(Photo via Fairwinds Community Association.)
On Friday morning ten residents from Fairwinds met with Councillor Shad Qadri, members of the Ottawa Police and staff from the city to talk about traffic safety concerns.
Councillor Qadri set this meeting up at our request and it was an excellent opportunity for all of us to share information and air some concerns.
A few things we learned:
- City staff are recommending that the lines be re-painted as a single lane in each direction at Huntmar and Maple Grove.They will be providing the community with a proposed design that we can comment on before it’s implemented. It sounds like this would be the safest – and least confusing – configuration for the intersection.
- There is a camera at the intersection that traffic staff are using to study traffic flow. They continue to make adjustment to light timings to make sure traffic is moving as efficiently as possible.
- There is a traffic light planned for in front of the Food Basics, but it won’t get built until there’s more commercial development in the Food Basics plaza or across the street west of Huntmar.
- Staff rejected our suggestions for a temporary one-way configuration to allow room for a sidewalk on the Huntmar bridge over to Tanger Outlets/Kanata North. They said it was cost-prohibitive and would be confusing and unsafe for motorists. (Although it is confusing and unsafe for pedestrians as it exists!)
- A sidewalk will be added to the Huntmar Bridge when it’s widened to four lanes. Currently, that’s not slated to happen until 2026, but Qadri and city staff are looking at moving construction forward to 2018.
- Police are doing what they can to enforce “no truck” rules in our community, including along Huntmar, but they lack resources. Truck traffic is one of many traffic infractions they’re focused on, and they are spread thin. Shad Qadri’s office and the police have contacted local businesses and developers like Mattamy and Tartan and have reminded their employees, contractors and suppliers to avoid “no truck” roads in our community.
We recognize that in the long term, the city has a plan to divert traffic away from our community with new road and transit infrastructure. In the meantime, we’ll continue to work with councillor Qadri and the city to find ways to make our Fairwinds streets safer.
You can read a full recap of our meeting on the Fairwinds Community Association web site.
(NOTE: StittsvilleCentral.ca’s editor, Glen Gower, is president of the Fairwinds Community Association.)
I’m glad to see they’re willing to make changes to the lanes at the intersection. I’m not sure I agree with a single lane though – people will still be stuck waiting to go northbound if someone in front of them is turning left. Why not simply make the right lane for straight-through and right turns, and make the left reserved for left turns?
Also of significant note – the lights at Huntmar and Hazeldean have been ignored completely.
There is a left-turn arrow there (Huntmar southbound turning east onto Hazeldean), but it only seems to operate when it is not needed (e.g. on weekends). How about giving us employed people a turn arrow on weekday mornings, say, at rush hour?
Can we go back to the stop signs now…..I said the traffic lights would be a problem. With stop signs the traffic kept moving.