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(Posted 8
a.m., Feb. 4)
Transportation committee endorses controversial roundabout
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
Members
of the city's transportation committee voted in favour of plans to replace the
intersection at Jeanne d'Arc Blvd. and St. Joseph Blvd. with a traffic circle
on Wednesday despite warnings of dire consequences from residents and the local
city councillor. A
number of local residents and businessmen asked the committee to reconsider plans
to build the controversial roundabout saying that the traffic feature may end
up putting peoples' lives in jeopardy. Mews
Chev Olds manager Brain Watters said the busy intersection was the last place
the city should be conéasidering to build a roundabout. "That’s
a really busy intersection with a hill coming into it. Our society is built on
a grid pattern and you’re asking a lot of people to learn to change their
whole way of driving. Why take the chance?” asked Watters, who said the $1.7
million being set aside for the project would be better spent on adding bike lanes
to St. Joseph or improving the sidewalk. The
$1.7 million is part of a larger pot of money that was included with the Infrastructure
Stimulus Funding allocations that were announced by the federal and provincial
levels of government last spring. The total amount was $2.5 million. The
decision on how to spend the money was left up to the Heart of Orléans BIA which
represents the various businesses along St. Joseph Blvd. The group decided to
spend the lion's share of the money on the roundabout at a meeting in early December.
The remaining funds will be used to improve and beautify the intersestions at
Orléans Blvd. and St. Joseph and Place d'Orléans Blvd. Part
of the reason the BIA wants to build the roundabout at Jeanne d'Arc and St. Joseph
is to have it act as a gateway to the community's unofficial "Main Street". Similar
rounndabouts have been built in Gatineau and Barrhaven where Barrhaven Ward Coun.
Jan Harder was initially against the idea, but now wholeheartedly supports them. Orléans
Ward Coun. Bob Monette is one of those people who is against the idea, bringing
him in direct opposition to the BIA. He
told the committee that since plans to build the roundabout were first made public
he's received 24 e-mails against the project and only two that supported it. He
also said that he had canvassed "most" of the businesses along St. Joseph,
many of which also questioned the wisdom of the city's plans. During
a recent open house meant to educate the public on the benefits of roundabouts
the city's senior engineeer of infrastructure projects Roch Fortier, said that
in nearly every community where roundabouts have been built, the local population
was initially opposed to the traffic feature and then slowly got used to them
and eventually accepted them.
He
summed up the negative reaction to roundabouts as "fear of the unkown". "Let's
face it, most people have little or no experience with roundabouts. Their initial
reaction is that they are going to cause chaos, a massive number of accidents
and even fatalities, when actually the opposite is true. The statistics show that
roundabouts reduce the number of accidents. The reality is that hey are safer
than traditional intersections," Fortier said. The
transportation committee ended up voting in favour of the project despite the
objections of Monette and the other presenters. It will now go before city council
for a final vote. If it’s approved, construction on the roundabout could
begin as early as June. (This
story was made possible thanks to thie generous support of our local
business partners.) Return
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