From My Bottom Step

The Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) held a meeting 2009/11/03 and received a report from C. Tilden titled “Transportation Issues Raised Through the Downtown Master Plan Public Process.” The information in the report is said to have been compiled from a 2009/07/29 public meeting, a 2009/10/14 LDBA/Mainstreet meeting, and an online survey that took place during the 2009/08/29 – 2009/11/30 period.

Important to note – the report does not provide the actual data. In other words, there’s no way of telling which items came from which meeting, or their relative importance according to those sources. The report simply simply provides an asterisk (*) in connection with those items which are reported to have been mentioned by at least 5 people.

Also important to note – there’s no indication about who decided which items ought to be categorized the way that they have been.

• Transit
• Functional
• Bus congestion at Dundas and Richmond
• Too much bus traffic on Dundas Street*
• Too many buses on Richmond Street
• No real bus terminal
• Routing of LTC
• Not enough buses on King and Queens Avenue
• Buses centralized at Dundas and Richmond*
• Congestion around bus stops
• Need special pavement for buses
• Inconsistency between TMP and OP with regard to parking
• One way streets
• Not enough bus shelters
• Buses too large for street
• Takes too long to get Downtown
• Service Related
• Poor bus service for evening/night activities
• Bus timing
• Transit transfers in the wrong location
• Too long to get Downtown
• Difficult to transfer between buses
• Public attitude towards transit
• Too much smoking around bus stops
• Roads
• Too much traffic
• Too much traffic going through Downtown
• Wellington near King Street needs some work
• Street signs hard to see
• Need Wellington Road Gateway into Downtown -in road allowance
• Dundas Street too busy
• Speed limit too high in Downtown
• Too long to get Downtown
• Uncoordinated traffic lights
• Car traffic noise
• Close Market Lane, Carling, Clarence (?), Thames (?) for pedestrians
• Truck loading
• One way streets
• Automobile traffic circulation
• Emergency vehicle noise and speed at night
• Parking
• Too much surface parking*
• Lack of parking*
• Need more City-owned parking
• Parking cost*
• Parking enforcement tough – signs misleading
• More side road parking
• Inconvenient parking
• “Ugly” parking lots
• Removal of heritage buildings for parking lots
• Lack of street parking
• Lack of short term parking
• Street parking too limited
• Balance between long term and short term parking
• On-Street parking on Dundas Street
• Need a parking garage (s)
• Too much parking
• More monthly parking
• Stormwater problem
• Lazy publ
• Parking monopoly
• Parking metres on residential streets
• On-street parking on Richmond Street
• Pedestrian
• Sidewalks not wide enough*
• Needs to be designed for people, not cars*
• Need pedestrian “countdown” signs at intersections
• Tripping hazards on sidewalks
• Drivers inattentive to Pedestrians
• Lack of a Pedestrian Street
• Not enough benches
• Sidewalks not big enough at Dundas/Richmond
• Richmond Street two-lanes
• Poor connectivity to Thames River at Ridout
• Bicycles
• Lack of bike lanes*
• Bicycles on sidewalks
• Not enough bike racks
• Safety of bikes
• Bicycling is dangerous in Downtown
• Downtown not bicycle friendly
• Access from suburbs by bicycle difficult
• No room for bicycles
• Rail
• Rail line that crosses Colborne and Ridout Street
• Noise from trains
• Too much rail traffic

The Transportation Issues report is included in TAC’s report of their 2009/11/03 which appears as agenda item #2 at today’s Environment and Transportation Committee meeting which I’ll be webcasting starting at 04:00 p.m. To view the webcast, go to THIS WEBPAGE.