Proposed Trial of Lane Reduction on Highway 19A (McMillan Corfield) City of Parksville Town Hall Meeting

Transcription

1 Proposed Trial of Lane Reduction on Highway 19A (McMillan Corfield) City of Parksville Town Hall Meeting October 21 st, 2013

2 On August 7, 2013, Council directed staff to forward the following topic to the Town Hall Council meeting scheduled for Monday, October 21, 2013, at the MacMillan Arts Centre for public discussion: Proposed Trial of Single Laning Highway 19A Council Direction

3 Engineering Staff identified that they currently have the following study underway: Street Urbanization Study Highway 19A, McMillan Street to Shelly Road The primary goal of this study is to identify opportunities (options) for changing the driving environment to reinforce driver and pedestrian behavior, consistent with an urban road. Staff Investigation

4 The scope of the study included the feasibility and effectiveness of reducing the through lanes from four to two along Highway 19A from McMillan Street to Corfield Street as a means of urbanizing this corridor. Staff Investigation (Continued)

5 Several assumptions needed to be made to facilitate the investigation such as: The curb lanes along this portion of Highway 19A would be available for parallel parking only. Parking is assumed to terminate in advance of intersections and allow the curb lane to function as right turn bays at intersection approaches. All the current traffic was assumed to remain on Highway 19A, without diverting to alternate routes such as Jensen. Assumptions

6 Key Routes to Parksville Downtown

7 A 2013 summer design traffic volume was determined using historical Parksville and MOTH traffic counts. A design hour volume (DHV) is needed to analyze the Base Case, the two-lane scenario, as well as any other improvement options developed. The DHV was developed using: The PM peak hour because its volume was clearly higher than the AM peak. Intersection counts from the Draft 2010 Parksville TMP; most of these were collected on April 29&30, The following adjustments were made: Factoring for seasonal peak using a ratio of 1.2 (calculated from MOTH data). Factoring for traffic growth using a compound rate of 0.7% per annum. Design Traffic Volume

8 Summer 2013 Existing Highway 19A Infrastructure (Base Case) Cross Street Intersection Type Intersection Worst Movements LOS v/c LOS 95% Queue (m) McMillan sig B 0.76 NBT - D 14 Morison unsig, 1-way - cross street volumes not available Alberni sig B 0.71 EBT - C 115 Craig unsig A 0.52 EBT - A WBL - C 10 McCarter ped sig A 0.56 NBL - F 18 Weld unsig A 0.85 NBL/R - F 30 Corfield sig B 0.63 NBT - C SBL - D 25 Bagshaw unsig B 6.04 NBL - F Err 1.48 SBL - F 12 McVickers sig A 0.51 SBL - C 24 Mills unsig - cross street volumes not available Shelly unsig A 1.47 NB - F SB - F 47

9 Summer 2013 Existing Highway 19A Infrastructure (Base Case)

10 Summer 2013 Highway 19A 2 Lane Scenario

11 Summer 2013 Highway 19A 2 Lane Scenario

12 Highway 19A at Corfield Street Looking West. October 16, 2013 at 11:42 am

13 Highway 19A at Corfield Street Looking West. October 16, 2013 at 12:57 pm

14 Recommended Considerations Prior to Implementation If Council wishes to proceed with a trial in the summer of 2014,staff recommend that a formal traffic plan/study be commissioned. Part of the study would be to refine the analysis by determining the level of diversion to alternate routes. This process should be undertaken using a travel forecasting model. Transition of Highway 19A from four to two lanes will need to be designed.

15 Recommended Considerations Prior to Implementation (Cont d) Other issues/areas of concern that will need to be addressed include: Emergency Response Delays to emergency response services such as ambulance, fire, and police will likely occur if an emergency event occurs during peak traffic periods.

16 Recommended Considerations Prior to Implementation (Cont d) Highway 19A is the only continuous roadway through Parksville and therefore is a key route for emergency response. Major backups on Highway 19A will require that emergency response services re-route onto more minor streets and may require emergency vehicles to travel farther.

17 Recommended Considerations Prior to Implementation (Cont d) Design Considerations The existing west approach (at McMillan) offers a smooth approach but not so for the east approach (at Corfield ). The transition will need to effectively accommodate vehicular movement into and out of affected businesses.

18 Recommended Considerations Prior to Implementation (Cont d) Once diversion routes are identified, additional measures may be required to ensure there is adequate capacity on these routes (i.e. temporary parking restrictions, additional signage, barricades, alteration of signal cycle times, etc.). The routing of transit and trucks needs to be managed. Additional parking enforcement will be required to ensure adequate parking turnover. Additional pedestrian jay-walking may occur across the roadway as customers parking on the north side of Highway 19A try to access downtown businesses.

19 Recommended Considerations Prior to Implementation (Cont d) Budget Budget will need to be identified to create, monitor/maintain, implement and decommission the trial.

20 Questions and Comments?