Overview
Northlands Drive between Valin Street and Gardenway Drive is currently on the City of Ottawa’s waiting list for a Neighbourhood Traffic Calming (NTC) study to address speeding concerns raised by residents. This location qualifies for an accelerated study that the City is piloting since it is classified as a local road and is not on a key emergency response route (as identified by Emergency Services) or on a transit route.
The accelerated NTC study process only considers simple measures such as speed humps which are among the most effective measures to reduce vehicle speeds along a roadway and can also be implemented relatively quickly compared to other types of traffic calming measures. For this reason, the benefit of the proposed accelerated NTC study process is that permanent roadway modifications to address speeding concerns can be implemented more quickly when compared to the regular NTC study process.
After reviewing the results of the online survey conducted in the fall of 2023, the decision was made to proceed with the detailed design and construction of this project. More information, including the “As We Heard It” report outlining the results of the survey is available in the “Online Consultation” section of this webpage.
Speed Humps
Speed humps are raised areas of the roadway, which cause vertical upward movement of traversing vehicles.
Pros
- Reduces vehicle speed at/near measure
- Relatively cost-effective and simple to design and implement
- Minimal modification of existing roadway geometry, less construction disruption
- Self-enforcing
Cons
- May increase traffic induced noise and vibrations
- May impact emergency response activities
- May increase vehicle travel time
- May cause discomfort to some drivers
Online Consultation
Proposed Plan
The City has proposed the following conceptual plan to address the concerns raised along Northlands Drive and can be viewed in the image below or Proposed Plan [ PDF 2.992 MB ].
An online survey was conducted from September 11 to 29, 2023 to help determine the level of comfort within the community about the proposed plan on Northlands Drive.
The results of this survey can be viewed in detail in the As We Heard It (AWHI) report linked below:
Northland Drive As We Heard It Report [ PDF 1.213 MB ]
Overall, 60 per cent of respondents indicated they were very or somewhat comfortable with the proposed plan while 35 per cent indicated they were very or somewhat uncomfortable and 6 per cent indicated they were neutral. Based on these results, it was decided to proceed with the detailed design and construction phase of this project.
Contact
For further information or questions, please contact:
Nick Agro
City of Ottawa
110 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, ON, K1P 1J1
613-580-2424, ext. 26836
Nick.Agro@Ottawa.ca