Town of Ottawa’s transportation committee will meet this week to debate this summer season’s closure of the Queen Elizabeth Driveway.
The highway, owned by the Nationwide Capital Fee, was partially closed to vehicular entry for 12 hours a day, 7 days every week between Canada Day and Labour Day this 12 months, as a part of the NCC’s energetic use marketing campaign. Autos couldn’t drive on the stretch of the QED between Fifth Avenue and Somerset Road between 8 a.m. and eight p.m. day by day. Weekend closures of that stretch of the highway proceed till Thanksgiving Monday.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe raised quite a few complaints concerning the closure of the QED and of the NCC’s selection in roads it closes for its energetic use program. Sutcliffe stated the closure of the QED to automobiles was inflicting visitors points on different streets within the neighbouring space, and he claimed that cyclists and pedestrians weren’t utilizing the roadway sufficient to justify closing it, noting there’s a multi-use pathway close by.
The NCC stated its scenic routes, which additionally embody the Kichi Zibi Mikan and the Sir George-Étienne Cartier Parkway alongside the Ottawa River, weren’t meant as commuter routes, although town report describes the QED as a “essential hyperlink” that connects the downtown core to a number of close by neighbourhoods within the south finish of metropolis.
A report ready for Thursday’s transportation committee assembly consists of knowledge collected concerning the closure on the Queen Elizabeth Driveway from 2022, when the highway was closed 24 hours a day between Canada Day and Labour Day, and a few knowledge from 2023.
In keeping with the report, town despatched its knowledge concerning the 2022 closure to the NCC in April 2023, asking the Crown company to not shut the highway to automobiles. Town as a substitute steered the NCC shut Colonel By Drive south of Pretoria Bridge to Bronson Avenue over the summer season. The NCC didn’t help the advice, metropolis employees stated.
Metropolis employees stated that, in 2022, vehicular quantity on the intersection of O’Connor Road and Fifth Avenue elevated 54 to 57 per cent, and that O’Connor itself noticed a big enhance in visitors, above the capability the highway was designed to handle.
In keeping with the information, town in contrast the hours of 4 p.m. to midnight on June 22, earlier than the highway was closed with July 15, after the highway was closed. North-south actions on O’Connor Road at Fifth Avenue noticed 508 extra automobiles over that eight-hour interval, from 1,036 automobiles on June 22 to 1,544 on July 15. It is a 49 per cent enhance, however the metropolis report identifies it as a 67 per cent enhance.
Town says O’Connor needs to be supporting not more than 1,000 automobiles per day however, on two dates studied for the report in 2022, that quantity reached an estimated 3,000, primarily based on evaluation of the eight-hour interval studied.
Site visitors volumes went up 20 per cent at Financial institution Road and Fifth Avenue and between 8 and 11 per cent at Financial institution and Isabella.
The report additionally says the Ottawa Fireplace Service needed to reroute roughly 30 per cent of its service calls within the space in the course of the month of August or skilled some delays whereas trying to journey by means of closure factors to get a name.
Knowledge for 2023 has but to be absolutely analyzed, however the report features a four-hour snapshot of visitors on O’Connor Road north of Fifth Avenue, which exhibits 120 extra automobiles used the road between 4 p.m. and eight p.m. on July 21, 2023 in comparison with July 15, 2022. Site visitors on O’Connor Road dropped after 8 p.m. as a result of the QED reopened to automobiles, the report says.
The report additionally consists of pedestrian and bike owner knowledge, beforehand reported by CTV Information Ottawa, which exhibits that simply as many if no more pedestrians and cyclists used the roadway in comparison with the trail as a rule on the dates studied. It rained on 5 of the times between July 25 and 30, and the energetic use program ended early on one of many days due to an Ottawa Redblacks sport.
A take a look at the variety of pedestrian and bike owner journeys on Queen Elizabeth Driveway and the pathway on six days in July. Town arrange a digicam at Queen Elizabeth Driveway and Linden Avenue.
Town says it has met with the NCC and each events agreed to share knowledge on the closure.
“Site visitors Providers will proceed to gather and analyze visitors quantity and motion knowledge to higher perceive impacts of the QED’s closure to the encompassing group,” the report says underneath ‘Subsequent Steps’.
“The place relevant, Site visitors Providers can even proceed to interact with inside Metropolis of Ottawa stakeholders to doc impacts to public-facing companies and to share these with the NCC.”
–With information from CTV Information Ottawa’s Josh Pringle.
