TRY these traffic measures -we are going to do just that - we are going to TRY them and modify them according to the input of the community. The sequence in which these measures get implemented is extremely important. The more innocuous measures will go in first and we will be closely monitoring the effect that each group of measures has prior to installing the next group of measures. -Prior to measures being installed that will restrict
access or egress, the City will be installing signage to alert drivers to the
impending change. This is to allow everyone to get use to the measures and
figure out the alternate. We do not want to inconvenience any of our residents
more that necessary (though we will probably trap the cell phone users!) The plan has four measures that I put into the draconian category. Each one of these measures has very good reasons for being proposed however each requires a good understanding of present and future community and City traffic flows as well as an understanding of who is doing what in the surrounding communities. 1) Closing off the Southbound lane on 8th Street just prior to Frontenac. This measure will likely be a combination of numerous less disruptive measures rather than the one that is in the traffic calming plan. Everyone wants to solve the problems - but no one wants to be too inconvenienced. 2) Closing off Royal Avenue behind the High school. This measure has been watered down to a directional closure on Royal making it an entrance only to Mount Royal. 3) Making Hillcrest an exit only to 5th Street. This would be accomplished by narrowing the roadway for a section as it goes down the hill (where no one lives and people sit to watch fireworks). This works in conjunction with 8th Street. If you live near the community center you would access the Glencoe or Safeway by going out Hillcrest and then coming back in on 8th. We were pleased to find that many residents already do it this way and are already in the habit of doing the LOOP. This measure protects Hillcrest from the changes being made on 5th Street plus it eliminates the post hockey game traffic from using Hillcrest and Prospect as a by-pass for 17th Avenue The City planners in charge of the 5th Street changes also reinforced the need for this measure and even suggested that it too be part of the 5th Street conversion plan.
4) Closing off the through traffic on Carleton at Premier Way. This one is the main protection for the SW access of the community. All of our residents can still get to and from Marda Loop and William Ried School it would simply take 30 seconds longer. The measure that we are proposing forces traffic coming from Marda Loop to go down to 10th Street on Council and then come back on Premier Way to access the neighborhood via Carleton. In the PM the southbound traffic will be able to go either East or West but not straight through. We feel that the simple act of turning back on yourself is a large deterrent and when combined with the other internal traffic safety measures will deter most if not all of our shortcutting traffic that is going to and coming from the SW direction. Well that is the hard to swallow part of the measures that are being proposed. We welcome any other options. We have provided a portion of the reasoning that we believe justifies these measures there is more info on the website. Now I will list the other measures that we have
determined belong in THE PLAN. You may notice that we are proposing the use of islands and buttons wherever possible they do not affect the street drainage and therefore are easy and inexpensive to install plus we can dress them up to be attractive additions to the neighborhood. If you like -or dislike what you see - fill out
the on-line survey at www.mountroyalstation.ca.
have your say! Council Way We have agreed with Elbow Park that we want to slow down the traffic on Council Way, down to the speed limit, which is now 40 km/hr. We want to keep the traffic volumes from increasing. Try to discourage drivers from selecting Council Way rather than going down 14th and also we want to make the crosswalk safer for the elementary students going to William Reid. To do this we propose to: 2. Add an island on Council Way -immediately East of 14th. This is intended to hide the entrance a bit to make it look less inviting and to stop the dangerous line jumping that goes on in the morning rush. 3. Add a Welcome to the Communities of Mount Royal and Elbow Park -sign. This reminds drivers that they are leaving the arterial network and entering a community. Premier Way (West of 10th) - we want to slow down the traffic on Premier Way - down to the limit, we want to make a crosswalk for the kids that live over in the Wolf and Montcalm area to safely cross Premier Way plus we would like to make the entrance to Premier Way off 14th so that it is less inviting and hide the strip mall from our residents. To do this we propose to: 1. Add a narrow crosswalk -similar to what the City has done in front of Earl Grey School on Hillcrest -this would likely be installed just West of Vercheres. This would also slow down the traffic to the speed limit. 2.
Add
a partial traffic circle into the Premier Way -Carlton Intersection. This
would make through traffic on Carlton impossible (except for the bus). (See
above) 3.
Install a triangular island at
Vercheres and Premier Way to eliminate the left turn off of Premier onto
Vercheres and the left turn off of Vercheres onto Premier. 4.
When the planned sewer improvements come through the Premier Way
and 14th Street intersection we are requesting that the City installs
a strip of soil along behind the bus stop. This will allow the community to
install a fence or hedge that will block the view of the strip mall and also
make the entrance less inviting to non-residents. Premier Way (East of 10th) - we want to slow down the traffic on Premier Way, down to the
limit, plus we would like a bike path on the South side of the roadway so that
our residents can get down to the Glencoe and the Elbow Park Tennis Club safely. To do this we want to: 1. Take the City up on their offer to build the bike path as part of their bike path network this requires that the roadway be narrowed substantially with the added benefit of slowing traffic down to the new 40 km/hr limit. 2. Eliminate the ugly concrete center barriers and replace them with grass islands on the curved parts only. This beautifies, makes it all safer and also makes it easier for the fire trucks to get through. South Mount Royal Park
Area - this area has had Stop signs added -we feel that these signs - in
conjunction with the other measures proposed in the rest of the community
-will protect this area adequately. A large number of short cutters shoot straight across 14th to access
Quebec and Premier in the morning. This practice gets harder and harder as 14th
gets busier - so we are not pursuing changing the signage off 14th since we feel
it to be self-limiting. Carleton - There are three measures that are being proposed for Carleton Street since Carleton and Tenth are the number two and three cut through routes (after 8th). 1. A traffic circle /button that has been proposed at Premier Way. 2. A Traffic Circle / button in the Frontenac intersection. 3. A modification at the 12th Street intersection. Tenth - There are three measures that are being proposed for 10th Street. 1. The intersection of Tenth and Premier Way will operate the same as now but it will be modified so that it is not so inviting to cheat. It will also be made to look less like a forest of traffic signs. 2. The east end of Talon. Park would be extended out to Tenth Street and a STOP sign added so as to slow the traffic down to acceptable speeds on both Tenth and Laval plus pedestrians would no longer get caught out in the middle of traffic. A STOP sign may be tried on 10th Street at this intersection if it is deemed necessary as we go along. 3. A modification would be made at the Frontenac intersection to slow the traffic on Tenth and Frontenac. The jury is still out on exactly what this would look like but it would most likely be an island of some sort.
Eighth - There are five measures that are being proposed for Eighth. 1. The intersection of Premier and 8th would lose the three way stop but only if Elbow Park is successful at getting it moved to the 7th Street intersection. We are willing to let the STOP be moved because we believe that no one will stop at it once the southbound traffic is not pouring out of 8th Street. 2. The Frontenac intersection would not allow traffic to go Southbound on 8th Street. This requires an additional measure at the top of Marquette to ensure that it does not carry over to Marquette. 3. The Royal intersection would be tightened up to slow traffic and make it safer for pedestrians to cross. 4. Eighth would be narrowed at 19th Ave to slow traffic and to allow for a Community Sign. 5. It has been suggested that speed bumps and a crosswalk narrowing on 8th by the school may also be a good idea. 6. Plus 8th Street will eventually get signed as a 40-km/hr roadway. Colburne The problem in this area is the short cutting to bypass the 17th Ave/14th Street intersection. The plan includes for a double partial closure along Colburne. Some of these measures will be far too much for some of our residents, and not near enough for others in our community. We have tried very hard to reach middle ground, and, I would like to thank all the members of the community for their input and support. The vast majority of the community want something done but do not have the time or enough motivation to cook up ideas. We believe that we have come up with something that meets the requirements of compromise and will work. It is important to remember that the City of Calgary has a vision for the Inner Citythat vision does not include allowances for moving traffic. In reality, the City is trying to slow the traffic down and narrow even the major roadways so that they bottleneck. As the City proceeds in this direction our nice, wide, residential roadways in Mount Royal will become increasingly attractive to commuter traffic. We are being given an opportunity to keep in step with the
changes happening outside of Mount Royal. The traffic measures that we are
proposing are our attempt to keep up with these changes. Please fill out our survey on the Internet at www.mountroyalstation.ca or send us a note in the mail with your comments (you can save a stamp and send it in with your 2001 Community Membership). |