Re: McNeill speeders must be stopped for residents’ safety, Oak Bay News, Your View, Dec. 21.
Thank you D.J. Agar for your letter. I could have written it myself, right down to the (rather surprising) advice from a member of council about parking a car across the street from my own to create a pinch point. I too have lost more than one wing mirror to hit and run while my car has been parked in front of my own house and know of yet other neighbours and visitors who have had the same experience (at a cost of a $300 deductible each time).
And no, there is no rear lane access along McNeill Avenue, so avoiding the street is not an option, especially for any household with more than one vehicle or for visitors.
I have contacted mayor and council numerous times over recent years imploring Oak Bay to implement some form of traffic calming along McNeill Avenue. I have collected signatures from dozens of my neighbours on a petition asking for consideration of the same. I have spoken by e-mail, on the phone and in person many times with various members of the Oak Bay Police Department about this matter as well.
When speed enforcement does happen along McNeill Avenue, it is greatly appreciated by residents. However, the current speed limit in fact changes from 40 km/h to 30 km/h and back again twice between Foul Bay Road and Oliver Street, and enforcement of this varied limit is understandably difficult and not really practical. Furthermore, periodic speed enforcement is not a solution to providing a safe multi-user residential street.
Rather, as Agar suggests, some form of permanent traffic calming through a combination of a modern complete street design, and perhaps some changes in traffic regulation, is required. Speed humps are one option, but there are others: curb extensions and/or planting bulbs at intersections, pedestrian-controlled flashing crosswalk warning lights at the Victoria Avenue crosswalk, rumble strips cut into the roadway, and a truck bylaw prohibiting and/or controlling heavy truck traffic on residential streets are a few alternate possibilities.
McNeill Avenue is a very narrow residential street with close-set residential driveways and close off-set intersections. Most importantly, it is a well-used walking route to several schools (there are four elementary or middle schools within a kilometre of where I live) and is a designated cycle route. The majority of the traffic volume runs along a short four- or five-block stretch between Foul Bay Road and Monterey Avenue. With these factors, McNeill could be a prime candidate for Oak Bay council to tangibly support the active transportation and complete streets priorities talked about at length during this and last term. It would be a perfect pilot project to put the new edition of the Geometric Design Guide for Canadian Roads from the Transportation Association of Canada (available in January 2017), to the test.
I urge Oak Bay council to seize this opportunity and please direct staff to take action, as Agar notes, before it is too late.
A. Flack
Oak Bay