Council should approve traffic calming measures based on numbers and not residents’ whims.
That’s how Coun. Jeff Bumstead felt about a staff request around approval of such measures at Wycliffe Cove in Victoria Harbour.
“I see the safety bollards every day,” he said. “The bollards that are being suggested here...what is the intent of them? What are they trying to control? And what data are we using that these are going to work?”
He was questioning staff after a report part of Wednesday’s council meeting agenda indicated that the issue had been part of several discussions and communications with various groups.
“We don't have data that says they are going to work,” said Peter Dance, general manager, Operational Services and manager of Engineering Services. “We know it's a traffic calming tool that does work. The purpose is to reduce traffic the second time through when people find they're travel time is higher. People are going to have to slow down to use the slightly narrow lane. The survey afterwards helps us understand whether it's achieved what it was supposed to.”
Bumstead said he was unclear on what the survey data afterwards would be comparing results with.
“I don't support putting the bollards there until we collect some data,” he said. “My suggestion is that we won't have starting data to compare it with. We will never know accurately if these measures had any effect. My suggestion is to support this as a first step.”
For Coun. Mary Warnock, the complaints from residents were enough to support the move.
“I get that we need to have data, but we've sat on this so long that we need to just deal with it and be done,” she said. “The residents have already identified there's a problem there. And I think we need to get done with this situation.”
Warnock added that bollards work as a traffic calming measure, because she’s seen them being effective in Midland.
“You'll see a decrease in traffic because people won't want to spend the time going around these bollards,” she said.
Deputy Mayor Gerard LaChapelle agreed with Bumstead and suggested that staff could rent the bollards for a couple days and collect data.
“We need it to find if it's effective,” LaChapelle said.
Dance said it would still require a fair bit of money installing the bollards to conduct a study.
“The quality of data will be affected depending on the week the data is collected,” he added.
At the end, council voted four to three in favour of having the flex bollards installed on Wycliffe Cove one the section closer to Albert Street.
The parking lane would be temporarily unavailable and the bollard island will be placed in the centre of the lane.
