Avalon residents rally against barrier at Glasgow and Clarence
356 people sign petition asking city to remove concrete divider installed last fall
Blayne Hoffman thinks there’s something “fishy” about the process that led the City of Saskatoon to restrict traffic on Glasgow Street last fall.
Hoffman plans to appear in front of city council’s transportation committee on Monday, armed with a petition signed by 356 residents of the Avalon neighbourhood.
The petition aims to convince the committee and then council to remove the concrete barriers, set up last fall on a trial basis, that prevent left turns onto Glasgow for motorists travelling north on Clarence Avenue.
Council is expected to vote at a public hearing on June 25 on a proposal from the city administration to make the barriers permanent. The transportation committee is not voting on the matter on Monday, but could vote on a motion related to it if one comes forward.
“There’s a lot of people on Glasgow itself that want this reopened,” Hoffman said in an interview. “So this seem fishy.”
Hoffman said the city’s own surveys of the area indicate more support for allowing left turns from Clarence onto Glasgow than restricting them.
On Jan. 27, 2017, the city distributed 446 surveys to residents in the area, according to a March 2017 city report. Of the 193 surveys that were filled out, 104 opposed any change, 34 supported restricting left turns on a trial basis and 55 suggested other measures like speed humps or stop signs.
Fifteen of the 41 homes along Glasgow supported the left-turn restriction, while five opposed it and five suggested other measures.
The city report concludes that residents on Glasgow Street favour the left-turn restriction experiment.
The city also forecast an increase in traffic on nearby streets like Mcaskill, where Hoffman lives. Hoffman said the traffic that used to turn left onto Glasgow to reach Broadway Avenue is now taking a different route.
Vehicles are now going a little further north on Clarence and turning left on Wilson Crescent, then using Mcaskill to reach Glasgow, he said.
“Now, Mcaskill has turned into a through street for traffic,” Hoffman said.
He took to the streets in May to seek support for a petition to remove the barrier. He said he approached 531 properties in the same area where the city conducted its survey, and he allowed only one signature per property.
Hoffman’s survey, which will be presented to the transportation committee, found 356 in favour of lifting the restriction, while 55 refused to sign and another 133 could not be reached. Eight Glasgow residents signed the petition.
“They ’re kind of shoving it down our throats,” Hoffman said of the city. He has obtained results of a city survey conducted in May that shows 173 residents want the restriction lifted, while 49 want it to remain, he added.
The March 2017 report said the city is trying to address “shortcutting,” since Glasgow is classified as a local street under new neighbourhood guidelines.
Local streets are only supposed to accommodate 1,000 vehicles per day. In May 2015, the city found more than 3,000 per day were using Glasgow.
Hoffman said the city found in March that nearly 2,000 vehicles per day were still using Glasgow, even with the left-turn barrier.
“If your sole purpose was to make Glasgow a local street, you have failed to do so,” he said.
Hoffman, who is among five people set to speak about the issue at Monday’s committee meeting, has pressured Ward 7 Coun. Mairin Loewen to support one side or the other in the traffic tilt.
Loewen wrote in an email to Hoffman that she will not decide until the June 25 public hearing.
“I know this is very frustrating to people on both sides of the issue, but it is my duty to be open to that information and that opportunity for public input,” she wrote.