Rose identified Bowen Rd., Wakesiah Ave., Fifth St. and Bruce Ave. as some of the main corridors that may need to be excluded from speed reductions, but no specific decision has been made.
The implementation schedule and boundaries of the three urban centers are also still somewhat up in the air, but are expected to largely follow the outlines set out in previous community and council plans.
The purpose of Thursday’s presentation was to gather feedback from advisors ahead of the final pitch on Monday evening.
It’s all in an effort to improve safety on area roads and create what city staff called a “cultural shift” about dealing with excessive speeds and how residents travel.
The areas were chosen based on public feedback from previous rounds of public consultation, including Reimagine Nanaimo.
“The majority of locations identified as high priority were in these three urban centers,” Rose said. “We also felt that these were already very walkable neighborhoods, so the combination of these two plus the relatively gridded network seemed like a very opportunistic starting point.”
For now, updated signage and a before-and-after study should be the scope of the project, along with any other traffic-calming related measures that may possibly come after the pilot ends.
“This really should be seen as the first step in a gradual process of improving road safety and we will learn from it to see where to go next and what we can do to make things even better,” Rose added.
ICBC is expected to contribute financially in some way to the project, but the extent of their involvement is not yet known.
Rose said that over the past few years there have been more and more requests from the public to investigate speeding in their neighborhoods, some of which may be dismissed quickly, but others are under further investigation. thorough.
“There are a number of them… where we went out and collected the data and said there were speeds way above what we expected to see on those roads. Are they generating collisions? Not yet , but we also know that the higher the velocity rate when an MVA occurs, the lower the survivability for everyone.
Barbara Thomas, deputy director of transportation, added that the proposed measures are something the City can do now, with a long-term vision encompassing already established “complete streets.”
Updated designs, already in use along Metral Dr., portions of Bowen Rd. and Front St. naturally reduce speeds according to Thomas.
“[As] these new road design standards are adopted and built, we are going to see a change in speed because the road will be self-explanatory, but until then we have to use other measures to retroactively control this what people are doing.
Money for the project would come from the $1 million unallocated pedestrian fund, money that is set aside each year for projects that improve pedestrian safety in the city.
Spending nearly a quarter of the budget on signage and studying speed reduction in three urban centers was raised as a concern by the county. Zeni Maartman.
“I really thought [the budget] went towards the safety of pedestrians, sidewalks, traffic, intersections… so I’m not leaning towards signage and studies. I really wanted to put a million dollars, boom, into real projects.
Councilors also discussed ongoing works, which have been approved in previous years, as well as proposed new projects to calm traffic along some streets in the city.
Ongoing studies and projects include surveys of Lost Lake Rd., Georgia Ave., Bay St. and along Departure Bay Beach where lane-narrowing concrete dividers have been installed to limit space for high-speed vehicles. speed.
In addition to voting on the speed reduction pilot program on Monday evening, councilors will also make decisions on how to spend the remaining unallocated project budget.
Proposed uses include accessibility and safety improvements at a number of intersections as well as sidewalk and safety improvements at Chase River along the Trans-Canada Highway. between Cranberry Rd. and Maki Road.
Join the conversation. Send your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and appear on The water coolerour letters to the editor.
On Twitter: @alexrawnsley
