Traffic Calming on Hawstead

In early January 2019 – residents of Hawstead Road contacted me to discuss speed and traffic volumes on their street. A meeting was organized at Smittie’s to hear their concerns.

Following that meeting, I moved a motion to have the Public Works Department engineers study the street to identify the problems and present some solutions. (motion below)

In March 2020, the Public Works Department presented the Hawstead Speed and Traffic Count Report

I encourage you to read the report in detail. The report found that this street WAS eligible for traffic calming, and two options were presented. It is important to note that there are more options that could be considered, but the Public Works engineers presented two they felt would deal with the issues on Hawstead. I am a huge fan of speed tables – which slow traffic, but are not as effective in ‘re-routing’ traffic.  These are also a possibility but not as favoured by the engineers.  It is important to note:

• Average weekday volumes are in the order of 2,000 vehicles per day, which is twice the intended volume for a local street like Hawstead Road. As such, the volume level was deemed sufficient for consideration of traffic calming.

In June, I invited the City engineer who had written the report to a zoom meeting with the residents of Hawstead. The engineer discussed the issues and two solutions that were presented.

Residents had questions about both options, BUT leaned towards Option 2 –  installing time restricted signs to see if any improvements would occur. The primary reason residents preferred Option 2 was easy to pilot, and because signage is easy to install to see if any improvements could be made.

The engineers was to provide a summary of the meeting with action items, suggestions of time to restrict turning, and other things to consider. I was told this week (August 11^th) that the engineer is now on a leave and someone else is taking over the file.

• PLEASE KNOW that at this point, NO final decision has been made on any kind of traffic calming.  It is important to understand that in any project, we have to have a starting point. The starting point was the residents of Hawstead contacting me and starting a dialogue on this issue.
• PLEASE ALSO KNOW that when the engineer provides a summary of the meeting, I will reach out again to residents of Hawstead AND THE SURROUNDING STREETS to update and gather broader input. (Groveland Bay, Hazel Park Dr, Meadow Ridge Rd, etc.)

I can only imagine what it is like to live on a street where the traffic volumes have doubled over time. We must think of this when we look to finding a solution for the traffic volumes and speed on Hawstead Road.

The City and I are open to recommendations, thoughts, concerns. Again, nothing will happen prior to reaching out to surrounding streets.  Please email any feedback to: jlukes@winnipeg.ca

MOTION TO STUDY:

WHEREAS prior to the construction of homes in Waverley West, Hawstead Road had issues of speed and large traffic volumes;

AND WHEREAS speed and traffic counts along Hawstead Road were studied in the early eighties and at that point in time, engineers looked at traffic calming measures but none were applied;

AND WHEREAS Hawstead Road is a major cut through street for residents of the new developments in Waverley West and continues to experience increased speed and large traffic volumes;

AND WHEREAS Hawstead Road is a major cut through street for residents of the new developments in Waverley West and continues to experience increased speed and large traffic volumes;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Standing Policy Committee on Infrastructure Renewal and Public Works be requested to direct the Winnipeg Public Service to conduct a new speed study and traffic count along Hawstead Road between Bairdmore Boulevard and Kirkbridge Drive, and report back to the Standing Committee with recommendations for traffic calming infrastructure.