Proposed Vanier street closures

[Uhuniau]

The City of Ottawa's Transportation Committee last week unanimously carried a motion calling on City staff to partner with the Vanier BIA (Business Improvement Area) "to provide support and assistance as needed to complete a study for the closure of certain streets on Montréal Road."

[...]

The specific roads in question are Emond Street, Cody Street and the northern end of Olmstead Street.

http://www.emcottawaeast.ca/20100115/news/Montr%E9al+Road's+positive+dead+ends


Idiots.

What did street closures do for Uptown Rideau? The short blocks in this area of Montreal Road are one of the neighbourhood's strongest points. The last thing traffic to and from the Vanier Parkway needs is another excuse (like a reduction in the number of intersections) to speed.

In fact, the street grid along this stretch, with frequent, offset, side streets, is a lot like... Westboro.

Idiots, idiots, idiots.

[harls]

I'm moving this to the transportation section.

Welcome to the forum, btw.

[c_speed3108]

I get the feeling in case of Emond they are trying to separate that street from Montreal Rd because it is so seedy.

In effect trying to make it go away...

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

I get the feeling in case of Emond they are trying to separate that street from Montreal Rd because it is so seedy.

In effect trying to make it go away...

Yeah - again, that worked real well for Uptown Rideau, didn't it? Hermetically sealing off the "projects" to the north, by turning most of the once grid-blocks north of Rideau into short dead-end streets, failed, and failed miserably.

The layout of Vanier is one of the neighbourhood's greatest strengths, and it's already starting to turn around (witness the condo projects), but this is a massively retrograde, anti-city, anti-urban idea. Vanier BIA, if you want to live on a cul-de-sac, move to Orleans.

[c_speed3108]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Yeah - again, that worked real well for Uptown Rideau, didn't it? Hermetically sealing off the "projects" to the north, by turning most of the once grid-blocks north of Rideau into short dead-end streets, failed, and failed miserably.

The layout of Vanier is one of the neighbourhood's greatest strengths, and it's already starting to turn around (witness the condo projects), but this is a massively retrograde, anti-city, anti-urban idea. Vanier BIA, if you want to live on a cul-de-sac, move to Orleans.

I bus through that area fairly often and it never really struck me as being slow anyway. Probably in terms of traffic flow they would be better to move the parking to all these handy side streets and keep Montreal rd open (one lane transit one lane for all other)

But really none of this is the problem in that area...

[TransitZilla]

I don't have an opinion on this one way or the other, but here's an example from Westboro: http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ie=...315.03,,0,2.73

Hasn't exactly killed Westboro, has it?

If the street closures mean some small pedestrian plazas, benches, etc., then I could see it having a positive effect.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

I don't have an opinion on this one way or the other, but here's an example from Westboro: http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ie=...315.03,,0,2.73

Hasn't exactly killed Westboro, has it?

Good pics from Westboro but the side streets there are much more affluent than the ones we are talking about in Vanier.

Cutting off through traffic from Montreal Rd. on streets like Emond and other only further reduces the number of "eyes on the street", and I would venture to say that is the last thing these areas of Vanier need - leaving them essentially to people who are up to no good.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by bradnixon

I don't have an opinion on this one way or the other, but here's an example from Westboro: http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ie=...315.03,,0,2.73

Hasn't exactly killed Westboro, has it?

If the street closures mean some small pedestrian plazas, benches, etc., then I could see it having a positive effect.

There already is a comparable example in Vanier, at what used to be Dupuis.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...12,179.08,,0,5

It is a windswept empty zone most of the time*. Cutting off another three intersections along Montreal will just be repeating the same bit of futility, and expecting a different outcome.



* Despite the Google Cam having caught more people using it in one split-second than I have in five years....

[c_speed3108]

I was trying to figure out why I had never noticed Dupuis before.

It has not occurred to me that I was distracted by all the possibilities for that empty lot....

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

I was trying to figure out why I had never noticed Dupuis before.

On a lot of maps, it's still shown as if it's open.

It's such a waste, really. If it can't be a normal street, it would make a good temporary market.