Saanich has done a nice job of traffic calming Maddock Street from Tillicum Mall through to Harriet Road. There is a pedestrian light at Maddock and Harriet and cars are not allowed to go straight through on Maddock. This is all wonderful till one gets to this:
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There is a problem, there is no way to continue on. There is no pedestrian/bike friendly way to get from the Tillicum area to the Galloping Goose. I am sure that the lack of this connection reduces the number of people biking to work. People are forced either onto Gorge or Burnside, neither one is pedestrian/bike friendly.
As you can see here, the sidewalk along Burnside is not only narrow, it has telephone poles in the middle of it. Hardly convenient or nice.
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The idea of acquiring the four properties needed to connect Maddock through to Washington and then onto the Galloping Goose has been a plan of the City of Victoria's since the June 1992 Burnside Neighbourhood plan. You would go from the end of Maddock on Balfour through to Doric and then through to Washington at the head of Cecilia Street and the access to the Galloping Goose.
The need for this connection was reiterated in the August 28, 2003 Greenways Plan. The city adopted the recommendation that this be initiated by the city as properties become available. I know of at least two relevant properties that became available after the plan was adopted.
The city then allowed the best part of the Cecilia Creek Ravine Park to be built on. The upper meadow had the Burnside Gorge Community Centre built on it. In 2008 the City agreed to delist the Ellice Street Park to allow for the Streetlink shelter to be built there. The was a promise at that time that the city would acquire more parkland in the neighbourhood. One would think this means they would move forward on their planned commiment from 1992 and 2003 for the Maddock - Cecilia connection.
The City also passed their Pedestrian Master Plan in October of 2008. All the major issues listed in this report clearly indicate the neighbourhood with the biggest problem is the Burnside one and that the connection from Maddock to Cecilia is the most important one foe the whole city.
4 comments:
I don't think you access the Goose from Alpha Terrace can you? It's very frustrating.
Great post as always Bernard. I would never want to bike on Burnside Rd.
This is off topic but I was wondering if you would consider adding a search box on the right hand side? It would be nice to have an easy way to search all the posts on this blog. You are building up quite an archive.
Robert - the location I am talking about is Cecilia road, which comes off of Washington.
There is access, though not official, to the Goose from Alpha.
David, I will add a search function
Traffic and Transport: I moved to a condo on Gorge Rd. West between Earl Grey and Millgrove about a year and a half ago. I haven't ridden my bike on the goose since I moved here from Cook St. Village (which I miss!). Gorge Road is like a highway. It could definitely use traffic calmers. While I do love the Gorge Park walkway, I really miss biking and also have to reiterate that I wouldn't ride my bike to get to the Cecelia/Washington access to the goose. Would love to see some connector.
Also would like to see a turnabout built at McKenzie/Admirals - much lower cost than an overpass. And further, can't support LRT from Langford down Douglas. How about a HOV down douglas and up blanshard or E & N transit. We would never redeem the cost of LRT and it would affect so many businesses.
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