The Bayers Road widening project in Halifax’s west end is overdue and over budget, and according to residents in the area, it’s causing a traffic nightmare.
The Halifax Regional Municipality’s plan to improve public transit and mobility on Bayers Lake led city staff to build new priority bus lanes on Bayers Road between Romans Avenue and Windsor Street.
For years, the intersection has been a source of congestion, especially during rush hours, which meant slower public transit.
The goal of the project is to encourage the use of public transit and improve the service’s reliability, but it comes with new restrictions that will prohibit vehicles from turning right from Bayers Road onto George Dauphinee Avenue and MicMac Street.
But Norm Seguin, a local resident, argued those new bus lanes come at a cost.
“If you’re coming from Windsor Street there used to be two lanes to get across, there’s one now,” he said.
He said there also used to be a turning right slip lane, but that’s gone, too.
Get breaking National news
So while traffic is improved for buses, it’s even more congested for other vehicles, and it’s already impacting area residents in different ways.
“We’ve never heard people leaning on their horns the way they are now, and again it stems from the congestion and the resulting frustration,” Seguin said.
The inability to turn right into MicMac Street has also hampered him personally.
” Now I have to go down through the intersection, down Connaught to Edgewood and then back up again and before, I used to just be able to turn into my street and onto my driveway,” he said.
During rush hour, that can add 15 to 30 minutes of sitting in traffic.
And Seguin isn’t alone in his concerns.
In January 2020, just before the project began, a community meeting was held with dozens of residents attending, raising concerns about lengthy detours for those living in the area.
“The city council and city staff seem to be in a rush to get these lanes in and they seem to do it not caring what residents think,” Seguin said.
District 9 Coun. Shawn Cleary was not available for an interview Thursday, but during a council meeting in August, he called the project “valuable.”
“This project is important for us in terms of the integrated mobility plan, the rapid transit plans,” he said at the Aug. 17 council meeting.
“We’re looking at massive change to how we get around and it shouldn’t be underestimated, the number of people we need to get out of vehicles and into bikes and into walking.”
During that meeting, council approved an extra $692,000 for the project, bringing the overall budget to nearly twice what was originally approved.
— with a file from Elizabeth McSheffrey
Comments