Citizen panel will review 2-way street conversions

The city plans to strike a citizen panel to discuss two-way street conversions, including main arteries such as King and Main. But the idea might not make it past the next council meeting.

The general issues committee voted Wednesday to establish the panel, which will be comprised of residents across the city. The panel will examinenumerous possibletwo-way conversions, including King and Main Streets through the downtown, and other arteries such as Wentworth, Queen and Sanford.

But it was a close vote of of 7-5 Wednesday with only 12 of the potential 16 voters present. Coun. Brian McHattie of Ward 1, who introduced the idea, still thinks it will pass.

"The vote will carry at council. That's my sense at this point in time," he said.

He knows not everyone is in favour of converting the lower city's major streets to two-way. That's why he wants the city-wide panel, which will examine evidence and make recommendations next spring.

"When there's an issue where there's different viewpoints across the city, I think it's important to build consensus," he said.

The city already has a list of smallerstreets it plans to convert to two-way, including Bold Street, King William and Hughson Street North. Councillors called these streets "low-hanging fruit" during the meeting.But they can't be done right away because of lack of time and money, said Don Hull, the city's director of transit.

Staff has citedother potential conversions such as Main, King, Sherman and Victoria in a list of possible future conversions. Those are included in the city's transportation master plan, which staff will report late this year or early next year.

In the past 10 years, two-way conversions have included James Street North, John Street, Caroline Street South, St. Joseph's Drive and Charlton Avenue East. Between a recent King Street dedicated transit lane and a recent project to convert a traffic lane on Cannon Street to a bicycle lane, Coun. Tom Jackson of Ward 6 says he can't support any more traffic changes to the lower city right now.

If changes happen"too hard andtoo fast in the downtown," he said,"youre going to end up losing political and geographic support from this city. My intuition tells me that is already occurring."

Coun. Sam Merulla of Ward 4 voted in favour of the panel, saying it's lack of understanding or fear of change that makes people afraid of two-way conversions.

"We have a plan and no one has the balls to actually move forward on it," he said.

Prompted by Coun. Jason Farr of Ward 2, staff will come back a report on the "low-hanging fruit" streets already identified for conversion, and what would be necessary to make it happen. Those streets are:

• Bold Street from James to Queen
• King William from John to Wellington
• Rebeccafrom John to Wellington
• Hughson North from Wilson to Barton
• Park Street North from York to Barton
• Hess Street South from York to Barton
• Caroline from Main to York.