UPDATE #1: Here is a post about the Quinpool Road impacts of Traffic Map concerns that were floating around twitter.
UPDATE #2: Here is an email from Councillor Watts that I’ve republished that summarizes areas to look into in the regional plan.
The Regional Plan is the set of bylaws that determine how HRM is going to shape our growth. This plan is the most important documents HRM creates. Simply put, the regional plan review is the most important piece of legislation that HRM will pass between now and the next election in 2016.
It is very very important that citizens get involved and have their say.
The Halifax Regional Municipality is completing the first five-year review of the Regional Municipal Planning Strategy (Regional Plan) under the guidance of the Community Design and Advisory Committee (CDAC).
The Regional Plan, adopted by Halifax Regional Council in 2006, forms a comprehensive guide for the future growth and development of HRM. Implemented through detailed community planning, priorities plans and strategic municipal investment, the Plan remains a strong and well-conceived blueprint for growth. The current review is based on a Council-approved scope of work to address specific issues.
The 2nd draft is now available for public input (DOWNLOAD IT HERE). Please take the time to read the parts of the document that interest you and attend one of these meetings!
Public Consultation on Proposed Changes to the Regional Plan
| Open House Sessions:* | ||
| MondayJune 10, 2013 | North Preston Community CentreCommunity Room44 Simmonds RoadNorth Preston | 4:30 – 9:00 pm |
| WednesdayJune 12, 2013 | Canada Games CentreCommunity Centre Room26 Thomas Raddall DriveHalifax | 4:30 – 9:00 pm |
| ThursdayJune 13, 2013 | Gordon Snow Community CentreMulti-purpose Room1359 Fall River RoadFall River | 4:30 – 9:00 pm |
| Open House and Public Forum:** | ||
| MondayJune 17, 2013 | Holiday Inn HarbourviewLake City Ballroom & Terrace101 Wyse RoadDartmouth | Open House:4:30 – 6:30 pmForum:6:30 – 9:00 pm |
*During the open house sessions (June 10, 12 and 13th) information displays will be available describing all proposed changes to the Regional Plan. HRM staff will be on-hand to answer questions one-on-one. The open house format will not include a sit-down presentation.
**During the final public consultation session on June 17th, information displays will be available during a two-hour open house (4:30-6:30 pm). At 6:30 pm a public meeting will begin. There will be a presentation given on the changes to the Regional Plan, followed by a town-hall style question-and-answer period.
Does it not strike you as odd that a Regional Plan aimed at creating more densification of urban areas has zero public consultations on the peninsula and one in the Regional Centre?
For those of us urbanites who walk and bike and don’t own cars, it’s going to be a logistical nightmare to stand up for the principles that the Regional Plan stand for.
Why does HRM propose changing all the collectors on the peninsula (Windsor, Gottingen, Agricola, Spring Garden, Morris, etc.) from streets where the classification allows parking, traffic flow and land acces (driveways) are of equal importance, and interrupted traffic speeds limited to 50 kph, to Major Collectors, where parking is not necessarily allowed, traffic flow is the most important thing, and uninterrupted traffic flow is up to 60 kph?
Are you aware of the implications of this change on how traffic signals are programmed (like the pedestrian hating one at Robie and Cunard), crosswalk safety, traffic calming from driveway and on street parking presence, pedestrian comfort for shopping, and the overall human habitat character of a street?
If anything, there needs to be some downgrading of some of the streets now designated as Arterial, and kept that way. Young Street through the Hydrostone? Really? Like, overhead crosswalks!! Ahahahaha. Such bonehead examples diminish from the entire effort.
The sub plot here is that if approved as is, staff can argue that council has already approved the removal of parking at staff discretion, the widening of anything that is currently narrower than the specified widths of the classification, and even might be able to proceed under their discretionary limits to implement construction of street widenings with no public consultation. Indeed, those streets already designated under “RP1” as arterial, are already elegible to be changed without council approval.
Why don’t we stop and think about making the streets pedestrian friendly first. On street parking is the very best means we have to accomplish this, as it provides immediate shelter for a pedestrian from traffic (think about how you feel walking on Spring Garden when there are cars parking along the street, or even cabs at a stand, then compare it to when there are no cars parked). On-street parking delivers extra bonuses – access to businesses for customers that is even closer to a door than at Bayers Lake. Far closer, actually. And, on top of that, done right, it also generates revenue for the city. Free traffic calming, less accidents, and more compatible with human use.
If we calm traffic to a speed through city streets that is 30 km (same as a school zone in the city now, have you seen the new one on Summer and Spring Garden for Sacred Heart?), many cyclists will cease to be in conflict with the cars, because they can move that fast. In interrupted traffic areas, with crosswalks and signals, a bike simply becomes a part of the flow. It does not need a special lane. It’s fast enough to mix. But if we start to designate those streets as having a primary purpose of moving cars and trucks, we abandon the idea of a mixed use, healthy street, and end up by effectively taking down the Cogswell Interchange, designed for traffic only, and then re-building it all over the city, driving people and business away, all for cars that will then be heading nowhere.