WATCH ABOVE: The Old Strathcona Business Association is revisiting the idea of making Whyte Avenue partially car-free during peak hours. Jessica Kent explains.
EDMONTON – Whyte Avenue is one of the busiest entertainment districts in Edmonton. It attracts thousands of visitors on a daily basis—many of which make their way up and down the avenue by foot.
Last year, the Old Strathcona Business Association and the City of Edmonton tested the waters to see how people would react to making a portion of the popular avenue car-free on some of the busiest pedestrian nights of the year.
At the time, when the city asked for public opinion via a survey, 57 per cent of 2,040 responses highly supported the idea, 20 per cent said the idea was great in theory but more information is needed, six per cent said perhaps, and 17 per cent said no.
Out of 66 Community League and Area Council Executives from 10 groups, 87.9 per cent highly supported the idea and 12.1 per cent said they did not support it.
The City of Edmonton has taken a step back from the pilot project for the moment. However, Mayor Don Iveson has expressed the project is not entirely off the city’s radar.
“I think we’ll continue to talk about it. I’m sure we’ll find a time and occasion to do it in a way that is good for business and good for the community,” he said.
READ MORE: City sees strong support to make Whyte Avenue car-free
Murray Davison, executive director of the Old Strathcona Business Association said the results of the survey are not reflective of what was actually proposed because there was so much misinformation about what the proposal actually entailed.
“Originally, there was a group of us working on this and we wanted to study specific dates and times that this would be closed, what streets would be closed, and then look at the impact of traffic moving off of those streets so that we would get a good understanding of what that would be. But they didn’t do it that way,” he said.
“They took it on their own and started to see, ‘Is there a feel for it?’ and people had more questions than they had answers. You’ve got to have that all in place before you go to the public so that they understand what they’re commenting on.”
READ MORE: ‘I’m against it’: Edmonton resident on car-free Whyte Avenue pilot project
Many people believed the proposal called for a complete 24-hour closure of the entire Whyte Avenue area to all vehicles. In reality, the proposed closure is from midnight to 3 a.m. on the nights that have been the most crowded in the area—Thursdays and weekends—and only from 103 to 105 Street.
The proposal entails allowing certain areas of the avenue to be accessible to transportation during those hours.
“We want to have taxi stands set up and have it connected to late night transit so that people can get off the avenue safely and effectively,” said Davison.
For now, the Old Strathcona Business Association is taking the time to make sure everything is clearly stated in the proposal.
“We’ve got to do it right. We have to study everything, have all the answers before we go to the public and do a public consultation. There’s a lot of work that we should have been doing and now can do now that it’s back in the hands of the stakeholders,” said Davison. “The city is taking a step back and they’re going to put it back in the hands of the Old Strathcona Business Association, so we’re just going to re-evaluate everything, get the stakeholders together, and try to get it going again sometime this year.”
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