EDMONTON – City officials say they are reversing controversial traffic-calming measures from the Pleasantview area, five months short of a one-year trial period.
A crowd of close to 100 people applauded when they were told the decision during the first of two community meetings. There were a few boos from residents who supported the measures.
The city’s project engineer, Andrew Siggelkow, told the crowd the modifications would be taken out as early as next week.
“What we heard from [the survey] was a strong desire to remove trial measures. It was also very clear the community did not want us to tweak the plan and address some of the areas that are receiving increased traffic,” he said.
“People wanted us to try something and we’ve done that. But what we’ve heard is what we’ve tried isn’t working and we’re committing to addressing the traffic in different ways in Pleasantview.”
Lynn Durbacz has been fighting against the traffic calming measures for months. She told Global News that she’s pleased to hear the city is reversing its plans.
“They’re doing the right thing,” she said.
“I think they finally are listening to the ones they should have been listening to before. We shouldn’t have had to go through seven months of complete chaos in our neighbourhood.”
In mid-July, the city made 106 Street between 53 and 56 Avenues one-way, closing access to southbound traffic. The city said the goal was to curb speeding and drivers short-cutting through the residential area. People who lived in nearby southside neighbourhoods called it “a nightmare” and said the changes were pushed forward without the support of the majority of the community.
On Wednesday, a sign that resembled a gravestone, was posted in the community. It read: “RIP safety and quality of life for this neighbourhood. Thank you Coun. Walters, City of Edmonton.”
A sign in the Pleasantview neighbourhood, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016.
Not everyone, however, is pleased the traffic calming measures are going to be removed.
“They promised the trial would be in for a full year,” said Janet Bossert, who was also at the meeting.
“The purpose of the trial was to change drivers’ habits so that people would stop thinking we were a freeway.”
Hugh Calder lives on 106 Street near 60A Avenue and is also disappointed with the city’s decision.
“It means it goes back to being double again, close to 10,000 cars a day going down 106 Street,” he said.
He is upset that the city is going back on its word to hold a one-year trial.
“We were promised that there would be a full year of trial measures and everything would be received and they backed away from it.”
The city shared feedback collected from the last three workshops, the project email and hotline and a telephone survey at two community meetings at the Ramada Edmonton South.
City officials said the workshops showed there was concern with the traffic measures and a desire for them to be moved. Feedback included concerns about safety risks to cyclists and increased congestion while some people felt the trial measures needed more time.
A telephone survey found 58 per cent of respondents felt traffic safety in the neighbourhood had declined since the measures were put in place. Thirteen per cent said traffic safety had improved. Results also showed 62 per cent of respondents weren’t comfortable with turning 106 Street into a one-way street, while 22 per cent were comfortable with the change.
READ MORE: Traffic pilot projects have some Edmonton residents fuming mad
The phone survey also found 65 per cent of respondents wanted the traffic measures removed while 54 per cent wanted them removed but still wanted speeding to be addressed.
The survey showed 93 per cent of respondents said there have been more traffic issues and concerns since the traffic measures were installed.
READ MORE: ‘It’s a nightmare’: Pleasantview residents continue to oppose traffic changes
Next steps could include driver feedback signs and speed humps, Siggelkow said. He adds that the signs should be posted before March 31 while speed humps are still under consideration. No changes to the posted speed limit are planned.
Councillor Michael Walters was at the meeting and said the decision to end the trial project is not cause for celebration.
“This trial was in reaction to an original problem of speeding and volume through this neighbourhood,” he said. “It was deemed to not be working and actually making the situation worse in other parts of the neighbourhood so it’s back to figuring out how to deal with that original issue.”
A report on the trial project will go to city council Mar. 23.
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