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Innes Road needs a traffic light outside the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre to protect pedestrians and drivers trying to get across the massive arterial road, says Community Safety Minister Yasir Naqvi.
Naqvi, who’s the MPP for Ottawa Centre in addition to being the minister responsible for the jail, wrote to Innes Coun. Jody Mitic, asking him to work with Mayor Jim Watson to get a light put in as soon as possible. In just the latest incident at the point where the jail’s driveway lets out onto the street, a jail worker was in a collision when leaving work on Christmas Eve, he wrote.
The jail is a snakepit for both inmates and workers, and Naqvi’s corrections officers could all be on strike next week. Though that doesn’t make the intersection a non-problem.
“Correctional staff and visitors to OCDC have to cross several lanes of traffic when entering or exiting the facility, posing serious safety concerns,” the letter says. Naqvi promises to work with the city “in any capacity so that we can ensure that these traffic lights are installed as soon as possible.”
Which sounds good, right? But the minister isn’t offering the one thing it would take to install any traffic signals, which is cash. At least, the letter doesn’t say anything about cash, and when I asked his spokeswoman Monday whether he has any to put up, she couldn’t say.
We’re talking about roughly $250,000 to put in a set of signals, depending how big and elaborate they were. The city budget has councillors squabble over a few thousand here or there for speed humps and crossing guards, so that’s real money. They gave themselves so many medals for finally putting lights in for Villa Marconi on Baseline Road a couple of years ago they almost fell over, and that took years. For a nursing home.
In 2013, responding to complaints and a petition saying the spot is dangerous, the ministry (then headed by Ottawa-Vanier MPP Madeleine Meilleur) agreed. But, well, it’s the city that turned Innes Road into a highway in all but name — six regular lanes, plus ones for bikes and turns, separated by a median — to help drivers bypass Blackburn Hamlet between downtown and Orléans. Also, the only reason anybody is likely to cross Innes Road there on foot is for a city bus stop on the north side.
On the flip side, the only reason there’s an intersection is because of the jail’s driveway, and legally that makes it a “private approach,” like an entrance to a shopping centre. If a mall generates enough in-and-out traffic to need a signal, the mall pays. By that standard, the jail’s traffic is the jail’s problem. Or, to complicate things further, the National Capital Commission’s problem, because the NCC owns the land and the jail is a tenant.
The provincial transportation ministry, which doesn’t like it when traffic is slowed down without a good reason, sets standards for when a traffic light is warranted at any sort of intersection, and the jail doesn’t meet them. The basic rule for a road like Innes is that when the street is busy, there have to be no regular gaps in traffic that a driver, let alone a pedestrian, can use to get onto the road. And, red lights can’t stop Innes Road traffic when nobody’s trying to get in or out of the jail grounds.
The jail generates trifling traffic compared with the thousands of vehicles plying Innes each way, even if the drivers and walkers who do try to get in or out across Innes are often harrowed. The two bus stops by the jail, one on each side of the road, get about 60 bus-boarders a day, according to OC Transpo, each of whom probably crosses the road once.
The city counted traffic in 2012 and again in 2013. “Our position today is that location doesn’t meet the warrants for a traffic signal therefore we are not in a position to fund its installation,” said Phil Landry, the city’s traffic manager, on Monday. It can’t force the province or NCC to, either.
So the intersection is dangerous and each government blames the other. They exchange letters periodically, each urging the other to do something so they’ll each look like they’re on the right side without actually achieving anything.
Throw Naqvi’s on the pile.
dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
Naqvi, who’s the MPP for Ottawa Centre in addition to being the minister responsible for the jail, wrote to Innes Coun. Jody Mitic, asking him to work with Mayor Jim Watson to get a light put in as soon as possible. In just the latest incident at the point where the jail’s driveway lets out onto the street, a jail worker was in a collision when leaving work on Christmas Eve, he wrote.
The jail is a snakepit for both inmates and workers, and Naqvi’s corrections officers could all be on strike next week. Though that doesn’t make the intersection a non-problem.
“Correctional staff and visitors to OCDC have to cross several lanes of traffic when entering or exiting the facility, posing serious safety concerns,” the letter says. Naqvi promises to work with the city “in any capacity so that we can ensure that these traffic lights are installed as soon as possible.”
Which sounds good, right? But the minister isn’t offering the one thing it would take to install any traffic signals, which is cash. At least, the letter doesn’t say anything about cash, and when I asked his spokeswoman Monday whether he has any to put up, she couldn’t say.
We’re talking about roughly $250,000 to put in a set of signals, depending how big and elaborate they were. The city budget has councillors squabble over a few thousand here or there for speed humps and crossing guards, so that’s real money. They gave themselves so many medals for finally putting lights in for Villa Marconi on Baseline Road a couple of years ago they almost fell over, and that took years. For a nursing home.
In 2013, responding to complaints and a petition saying the spot is dangerous, the ministry (then headed by Ottawa-Vanier MPP Madeleine Meilleur) agreed. But, well, it’s the city that turned Innes Road into a highway in all but name — six regular lanes, plus ones for bikes and turns, separated by a median — to help drivers bypass Blackburn Hamlet between downtown and Orléans. Also, the only reason anybody is likely to cross Innes Road there on foot is for a city bus stop on the north side.
On the flip side, the only reason there’s an intersection is because of the jail’s driveway, and legally that makes it a “private approach,” like an entrance to a shopping centre. If a mall generates enough in-and-out traffic to need a signal, the mall pays. By that standard, the jail’s traffic is the jail’s problem. Or, to complicate things further, the National Capital Commission’s problem, because the NCC owns the land and the jail is a tenant.
The provincial transportation ministry, which doesn’t like it when traffic is slowed down without a good reason, sets standards for when a traffic light is warranted at any sort of intersection, and the jail doesn’t meet them. The basic rule for a road like Innes is that when the street is busy, there have to be no regular gaps in traffic that a driver, let alone a pedestrian, can use to get onto the road. And, red lights can’t stop Innes Road traffic when nobody’s trying to get in or out of the jail grounds.
The jail generates trifling traffic compared with the thousands of vehicles plying Innes each way, even if the drivers and walkers who do try to get in or out across Innes are often harrowed. The two bus stops by the jail, one on each side of the road, get about 60 bus-boarders a day, according to OC Transpo, each of whom probably crosses the road once.
The city counted traffic in 2012 and again in 2013. “Our position today is that location doesn’t meet the warrants for a traffic signal therefore we are not in a position to fund its installation,” said Phil Landry, the city’s traffic manager, on Monday. It can’t force the province or NCC to, either.
So the intersection is dangerous and each government blames the other. They exchange letters periodically, each urging the other to do something so they’ll each look like they’re on the right side without actually achieving anything.
Throw Naqvi’s on the pile.
dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/davidreevely
查看原文...
