The one-year pilot project to make Halifax’s busy commercial street bus-only was halted suddenly on Friday.
In a 4 p.m. Friday release, the Halifax Regional Municipality said the Spring Garden Road project will be paused until further notice, just four days after it began.
“The municipality intends to re-evaluate the current traffic control measures to recommend alternative methods to communicate and enforce the pilot initiative.
Ben MacLeod, a sustainable transportation advocate, documented vehicles skirting around cones and disregarding a larger sign the municipality later brought in.
Prior to that, MacLeod said he had been hopeful the pilot project would work.
“Well, when there were no cars on the street for that brief period of time it was really nice to cycle down the street because you didn’t have the road of car traffic. It’s a safe way to cycle through the downtown,” he said.
“I was very surprised because I thought we would see incremental improvements over the next week.”
The transit-and-bicycle-only project was first approved by regional council in December 2021.
It officially began on Monday, but cars could still be seen on the street in the days that followed. Social media users cited a lack of communication and signage to inform of the road closure.
Sara Kirk, who is also a sustainable transportation advocate, said she feels not enough was done on the planning front for such a significant change to Halifax’s busiest downtown street.
“It’s a classic example of, you know, great idea, poorly executed,” she said.
“You can’t just stick a sign up and think that it’s going to make a difference, you have to change the infrastructure, and you have to create the conditions that will enable this to work.”
Spring Garden Road spanning from Queen to South Park streets will now return to normal traffic.
The HRM stated the following instructions in the release:
- Vehicle access will be maintained on Spring Garden southbound on Birmingham Street, northbound on Dresden Row and northbound on Brenton Street
- Clyde Street will remain two-way between South Park Street and Queen Street
- Stopping is not permitted along Spring Garden, from Queen to South Park streets, outside of the one designated loading area
- Cyclists and pedestrians will continue to have access at all times
— With files from Alexa MacLean