A Stratford committee has decided not to continue closing a portion of Lakeside Drive to traffic this summer — as it has for the past two summers — to promote active transportation and social distancing along the south shore of Lake Victoria.
Following two summers of weekend road closures along a section of Lakeside Drive to promote social distancing and active transportation among park users along Lake Victoria’s south shore, a Stratford committee has rejected a proposal to close the road to westbound traffic this summer.
At Monday’s infrastructure, transportation and safety committee meeting, councilors voted 7-3 against a subcommittee recommendation to temporarily close Lakeside Drive to westbound traffic between Waterloo Street and the Festival Bridge from July 4 to Sept. 6.
“We have tried several things,” Coun. Bonnie Henderson said Monday, speaking in favor of the recommended lane closure. “We have tried sort of a two-block (full road closure), we tried a one-block (road closure) … and then there was a recommendation to staff to see if we could investigate making this street one way. So the idea behind this was to trial it for two months to see if it’s even possible if it would work as a one way permanently – so in the winter and the summer. … People, their biggest complaint (about the previous closures) was they couldn’t drive around the river road. They’ll still be able to drive around the whole (Lakeside) Drive and they’ll still be able to park.”
According to infrastructure and development services director Taylor Crinklaw’s report to council, the Lakeside Drive weekend closures in the summer of 2020 resulted in significant increases in cycling traffic around the river, and staff received positive comments about the road closures in both 2020 and 2021.
For this summer, staff had recommended making that portion of Lakeside Drive one way for a full month to reduce staff time and costs in setting up and taking down barricades every Friday afternoon and Monday morning. The infrastructure, transportation and safety subcommittee later recommended the proposed closure be extended for two months to encompass the entire summer.
Yet while Henderson and Couns. Kathy Vassilakos and Jo-Dee Burbach voted in favor of the single-lane closure, other councilors raised safety concerns with vehicles driving around barricades and on the closed portion of the road, concerns with traffic being diverted onto other local roads during the height of the Stratford Festival season, and concerns with the additional $10,000 to $12,000 cost for new bollards that could remain in place for the summer in a year that saw a 7.6 per cent increase to the city’s tax levy.
Councilors also suggested the Lakeside Drive closures were more of a pandemic measure to give residents a safe place to get outside and exercise with enough room to social distance.
“I don’t support this. … I think it will be a detriment to the other streets, especially to the houses (there) with the extra traffic,” Coun. Tom Clifford said, “and I am concerned about safety because I experienced it before when it was closed and people were still driving on it. … It was a COVID idea. As far as I’m concerned, COVID is over.”