Traffic Claming Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
November 28, 2001
5:00 to 8:00 pm

Everyone introduced themselves.

Richard stated that the meeting was to bring the groups on both sides of the speed hump issue together and discuss ways to resolve the current conflict in the neighbourhood.

Donna and Ken did a review of the project with slides showing the evolution that lead to the present situation.

Ken indicated preliminary results of the speed cables confirming that the speed humps have slowed down traffic.

This was followed by open discussion:

Residents not favouring the speed hump solution identified key areas where the NVD Traffic Calming Policy had not been followed.

They also expressed concern that work session 2 held in May offered only 1 affordable solution: speed humps. All of the other solutions discussed at session 1 were either not affordable or not practical and were summarily dismissed by staff.

Some residents living near the speed humps asked whether anyone had any better ideas for traffic calming. It was agreed that attendees would come up with alternative suggestions for traffic calming.

Sargeant Beaudoin stated that he was aware of 4 accidents on Riverside in the last 5 years and that Riverside was not a big problem for speeding or accidents compared to some other NVD streets.

Residents favouring speed humps seemed to consider most drivers living on upper Riverside as speeders which led to some interesting exchanges when individuals were actually accused of speeding without merit.

There seemed to be an us against them attitude with the besieged residents living in the 800 and 900 blocks of Riverside. This is the only area of Riverside where virtually all of the residents support speed humps. Outside of this area support for speed humps is distributed evenly through the community in about 15% of the homes.

Discussion was held as to whether the whole process should be restarted and there seemed to be general agreement for that.

Residents favouring the speed humps want the humps to remain while alternative strategies are explored. Residents opposed to the humps want them removed before discussing alternative strategies.

District staff are planning 50-50% representation in these advisory meetings and does not seem interested in proportional representation as per Phil's petition. There will be no voting at these meetings.

Larger community meetings will be held to which all residents will be invited.

Residents opposing speed humps requested more empirical evidence of the speeding and accidents on Riverside. This includes 'speed curves' showing speed vs volume of traffic for each of the different speed studies. Also accident reports were desired.

Richard polled the attendees and it was decided to hold another meeting in 2 weeks on Dec 12. The primary purpose of this meeting is to develop a process which both follows the DNV Traffic Calming Policy and results in a solution which is acceptable to the majority of residents living in the neighbourhood and is inclusive of all the residents.

Richard also stated that staff would be preparing a Report to Council to be presented near the middle of December. This corresponds to the end of the 3 month trial period for the speed humps on Dec 15. The report will recommend whether to retain or remove the humps. He is still in the process of making this decision.