Raise the Hammer

The current two-way street conversion clamour suffers from the same obtuseness that was present in the WH and LRT clamours. The end result was that valuable time and opportunities were wasted.

Once again, a great opportunity to debate and develop unique solutions to our downtown's short and long-term traffic patterns is being sandbagged by ideologues to force a point of view by any means necessary.

How this debate is going to end is very predictable and quite sad for a city of half a million with two centres of higher education.

Below is an example from a city where public discussions are not driven by ideology but by the spirit of discovery - the outcome is: contextual and grounded in evidence-based thinking. Can our local public discourse learn anything from this? I highly doubt it.

Changes to Traffic Patterns in Downtown Halifax

Some of the downtown Halifax streets have changed from one-way traffic, to two-way (and vice versa).

Initiated by a recommendation from HRMbyDesign and developed through public consultation, the changes in street directions have resulted in better organization of one-way street patterns. By converting two-way streets to one-way, the plan has allowed for new bike lanes and on-street parking spaces.

The first two phases of the changes occured during the fall 2011. The third phase will take place later this spring 2012. Phase 1: Sept. 19, 2011, Phase 2: Oct. 17, 2011.

To view a final street layout, once all of the changes are effective click here.

Over the past several years, HRM worked with downtown businesses on the development of a plan to modify traffic patterns on the downtown street network. The plan was first presented at an open house information session targeted at downtown businesses in April 2010. Since that time, modifications have been made based on feedback. A final proposal was presented at an open house session in November 2010."

"Phase II, Effective October 17, 2011. Traffic change: the two-way blocks on Lower Water Street will convert to one-way traffic flow in the North bound direction.

"Phase I Effective September 19, 2011. Streets affected by this change are: Converting to one-way: Blowers (between Grafton and Barrington), Market (between Prince and Carmichael), Sackville (between Brunswick and Barrington), George (between Barrington and Hollis) and Granville (between Salter and Sackville).

Converting to two-way: Grafton (between Prince and Sackville). Changing direction: Market Street (between Sackville and Prince).

View the Project Plan, Downtown Streets

Mahesh P. Butani

Comment edited by Mahesh_P_Butani on 2012-05-25 08:58:09