WATCH ABOVE: It was a move designed to curb speeding and shortcuts, but according to people who live in Pleasantview, the plan is flawed. Shallima Maharaj explains.
EDMONTON — It was designed as a traffic-calming measure; a move to curb speeding and short-cuts, but people who live in Pleasantview say the city’s plan has a major flaw.
“Before the changes, it was peaceful,” explained Debbie Mainwaring. “The idea that you could move the traffic from 106 Street to 105 Street here without impacting residents is actually ludicrous.”
In mid-July, the city made 106 Street between 53 and 56 Avenues one-way, closing access to northbound traffic. But, homeowners in nearby south side neighbourhoods say the change is just pushing the problem to their streets.
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“It’s very frustrating,” said Lynn Durbacz. “As a lifelong resident of Pleasantview, I have seen this issue now first-hand. Where we had a nice little quiet street has now become a freeway.”
Durbacz has been sitting next to 105 Street to keep track of how many vehicles now use it. She’s been monitoring traffic for four hours every afternoon during rush hour since Monday.
“It’s really unreal. My counts now, from 3 to 7 p.m. are now reaching 1,000 vehicles.”
She says she’s witnessed an array of driving infractions: speeding, ignoring the stop sign, blocking the intersection and U-turns.
“This is residential and we’re really concerned about safety.”
The city said the one-way traffic decision was made in an effort to stop thousands of vehicles from cutting down 106 Street everyday. But Durbacz says the plan isn’t working. She showed Global News home video of impatient drivers ramping the sidewalks.
The city said the community voted in this option, however, some residents are questioning the consultation process.
“The vast majority of Pleasantview residents did not want this. 106 Street should be open,” said Mainwaring.
However, not everyone agrees.
“I think the pilot project needs to be given time to succeed,” said resident Sinclair Watson. “They’ve only just started it. When I saw the plans that the city presented – they did a lot of community engagement – and during the community engagement, the city was really open to people’s ideas.”
Watson feels the city gave people a lot of opportunities to comment, many did, and that there was a lot of support for the pilot project.
“I felt really supportive of the idea when I heard it.
“Living in this neighbourhood, I see how much traffic is going through here, is short-cutting and it is scary. There’s a ton of traffic on our roads and from what the city traffic report showed, I guess 66 per cent were speeding. So, I think something needs to be done to fix that.
“I trust the city has our best interest in mind and they’re doing their best to further that.”
Mainwaring wants to see the city reverse the traffic changes.
“This has affected all of our residents and as we can see by the traffic count, it is a nightmare and it’s very dangerous for our residents,” she added. “People cannot even walk their dogs safely. It’s that bad.”
“It was supposed to be a calming project,” said Mainwaring, “but unfortunately, it’s done the opposite effect for the residents.”
The city councillor for the area, Michael Walters, said the city is trying to fix a long-standing problem in the community and this change was an attempt to address it.
“When I campaigned here two years ago, almost every door talked about short-cutting and speeding,” he said.
“Whether this is the right solution or not, we don’t know, but simply stopping the trial isn’t going to fix that original problem, so we’ve got to figure out if this isn’t the right one, then which one is?
Walters said the city will do automatic traffic counts once school starts up again to measure volume in the area.
“If those counts show us that we’ve just moved it around, it’s not a successful trial and we have to make some changes.”
“This isn’t a trial that’s aimed at reducing short-cutting and speeding only on 106 Street and 109 Street. It’s about reducing short-cutting and speeding in Pleasantview.
“So, it’s not okay for us to simply just move it around the neighbourhood.”
He said his office has received hundreds of calls and emails about this issue.
“We’ve been receiving a lot of calls and emails and we’ve been talking to a lot of residents about that and certainly we’re interested in any information people have. That’s part of the consultation process that this trial is.”
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