Crowds approach Government Street pedestrian-only pilot project with caution
Whether it was habit, the Canadian way or a lack of awareness, people used Government Street crosswalks and sidewalks Sunday even though the street was closed to automobile traffic.
Carefully crossing at traffic lights and sticking to sidewalks even where there was construction, very few people over the noon hour Sunday ventured out onto picturesque, store-lined Government Street that runs into Victoria’s Inner Harbour.
A section of Government Street, from Fort to Yates streets, was barricaded and closed to automobile traffic as part of a pilot project in the downtown core. The area will close to vehicle traffic from noon-5 p.m. every Sunday until mid-September.
Rob Reid, founder and owner of Frontrunners Footwear, said implementing a pedestrian mall near the market on Bastion Square was a natural location.
“I see tourists often blindly walking into traffic just to take pictures of Bastion Square,” said Reid, out on the road with his dog Buster. Reid was among the group that instigated the idea of a pilot project along with other downtown businesses. That idea received the City of Victoria’s co-operation.
In the context of creating walkable, livable cities, a pedestrian walkway is just “one little ingredient to get more people downtown.”
“It’s the first time for this pilot of a pedestrian walkway,” said Reid. “It’s just two blocks, so it’s fairly simplistic.”
Tourists Bryan Smolinski and wife Kim, of Sequim, Washington, had no problem adapting to the road closure and were enjoying a stroll down the middle lane: “They do this in New Orleans. It reminds us a bit of that.”
For Al Miller, 71, having the open road to wheel down was a pleasure.
Miller, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and was using his wheelchair on Sunday, lives only blocks from the proposed pedestrian mall on Government Street. He supports an automobile-free street, with the exception of emergency and delivery vehicles, and taxis shuttling those unable to walk.
“In European cities, they have done this,” he said.