Harriet Road

I have my own self interest at stake when it comes to Harriet road from Burnside to Gorge, I live on this street so keep that in mind.

I would like to see Victoria and Saanich come together and improve Harriet road from Burnside to Gorge. For a start, we need sidewalks on the Saanich side of the road. Secondly, it would be nice to have marked lanes on the road. Ideally a driving lane and a bike lane and then some parking. I would love to see the parking not be as a road lane, but as a series of long bays with bump out areas of plantings on a regular basis along the road.

The corner of Harriet and Maddock should be upgraded to improve things for cycling. Maddock is such a perfect bike route from the Tillicum mall area to the Galloping Goose if the City of Victoria were to build some connectivity between Maddock and Cecelia.

There are a lot of people that walk along Harriet, this could be increased with more and wider sidewalks. Ideally there should be a grass verge between the sidewalk and the road.

Chris Coleman pointed out an important safety feature that sidewalks bring. A sidewalk defines the edge of the road much better and therefore gives kids a much clearer boundary. It also makes for a hard barrier for cars coming off of the road.

Harriet in this area is not a significant arterial road, but with the lanes as wide as they are and the low level of traffic, the road encourages people to drive faster than they should. By having 3 metre wide painted lanes, the traffic would be calmed on the road and improve the neighbourhood.

The cost of doing this redevelopment is not dramatically expensive and could included in the next repaving of Harriet road.