(Image Credit: Mel Rothenburger)
ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: The battle begins to get rid of one-way streets downtown

Aug 10, 2019 | 6:58 AM

WHEN I ASKED Coun. Denis Walsh on last week’s segment of CFJC-TV’s Balance of Power what single thing he’d fix about downtown Kamloops if he could, I was surprised at his answer.

I expected him to talk about parking, or maybe densification. But no, Walsh’s answer was (wait for it) one-way streets.

Specifically, changing Seymour Street from one-way back to two-way.

The idea has been on the books for at least 20 years and nobody at City Hall has had the will to take it on seriously. At one point, and I remember this well, blueprints were drawn up to transform Seymour into a pedestrian-friendly two-way street focused on people instead of cars.

But people come and go at City Hall, people with different priorities and politics, and it was shuffled back into the nether regions of downtown planning.

When I pointed this out to Walsh, he said the City just hasn’t been ready to act on it but he’s hoping to bring it back to the table.

Day before yesterday, I received a follow-up email from the earnest councillor putting it into stronger terms. “I am making a strong effort to have a bold discussion on what to do with one-way streets in our downtown core,” Walsh wrote.

He described himself as “fed up and determined” on the issue.

Let’s take a step back to the 1970s decision to switch Seymour and Lansdowne Streets to one-way. It was a time when Domtar — which was then Weyerhaeuser (and before that, Kamloops Pulp and Paper) was the biggest employer in town and biggest contributor to the economy.

Combined with the nearby Weyerhaueser sawmill, it resulted in a steady stream of trucks rumbling through town. Efficiency was essential in moving materials through the downtown.

The goal was to move traffic from A to B as fast as possible. Sadly, it still is but times have changed — without the sawmill, truck traffic has diminished. People remain fixated on getting through downtown Kamloops as fast as they can, but that’s not what downtowns are for.

Seymour Street is not anywhere you’d want to spend much time. If you have to go to a particular store there you’ll do that, or if you can’t find a parking spot on Victoria Street you’ll look for one on Seymour, but it’s not a street for strolling and enjoying.

Seymour and Lansdowne Streets are symbolic of a city built for the automobile.

It’s a strange thing, this fear or disinterest City councillors have of doing something about it. Walsh is the first in a long while to take it on.

In another email this week, this time to occasional mayoral candidate and prolific social-media commenter Pierre Fillisetti, Walsh noted “the single focus on efficiency of moving vehicles through our retail districts and neighbourhood cores at the expense of other modes of mobility, livability and safety.”

He refers to the “outdated and auto-centric one-way street transportation network that is strangling the natural growth, vibrancy and walkability of our downtown core.” Walsh was responding to a link Fillisetti had sent him to an article headlined Why Speed Kills Cities. The article explores just what the headline suggests — efforts a growing number of cities to slow down traffic, and the positive results of same.

While it focuses on speed limits, the article points out that lowering speed limits isn’t the only answer; physical design of streets is also important. It says drivers lose a sense of place at a certain speed. In fact, a different article, this one called The Case Against One-Way Streets, on the same citylab.com website suggests returning to two-way makes cities not only safer and easier to navigate but more livable, just as Walsh contends.

It makes the case that two-way streets actually work as well as one-way at moving traffic if they’re designed correctly and limit left-hand turns.

Seymour isn’t the only one-way street downtown, of course. Lansdowne was made a one-way westbound at the same time Seymour was made one-way in the opposite direction in 1979. First Avenue was a safety disaster as a two-way street so it and Third Avenue were converted to one-way, also in the 1970s.

Walsh thinks Seymour could be returned to two-way in isolation of the others. Lansdowne could stay as is, at least for now. He also thinks the Victoria Street West revamp, which maintains the existing one-way funnel onto Seymour, won’t be a problem.

His hope is to get the issue into discussions on the update to the Downtown Plan. He’ll have a tough time convincing the engineers. The existing KamPlan — the umbrella community plan — refers repeatedly to the importance of “efficient movement of goods and emergency services.” And the Transportation Master Plan refers to “efficient and fast trips across the city” as if it’s a Holy Grail, and it says nothing I can see about the one-way streets.

Walsh will have his work cut out for him building enough support to even get the issue on the table for discussion.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.

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