TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION
“Mobility is an integral part of a sustainable community fabric, and demands careful consideration of the interaction of land use and transportation and the resulting environmental, social, and economic impacts.” (Saanich OCP (2008) p.4-27)
As the region as a whole undergoes a period of densification and transition stemming from the Regional Growth and Sustainability strategies, it makes sense to attend to the quality of life of residents in existing residential communities. Quiet, green space and physical safety are important contributors to citizen well being. It makes sense, therefore, to develop policies that optimize such values.
Traffic remains a major concern for residents in many Saanich neighbourhoods—certainly it is a concern for neighbourhoods in the MVCCA catchment. There are several causes of increased traffic volumes, including growing families, secondary suites and real estate development. The pronounced increase in density of people in the Mt. View and Saanich Core areas is accompanied by an increase in density of vehicles. In addition, the congestion on major roads encourage attempts to find short cuts through our community. Increased traffic volume frequently takes place on narrow residential streets without sidewalks, such as Rowland Ave., Cadillac St. Seaton St., Whiteside and several others; so pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter users—most often children or elderly residents—are required to negotiate around parked vehicles while sharing the street with cars travelling 50k/h or faster.
Moreover the grid lock volumes of traffic by commuting vehicles during the afternoon rush hours of Burnside Road West, Interurban Rd and Tillicum Rd to Glanford Ave. makes the egress of residential vehicles from the side streets extremely difficult and, thus, risky. One such example is Arlene Place, which exits onto McKenzie Avenue. They have documented their problem on a YouTube video taken by a drone. See Arlene Place traffic problem
For many years, Carey road was a high speed thoroughfare between McKenzie Avenue and Town and Country- now Uptown-- shopping center. Now, while Carey moves heavy volumes of traffic, pedestrian-controlled crossings and refuge islands have provided a measure of traffic calming and the pedestrian environment has improved.
We are concerned that the construction period of the new McKenzie interchange will bring more grid lock and more traffic to our side streets.
Harriet Road closure
MVCCA received a letter dated 2 Sept, 2016, from District of Saanich, Transportation & Development Division
It reads in part:
"The Administrative Traffic Committee (ATC) recommended that in conjunction with the new turn lane at Carey Road the existing right turn access to and from Trans-Canada Hwy (Douglas St.) at Harriet Road be closed to all vehicle traffic on a trial basis. This location has a higher than normal rate of accidents due to its proximity to the Galloping Goose trail and the closure of this access will significantly improve the safety of trail users. The closure will also reduce the amount of commuter traffic using the local roads in this area
This trial closure will take place on October 6th 2016 ... Saanich and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure will be monitoring the closure over the next six (6) months to evaluate its effect on traffic patterns in the area"
With respect to requests to address traffic concerns it has been recommended that concerns be sent to Engineering@saanich.ca as this site is monitored daily and then forwarded to the appropriate engineering section to review and response.
As the region as a whole undergoes a period of densification and transition stemming from the Regional Growth and Sustainability strategies, it makes sense to attend to the quality of life of residents in existing residential communities. Quiet, green space and physical safety are important contributors to citizen well being. It makes sense, therefore, to develop policies that optimize such values.
Traffic remains a major concern for residents in many Saanich neighbourhoods—certainly it is a concern for neighbourhoods in the MVCCA catchment. There are several causes of increased traffic volumes, including growing families, secondary suites and real estate development. The pronounced increase in density of people in the Mt. View and Saanich Core areas is accompanied by an increase in density of vehicles. In addition, the congestion on major roads encourage attempts to find short cuts through our community. Increased traffic volume frequently takes place on narrow residential streets without sidewalks, such as Rowland Ave., Cadillac St. Seaton St., Whiteside and several others; so pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter users—most often children or elderly residents—are required to negotiate around parked vehicles while sharing the street with cars travelling 50k/h or faster.
Moreover the grid lock volumes of traffic by commuting vehicles during the afternoon rush hours of Burnside Road West, Interurban Rd and Tillicum Rd to Glanford Ave. makes the egress of residential vehicles from the side streets extremely difficult and, thus, risky. One such example is Arlene Place, which exits onto McKenzie Avenue. They have documented their problem on a YouTube video taken by a drone. See Arlene Place traffic problem
For many years, Carey road was a high speed thoroughfare between McKenzie Avenue and Town and Country- now Uptown-- shopping center. Now, while Carey moves heavy volumes of traffic, pedestrian-controlled crossings and refuge islands have provided a measure of traffic calming and the pedestrian environment has improved.
We are concerned that the construction period of the new McKenzie interchange will bring more grid lock and more traffic to our side streets.
Harriet Road closure
MVCCA received a letter dated 2 Sept, 2016, from District of Saanich, Transportation & Development Division
It reads in part:
"The Administrative Traffic Committee (ATC) recommended that in conjunction with the new turn lane at Carey Road the existing right turn access to and from Trans-Canada Hwy (Douglas St.) at Harriet Road be closed to all vehicle traffic on a trial basis. This location has a higher than normal rate of accidents due to its proximity to the Galloping Goose trail and the closure of this access will significantly improve the safety of trail users. The closure will also reduce the amount of commuter traffic using the local roads in this area
This trial closure will take place on October 6th 2016 ... Saanich and the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure will be monitoring the closure over the next six (6) months to evaluate its effect on traffic patterns in the area"
With respect to requests to address traffic concerns it has been recommended that concerns be sent to Engineering@saanich.ca as this site is monitored daily and then forwarded to the appropriate engineering section to review and response.
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RIGHT TURN ON CAREY: A HISTORY
At the beginning of the Uptown Development process, MVCCA members obtained verbal assurances from Saanich planning, Morguard and representatives of MOTI that Carey Road would never be opened to a right turn from Douglas.
Residents of the Carey - Tillicum area are concerned that the increase of cut through traffic volume will be severely detrimental to the neighbourhood's air quality and noise burden. They argue that opening Harriet is not the correct solution and a better one is to close both Carey and Harriet to non-local traffic.
For more information, check out the links to correspondence and other documents below.
| mt_view_colquitz_traffic_count_history.pdf |
| carey_road.letter_to_moti.march_18.15_final.doc |
