Flow of Traffic Change for Beacon and Bevan Avenue
The flow of traffic for the C1 zoning must be revisit in order to provide a more efficient way to commute in downtown Sidney.
The proposal for a traffic direction change on Beacon Avenue and Bevan Avenue will consist on working with the provincial government (MOTI) to construct a new exit that would connect HWY 17 with Bevan Avenue. This new exit road would allow Bevan Avenue to become a one way road heading in the West-to-East direction and Beacon Avenue will then become a one way road in the West-to-East direction. The lateral roads will remain in the current traffic pattern.
This change will benefit the residents on Mills and Siddall road since it will reduce the change in traffic flow will encourage drivers to use Fifth Street and Resthaven Drive rather than Seventh Street.
In addition, it will encourage tourist to drive on Bevan Ave so the businesses on this road will see more traffic flow. On the other hand, Beacon Ave business would not see a change in traffic flow.
The proposal would not require a vehicular flyover. However, in order to properly improve the traffic flow at this intersection, a pedestrian overpass is needed at the HWY 17 and Beacon intersection. This is also true for the current road configuration.
Finally, this proposal could also provide a better traffic flow in the event of a emergency evacuation and reduce the congestion during rush hour or ferry traffic hours.
Attached is a JPG copy of the proposal.
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3 comments
It is too bad that Wayblaze doesn’t have a “dislike ” button, because this is a terrible idea. Cities all over the world are getting rid their of one way couplets because they turn their city streets into sewers for cars and have seen businesses rebound after their removal. Moving cars do not bring in money to our economy. Parked cars and the space they occupy are a drain on resources by taking space away from more productive uses such as residential, commercial and recreational uses and make a place less pleasant to be in. Cyclists and people walking spend more money on average than drivers do. We need to be designing our town for people not cars.
Hi Eric, there is no need for a button to dislike an idea, an argument is sufficient to express your discontent. I would like to know more about the sources of your statement where one way traffic is counterproductive for businesses since our town does not easily compare to other towns, never mind a city. Also, it is hard to imagine that keeping the exact number of lanes on both streets, Beacon and Bevan, will create “a sewer of cars” all of the sudden.If your concerns is public parking, I believe public parking is of an essence for the business of downtown Sidney to thrive. The town is a hub for shoppers of the peninsula, ferry traffic and anyone who wants to attend to the farmer’s market. In addition, unless you are one of the privileged people who can live and work in downtown Sidney, you would be driving to downtown Sidney for your groceries and dine out nights, unless you go out for some drinks of course ;)The proposal for the change of traffic flow has nothing to do on the cars vs cyclist debate. However, if bike lanes are desire in the C1 zoning, it would be easier to design them if a one way traffic is in place. This is as long the bikes lanes follow the same traffic flow as the cars.
https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2019/07/09/cities-benefit-one-way-two-way-conversions
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/8/4/farwell-prospect-one-way-two-way-streets
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-01-31/the-case-against-one-way-streets
Basically, these are streets that you are proposing to turn into roads. What are roads? Roads are high speed connections between two places. What is a street? Streets are the platform upon which a communities wealth is built. Fast flow of heavy vehicles should be the last priority of a place that is supposed to be sticky and attract people to stop and shop.
Yes, public parking should be provided for customers of businesses, especially if it is well managed, however, currently it isn’t. We should not be accepting that the parking situation go back to what it was pre-pandemic. There were many complaints before how parking was unavailable at certain times. As we rebuild and reconnect, better management of parking should be a high priority with excess demand being managed how excess demand of any other commodity is managed, with prices. Time limits are a joke.