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IRA NEEDLES SLATED FOR EXPANSION
As Kitchener grows, the city looks for ways to
calm traffic on a number of residential streets
As Kitchener grows, the city looks for ways to
calm traffic on a number of residential streets
By Helen Hall
Kitchener Citizen
Ken Carmichael simply calls it a “balancing act.”
As the Supervisor of Traffic and Parking for the City of Kitchener, he attends many public meetings to hear from residents who are
concerned about the volume and speed of cars going down their street. And while he wants to assist the homeowners, he has to also keep in mind the needs of emergency vehicles, buses, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and do all this within the city’s budget.
The city uses ‘traffic calming’ measures to slow down or reduce motor vehicle traffic on some residential streets.
According to Carmichael, traffic calming is relatively new in North America, having become popular in the last 10 years.
In 2004, the city developed a “priority ranking system” to list streets that are in need of traffic calming measures, said Carmichael. The ranking is based on a number of studies, including traffic volume and speed studies, the list of collision reports, and a look at how the calming measures will affect pedestrians, school and city transit buses and emergency vehicles. Once these studies are complete, the street will be added in its place to the city’s list of 140 awaiting traffic calming.
“We have a good system in place,” Carmichael said, for determining whether streets require traffic calming.
“There has to be a proven need.”
The city’s traffic department has money budgeted to work on four streets per year. It is still working on the 2011 list of Highview Drive (including Yellow Birch and Golden Meadow), Sydney Street South, Williamsburg Road, and Siebert and Woodhaven Roads. The 2012 streets include Glasgow St., Morrison Rd., Guelph St., and the neighbourhood of Connaught, Traynor, Wilson and Franklin.
Carmichael and other staff in the traffic department then work with residents by getting their input through public meetings.
The options available range from passive ones like reducing the speed limit, to restrictive ones like closing the road to traffic. Kitchener mostly relies on moderate options such as speed humps.
Speed humps, while they do slow traffic, have their drawbacks as well. They slow down emergency vehicles.
Carmichael said the city is investigating the use of some alternatives to the regular speed humps it has used in the past.
One option is speed ‘cushions’, which are not solid humps that go across the road, but have breaks in the center of them so that
emergency vehicles can travel down the middle of the roadway.
The trick is, according to Carmichael, to make sure they are only put on roads where regular drivers don’t try to do the same thing.
Carmichael said the city may try these speed cushions out on Pioneer Drive, which is scheduled to be completed this year. This street is busy enough that going down the middle to avoid the speed cushions would only work when traffic is pulled to the side,
as it would be for emergency vehicles.
IRA NEEDLES
While it is not a residential street, Ira Needles Blvd. is also suffering from Kitchener’s growing pains.
Waterloo Region’s Planning and Works Committee is proposing to expand the road to four lanes from Highview Drive to Erb Street West in Waterloo.
The road was constructed in 2007 with the plan to expand it to four lanes in 2019. Increased traffic volumes have pushed the planning and works committee to move the expansion forward to 2015.
There has been a great deal of commercial development on Ira Needles since it was built in 2007, including the fast-growing Boardwalk shopping centre.
The Region has allotted $10-million for the expansion. This proposal will have to receive approval from Regional Council to proceed.
Kitchener Citizen
Ken Carmichael simply calls it a “balancing act.”
As the Supervisor of Traffic and Parking for the City of Kitchener, he attends many public meetings to hear from residents who are
concerned about the volume and speed of cars going down their street. And while he wants to assist the homeowners, he has to also keep in mind the needs of emergency vehicles, buses, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and do all this within the city’s budget.
The city uses ‘traffic calming’ measures to slow down or reduce motor vehicle traffic on some residential streets.
According to Carmichael, traffic calming is relatively new in North America, having become popular in the last 10 years.
In 2004, the city developed a “priority ranking system” to list streets that are in need of traffic calming measures, said Carmichael. The ranking is based on a number of studies, including traffic volume and speed studies, the list of collision reports, and a look at how the calming measures will affect pedestrians, school and city transit buses and emergency vehicles. Once these studies are complete, the street will be added in its place to the city’s list of 140 awaiting traffic calming.
“We have a good system in place,” Carmichael said, for determining whether streets require traffic calming.
“There has to be a proven need.”
The city’s traffic department has money budgeted to work on four streets per year. It is still working on the 2011 list of Highview Drive (including Yellow Birch and Golden Meadow), Sydney Street South, Williamsburg Road, and Siebert and Woodhaven Roads. The 2012 streets include Glasgow St., Morrison Rd., Guelph St., and the neighbourhood of Connaught, Traynor, Wilson and Franklin.
Carmichael and other staff in the traffic department then work with residents by getting their input through public meetings.
The options available range from passive ones like reducing the speed limit, to restrictive ones like closing the road to traffic. Kitchener mostly relies on moderate options such as speed humps.
Speed humps, while they do slow traffic, have their drawbacks as well. They slow down emergency vehicles.
Carmichael said the city is investigating the use of some alternatives to the regular speed humps it has used in the past.
One option is speed ‘cushions’, which are not solid humps that go across the road, but have breaks in the center of them so that
emergency vehicles can travel down the middle of the roadway.
The trick is, according to Carmichael, to make sure they are only put on roads where regular drivers don’t try to do the same thing.
Carmichael said the city may try these speed cushions out on Pioneer Drive, which is scheduled to be completed this year. This street is busy enough that going down the middle to avoid the speed cushions would only work when traffic is pulled to the side,
as it would be for emergency vehicles.
IRA NEEDLES
While it is not a residential street, Ira Needles Blvd. is also suffering from Kitchener’s growing pains.
Waterloo Region’s Planning and Works Committee is proposing to expand the road to four lanes from Highview Drive to Erb Street West in Waterloo.
The road was constructed in 2007 with the plan to expand it to four lanes in 2019. Increased traffic volumes have pushed the planning and works committee to move the expansion forward to 2015.
There has been a great deal of commercial development on Ira Needles since it was built in 2007, including the fast-growing Boardwalk shopping centre.
The Region has allotted $10-million for the expansion. This proposal will have to receive approval from Regional Council to proceed.