Blossom Park West Area Traffic Management Study

Background 

Introduction - The Blossom Park west localized Area Traffic Management Study was initiated by the City in May 2015 to address community concerns related to traffic as reported by local residents. 

Concerns - Residents identified a number of concerns along Blossom Park west community including:

• High vehicular volumes
• Motorists parking in pedestrian lanes
• Inappropriate motorist behaviour and speeding
• Motorists using community streets as a through route between Bank and Albion
• Motorist speeding

Study Process – A study was undertaken using the process outlined in the City’s Area Traffic Management Guidelines (2004).  This involved numerous activities including data collection, public consultation, development and evaluation of alternative solutions, and the selection of a preferred solution.

Methodology – The intent of following the process in the Area Traffic Management Guidelines was to ensure solutions to address or mitigate concerns were developed through fostering community consensus and technical input.  This included examining solution alternatives in an incremental manner. Ultimately, a set of feasible solutions were presented to the public for comment with the intent of selecting a draft preferred solution.  Refinements were made to the draft preferred solution to address follow-up commentary – the refined plan forms the Recommended Plan.

Consultation

Two Public Open House meetings were hosted (June 7, 2015 and October 29, 2015) at Convent Sawmill Creek Elementary School and the Greenboro Community Center to present and gather input regarding the study.  Advertising for both Public Open House meetings was done via a notice posted respectively in the Ottawa South EMC Community Newspaper and the LeDroit Newspaper, a Notification Letter (door-to-door deliveries), and on the City’s website. A separate email invitation was sent to the Fallingbrook Community Association.

A project web page was hosted on the City of Ottawa website providing background on the project and contact information.

Results of consultation

• 16 individuals attended Public Open House 1 - 12 individuals submitted email/written comments.
• 13 individuals attended Public Open House 2 - 13 individuals submitted email/written comments.
• Final Recommended Plan formed based on input from Public and City.

Summary of recommended plan measures

Speed Humps

• Install 6 speed humps on Rosebella (3) and Kingsdale (3) Avenues. Install WA-50 Signs in each direction at each speed hump.

Speed Tables

• Install 3 speed tables on Queensdale Avenue. Install WA-50 Signs in each direction at each speed table.

Side Island Narrowings

• Install 4m long side island narrowings on each side of each speed hump on Rosebella (6) and Kingsdale Avenue (6). Install 7m long side island narrowings on the north side of the easternmost speed table and on each side of the other speed tables on Queensdale Avenue (5).

Signage Improvements

• Install Pathway “Stop” signs on Sawmill Creek Path at road crossings (Rosebella, Kingsdale and Queensdale Avenues).
• Install “Trail Crossing” signs at the Sawmill Creak path on Rosebella and Kingsdale Avenues in both directions.

Parking Modifications

• Install no parking signs on north side of Rosebella and Kingsdale Avenues to restrict parking of the north side for the entire length of the road, between Albion Road and Bank Street.
• Install “No Parking” signs on the south side of Rosebella and Kingsdale at the Sawmill Creek path crossings to restrict parking for 7m on each side of the path.
• Install “No Parking” signs on the north side of Queensdale Avenue west of civic address 1633.
• Install Parking signs on the south side of Queensdale between Bannon and the Sawmill Creek to allow parking on the South side.

Improved Pedestrian Walking Space

• Pedestrian walking area along the north sides of Rosebella, Queensdale, and Kingsdale Avenues will be implemented through pavement marking modifications as shown in the recommended plan. This will include a 1.8 to 2.0m wide walking area marked with double edge lines.

Modification outcome and benefits

• Pedestrians
  Pedestrians should benefit from reduced motorist speeds, lower incidences of illegal parking inside the pedestrian walking areas, increased differentiation of pedestrian walkways, added protection provided to pedestrian by the side narrowing islands, warning of trail crossings for motorists

• Cyclists
  Cyclists should benefit from the anticipated reduction in speeds.

• Vehicles
  Improved motorist behaviour will be encouraged through the combination of side island narrowings, speed humps, improved pavement markings for pedestrians, and improved parking restriction signage.

• Adjacent Land Use
  Adjacent properties should benefit from reduced vehicle speeds.   

Projected start and completion date

All area traffic management measures, once approved, are prioritized for potential implementation utilizing a process described in the City’s Area Traffic Management Guidelines. Recommended measures from the study will be implemented either at the time of future roadway rehabilitation or when funding for implementation becomes available and these measures rank as an overall priority within the Area Traffic Management program.

 

Queensdale Avenue, Kingsdale Avenue, Rosebella Avenue
(Bank Street to Albion Road)

June 3, 2015
Sawmill Creek Elementary School, Gymnasium
3400 D'Aoust Avenue
6 to 8 p.m.

The City of Ottawa has initiated a study to examine vehicular speed and driver behavioural concerns along Queensdale, Kingsdale and Rosebella avenues between Bank Street and Albion Road.

Open House Display Boards [ PDF 2.943 MB ]

The purpose of this Open House is to introduce the project and gather information on community traffic issues from neighbourhood residents as well as all interested parties. Your comments will assist in the understanding of traffic concerns as well as in the development of alternative plans for technical evaluation and future recommendations.

For more information, please contact:
Eric Ouimet
Coordinator, Area Traffic Management
Planning and Growth Management
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1J1
613-580-2424, ext. 12392
Fax: 613-580-2578
E-mail: eric.ouimet@ottawa.ca

October 29, 2015
6:30 to 8 p.m.
Presentation at 7 p.m.
Greenboro Community Centre
Multipurpose Room B
363 Lorry Greenberg Drive

The City of Ottawa invites you to an Open House to review options that have been developed to address residents' traffic concerns along Queensdale Avenue, Kingsdale Avenue and Rosebella Avenue between Bank Street and Albion Road. The study has examined the road conditions from the perspective of all users, including pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and adjacent residential property owners.

At this second Open House, you will have the opportunity to comment on three proposed scenarios that describe potential traffic calming scenarios including installing speed humps and midblock narrowings.

Preferred Alternative - #3 [ PDF 5.671 MB ]

Accessibility is an important consideration for the City of Ottawa. If you require special accommodation, please call or e-mail the project lead below before October 15, 2015.

More information is available on the City's website and open house boards will be posted at ottawa.ca/blossomparkwest. Comments should be submitted to eric.ouimet@ottawa.ca by November 15, 2015.

For more information, please contact:
Eric Ouimet
Coordinator, Area Traffic Management
Planning and Growth Management
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1J1
613-580-2424, ext. 12392
Fax: 613-580-2578
E-mail: eric.ouimet@ottawa.ca

• Would very much appreciate a traffic study to be undertaken on D'Aoust Avenue. The 4-way stop at Timbermill is consistently ignored by drivers. Residents witness drivers going through at speeds of up to 50 km/h. This street holds 2 public schools and a community centre with a huge amount of children using sidewalks. Please advise. We would like to be heard of this important issue.
• I live on Rosebella Ave in between Conroy and Bank where work was done a couple of years ago – a few comments: The speed humps have improved the speed on our stretch of road, Interesting to see how the new mailboxes will now affect the condition on the road in terms of speed and number of cars. Something I wanted to bring to your attention on our stretch of road the H Have a look – can this be corrected?
• The level of traffic on Rosebella does not require speed bumps and/or narrowing of the street. Having police there to slow down traffic would certainly be appreciated more than the other measures.
• I am on the corner of Bank and Queensdale Ave,. 1-From Bank St to the entrance of Plaza is very noisy, busy piece of road,2-Trucks are coming to coming to the plaza and going out starting 6 AM to sometime around 9 and 10 PM. 3-From mall entrance to Bank St is much more busy than Bank St. ~1000 – 2000 / day depending on the day and season 4-In the winter snow trucks and in the summer construction and landscaping are adding to the load and unload trucks All these traffic and noise disturbs our life and health . 5- One of the sample bad day was today which was loader, trucks, labours were working and making lots of noise I say: 6-From Bank St to the mall entrance must be light commercial 7-Or move the mall entrance to Bank St and block Queensdale
• The data on cut-through traffic is missing. We need a traffic study to find out where the cut-through are coming from and going to, especially in the peak periods of morning and afternoon rush hour and especially late night traffic. If can't measure it we can't manage it!
• The 4-way stop sign at Queensdale and Albion should be made into a traffic light, or put a 4-way stop at Baden and Albion. Right now cars do NOT stop at Queensdale (running the stop sign), making it impossible for residents west of Albion to turn left onto Albion. To get out of our neighbourhood we often have to drive 1 km to the 4-way stop at Wyldewood & Albion. This is crazy. Please remember that whatever changes you make at Queensdale and Albion, they will affect hundreds of residents on Autumnwood, Baden, Mory, Maass, Parking and other close-by streets. A traffic light at Queensdale and Albion or a 4-way stop at Baden and Albion would allow residents to exit their neighbourhood turning left onto Albion. Changing Queensdale at Albion will affect everyone in the area – think of this when planning! Also keep in mind the speed people travel along Albion heading north from Lester. Some are still going highway speed which also makes it difficult to pull out to make a left-hand turn. And they are speeding up once they clear the Queensdale stop sign in anticipation of the higher speed limit further down – all of this combines to make it difficult to exit Baden or Mory streets.
• Please review all the stop signs in the study area to see if they are warranted. Looking at the numbers, they don't seem to be warranted and that is why they are ignored. Perhaps the stop signs should be removed. Less danger, less pollution and less noise. Please review all streets including Albion Rd, First St, and Mavis St.
• 1-Stedman St on study area map – should be open on map , creating lots of traffic to Queensdale 2- Queensdale Ave – speeding a major issue – early morning and late evening. Should be more enforcement (OC Transpo Buses also speed) 3- Queensdale Ave a bus route so in winter months – snow removal better causing more traffic and once again speeding People in cars do not stop at stop sign – Queensdale and Mavis 4-Monitoring enforcement for speed needs to be more visible 6-Interesting in knowing the Highway Traffic Act in relation to noisy car mufflers as many summer cars have loud mufflers. Did not receive the mail for delivery of this meeting
• Dear Sir:
• Yesterday evening, I went to the Sawmill Creek elementary school to participate in the local traffic study for Blossom Park West. First of all, I'd like to thank you for answering my questions during the visit to the various stops.
  Here are my comments:1- Having moved to the area about two months ago, I haven't really seen any problems with traffic on Rosebella Avenue between Albion and Bank. 2- As a result, I don't see the absolute necessity of installing speed bumps like those found on the section of Rosebella between Bank and Conroy. There are currently two stops, which is sufficient to reduce speeds on Rosebella. 3- The place where there seems to be the most accidents, aside from intersections at Bank, are the intersections between Queensdale, Kingsdale, Rosebella and the path along the creek. A way to reduce accidents would be to have signs that are very visible, not only on the roads but also on the path (for example, a stop sign on the bike path). 4- Stops at Rosebella and Marvis: Being fairly close to the intersection, I've been able to see that many vehicles only slow down on Rosebella and don't actually stop, while vehicles coming from Marvis are much more likely to stop. I wonder about the need to have stop signs on Rosebella. 5- In terms of speeding, it does happen, and school buses are responsible as well, but that's only a small portion of traffic, and often those responsible are people who live on Rosebella. 6- Radar control once or twice a month by the Ottawa Police should send a clear message to users of Rosebella, Kingsdale and Queensdale. 7- The biggest problem in the sector is Queensdale, particularly the part between Bank and the entrance to the shopping centre. The first reason is that everyone who lives north of Queensdale, who make up the majority of people living there and going to the shopping centre, are currently required to take Queensdale, because even though there is access to the shopping centre from Bank, there is currently no exit to allow them to take Bank going north. The only way to get back on Bank to go north is to exit via Queensdale. The solution to this problem would be to close access to the shopping centre from Queensdale and to require entry and exit to the shopping centre via Bank, which would probably require a traffic light to allow automobiles to turn onto Bank going north.
• Unable to make the meeting this evening. We have lived on Queensdale since 1986. I do have a couple of concerns that you may want to discuss. Queensdale Ave from Bank Street to Albion Rd – 2 stop streets Mavis and First, we need speed/calming bumps – one around Sawmill Creek, one just before Stockton and another from First to Albion. The other side of Bank to Conroy have these bumps on Rosabella, Kingsdale and Queensdale, but not on our side of Bank? One more item Albion at Queensdale – people driving south on Albion, many times, just look down Queensdale and do not stop at the stop sign.
• I have received the notice regarding the first Open House on the topic of this study which is coming up June 3rd. We are on Queensdale Ave so drive these roads daily. Unfortunately I travel frequently for work and I am out of town for Open House #1. Are there any materials available now that I could look at? I am very interested in contributing to this study.
• In general a few comments from me:
  • 1. My biggest concern is actually where these roads meet Conroy. In the mornings it very difficult and becoming increasingly dangerous to turn Left onto Conroy to head to Hunt Club. The traffic along there is now too heavy and moving too quickly and it's a hair-raising adventure to make that turn. I do it every day on my way to work
  • 2. We witness the behaviour at the corner of Queensdale and 1st daily and there are a significant amount of rolling stops at that corner ... and to varying degrees. Some folks nearly come to a stop while others are not close to a stop before they accelerate again
  • 3. I am quite certain there are drug deals that occur along 1st street between Queensdale and Kingsdale. The area is not well lighted at night and there are often cars parked there for one vehicle to pull up next to for a brief moment. Other pedestrians will walk by, stop for a moment and keep moving. I have as recently as about 10 days ago actually witnessed money and packages changing hands though obviously I'm unable to confirm what the contents are. I have not yet taken this to the police.
  • Otherwise traffic is generally what you'd expect on any city street that is a thoroughfare between two other major arteries

For more information, please contact:

Eric Ouimet Coordinator, Area Traffic Management
Planning and Growth Management
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1J1
613-580-2424, ext. 12392
Fax: 613-580-2578
E-mail: eric.ouimet@ottawa.ca