NDP leadership candidate Mike Farnworth will be at the Fifth Street Bar and Grill from 5pm to 7pm for people to meet him.
He is the third candidate holding a meet and greet in Victoria this evening.
I am interested to hear that Victoria councilor Pam Madoff and Saanich councilor Dean Murdock are both backing Mike Farnworth. Mike also has the support of former Victoria mayor and MLA Gretchen Brewin and sitting MLA Rob Flemming. He seems to be picking up a lot of support from CRD people even though this should be the best area in the province for John Horgan.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Speed Street housing development
Victoria developer Brian Martin is proposing building 224 units in two towers on Speed Street with close to half being available for low income housing.
View Larger Map
I am happy to see a proposal like this being made for Speed Street. Frankly it has been more or less a slum for some years and has not been a decent place to live. With the development of a new building on the north side of the street, a change has been underway. The development will be accessible from Speed and Frances Streets.
The height is much taller than anything in the area and it is not in keeping with the light industrial in the area. That said, if you are going to add people to the area doing something with some density makes sense.
224 units will add between 400 and 600 people into the area as new residents. More people in the area will mean that businesses catering to retail shopping will benefit. Density like this compare very favourably to the alternatives, to house this number of people in a suburban neighbourhood you would need about 30 acres of land.
There will also be about 300 new cars in the area because of the development. This is an issue because of access to Douglas Street. Having been to houses on Speed Street in the past, it is not the easiest street to get to in peak times. With the access to Francis Street, there are other options to get out but there are issues with getting onto either Douglas or Burnside. The traffic issues would only further compound the issues created by the Starbucks at Alpha and Douglas, the drive through there has added to traffic congestion on Douglas. The project is likely to add 200 more vehicle trips in the area in peak hours. This is about two cars per minute.
I like the idea of the project, but it has to be done in the context of a vision for the whole Douglas Street corridor. A one off project like this may or may not fit with the best way to redevelop the corridor. There are some large pieces of land in the area that are vacant or very much underused at the moment. Their is no planning for what should happen with them and their redevelopment is connected to where this project on Speed Street is the right thing to do.
Long term I believe that the Douglas Street Corridor should become the core of the City - that office and retail, along with high density residential, be the vision for the corridor. Ideally a future that sees an end to the car dealerships.
View Larger Map
I am happy to see a proposal like this being made for Speed Street. Frankly it has been more or less a slum for some years and has not been a decent place to live. With the development of a new building on the north side of the street, a change has been underway. The development will be accessible from Speed and Frances Streets.
The height is much taller than anything in the area and it is not in keeping with the light industrial in the area. That said, if you are going to add people to the area doing something with some density makes sense.
224 units will add between 400 and 600 people into the area as new residents. More people in the area will mean that businesses catering to retail shopping will benefit. Density like this compare very favourably to the alternatives, to house this number of people in a suburban neighbourhood you would need about 30 acres of land.
There will also be about 300 new cars in the area because of the development. This is an issue because of access to Douglas Street. Having been to houses on Speed Street in the past, it is not the easiest street to get to in peak times. With the access to Francis Street, there are other options to get out but there are issues with getting onto either Douglas or Burnside. The traffic issues would only further compound the issues created by the Starbucks at Alpha and Douglas, the drive through there has added to traffic congestion on Douglas. The project is likely to add 200 more vehicle trips in the area in peak hours. This is about two cars per minute.
I like the idea of the project, but it has to be done in the context of a vision for the whole Douglas Street corridor. A one off project like this may or may not fit with the best way to redevelop the corridor. There are some large pieces of land in the area that are vacant or very much underused at the moment. Their is no planning for what should happen with them and their redevelopment is connected to where this project on Speed Street is the right thing to do.
Long term I believe that the Douglas Street Corridor should become the core of the City - that office and retail, along with high density residential, be the vision for the corridor. Ideally a future that sees an end to the car dealerships.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Mike de Jong in town Monday Jan 31st
Mike de Jong is a very interesting person and has many interesting ideas for government. Even if you can not stand the Liberals, it is worth coming out to listen to him talk. Win or lose, he will be still be an important voice in the BC Liberal government.
What I like about him is that he listens to people and is honestly interested in what people have to say. I also really like Mike on a personal level. That said, I am backing George Abbott and you can read my reasons here.
What I like about him is that he listens to people and is honestly interested in what people have to say. I also really like Mike on a personal level. That said, I am backing George Abbott and you can read my reasons here.
Monday, January 24, 2011
David Brazter and some others have started a new group, Scientific Victoria. Their goal is as follows:
I like the direction they are going, it is important that decisions are made that can be supported and not just because they are some current belief fad. That said, I know this will not be easy as there are many things that people believe that simply can not be supported by any data form any source, a great example of this is mobile phones and cancer.
Scientific Victoria is a fledgling political organization that advocates for the consideration of science in local government decision making. We believe this will improve governance and save tax dollars throughout the Capital Regional District.
Our goal is to encourage elected officials to embrace information produced by valid scientific methodology. We would also like politicians to place less weight on conclusions drawn from pseudoscience
I like the direction they are going, it is important that decisions are made that can be supported and not just because they are some current belief fad. That said, I know this will not be easy as there are many things that people believe that simply can not be supported by any data form any source, a great example of this is mobile phones and cancer.
Amalgamation
Hello there all that are interested in this issue, I will be organizing another meeting to move this issue forward in the next couple of weeks. I should have a time and place later this week.
In the interim, I am interesting in knowing who might be interested in helping in certain issue areas and with organization. What is needed:
Someone to keep the database of people interested organized
Someone to take notes and send them out to people
Someone to monitor the media and track any articles, editorials or opinion pieces that could be interesting.
People interested in working on specific regional issues like policing, economic development, transportation, environment, and homelessness.
If you are interested in offering more help, please drop me a line at bernard@shama.ca
In the interim, I am interesting in knowing who might be interested in helping in certain issue areas and with organization. What is needed:
Someone to keep the database of people interested organized
Someone to take notes and send them out to people
Someone to monitor the media and track any articles, editorials or opinion pieces that could be interesting.
People interested in working on specific regional issues like policing, economic development, transportation, environment, and homelessness.
If you are interested in offering more help, please drop me a line at bernard@shama.ca
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Saanich Parks and Recreation Master Plan
Saanich has a started a process to gather input so it can develop an parks and recreation master plan.
I am happy to see them consulting with the public on parks and recreation, but my fear is that the master plan will be one more planning report in this region that acts as if the municipality it is for is in complete isolation from all the others in the CRD. Parks and recreation are used region wide by the public and the I know of no one that seriously thinks about the municipal boundaries when considering what facility or parks to use.
I live in a negibourhood that is split in two because of a municipal boundary. We are not Saanich residents but our local recreation facility is in Saanich - Pearkes.
The survey Saanich is asking about recreation and parks differentiates between Saanich and non-Saanich residents. Does this mean the input from non-residents will be discounted?
Here are some things I think should be a priority for Saanich:
More sidewalks, a lot more sidewalks. Saanich seems to be strongly biased in favour of travel by car than encouraging walking. The rate at which sidewalks are being added is woefully slow and will never catch with what is needed right now. In the Tillicum Gorge neighbourhood Saanich needs to build close to 50 km of sidewalks and needs to either fix or dramatically improve the sidewalks on all the major streets. This is only one neighbourhood.
There is an immediate need for more ice surfaces. There are two municipal rinks and one UVic rink within the boundaries of Saanich, all three of them nowhere near the core of Saanich. Canada averages about one ice sheet per 13,000 people. Saanich averages one per 40,000. The upshot of this is that ice time for minor hockey and figure skating is vastly over subscribed. Saanich should have nine ice sheets.
Saanich should place a two sheet arena at Commonwealth, they should partner with UVic to build a new two sheet facility there. Beyond that they should be looking at building an arena that could seat a couple of thousand somewhere near city hall - that should also have a second sheet of ice. Doing all this would still leave Saanich at only eight ice sheets, less than the Canadian average.
The Cedar Hill rec centre is right on the border with Victoria. I think it would make sense for Saanich and the City of Victoria to partner on this facility and add a 50 metre pool and ice rink to the facility. It is right on the border and both municipalities would benefit.
Saanich needs to become much more proactive in park maintenance. There are numerous parks that need a huge amount of help right now to save them from invasive species. One only needs to go to Knockan Hill, Cuthbert Holmes and Mount Doug to see the damage ivy and blackberries are doing. It looks like park management in Saanich is more by neglect than action. In the case of Cuthbert Holmes Park Saanich has effectively abandoned 16 acres of land. This land has no value for people or for wildlife. Is Saanich so land rich in parks that it can afford to waste all this land?
Saanich is also not doing enough to connect people to the water in this region. On the Gorge there is a nice walkway but the park area towards the inner harbour is very underused and is missing vital links. There should be some space to make it easy for people to launch canoes, kayaks and sailboats. There should be an effort made to complete a park and trail from the end of Gorge park all the way through to Selkirk water.
Over in Gordon Head and Cordova Bay, there are few decent park access points to the water. There is more than 10 kilometres of shoreline between Mount Doug and Cordova Bay and not a lot of very inviting access points to the water. Yes, there are a a bunch of access points, but the majority of them a rather obscured and certainly do not have any real ability for the public to park and access the water.
Saanich is very much short of a park where you could hold events with a couple of thousand people, there is no place the municipality of Saanich could hold a large community celebration. It is also short of parks that are enjoyable garden parks for walking in.
I do not get there is an serious plan or effort by Saanich to expand the number of parks. I am not entirely sure why this, but when one looks at the council inaction on sidewalks and thereby encouraging cars, the lack of decent management of many of the parks and no plan to acquire the park land needed, it really begin to feel like Saanich council is not very interested in parks for any purpose or generally making the public more active.
This is enough for now because I suspect what I am suggesting is so far beyond what council will consider that there is little point in suggesting many of the other things parks and recreation need in Saanich.
I will finish by comparing Richmond and Delta with Saanich. Richmond has 40% more people than Saanich while Delta has 20%, They both serve as the Saanich of Greater Vancouver in may ways. Richmond has 8 public ice sheets, Delta has four public and one private. Richmond has two large indoor aquatic centres and two outdoor pools, Delta has three aquatic centres and two outdoor pools. Richmond has 8 community recreation facilities like Cedar Hill, all of Delta's recreation centres have pools and/or ice rinks. And finally Richmond has a lot of sidewalks, more or less everywhere there are decent sidewalks, Delta is more sidewalk challenged but better than Saanich. If they can do it, why is Saanich not trying harder?
I am happy to see them consulting with the public on parks and recreation, but my fear is that the master plan will be one more planning report in this region that acts as if the municipality it is for is in complete isolation from all the others in the CRD. Parks and recreation are used region wide by the public and the I know of no one that seriously thinks about the municipal boundaries when considering what facility or parks to use.
I live in a negibourhood that is split in two because of a municipal boundary. We are not Saanich residents but our local recreation facility is in Saanich - Pearkes.
The survey Saanich is asking about recreation and parks differentiates between Saanich and non-Saanich residents. Does this mean the input from non-residents will be discounted?
Here are some things I think should be a priority for Saanich:
More sidewalks, a lot more sidewalks. Saanich seems to be strongly biased in favour of travel by car than encouraging walking. The rate at which sidewalks are being added is woefully slow and will never catch with what is needed right now. In the Tillicum Gorge neighbourhood Saanich needs to build close to 50 km of sidewalks and needs to either fix or dramatically improve the sidewalks on all the major streets. This is only one neighbourhood.
There is an immediate need for more ice surfaces. There are two municipal rinks and one UVic rink within the boundaries of Saanich, all three of them nowhere near the core of Saanich. Canada averages about one ice sheet per 13,000 people. Saanich averages one per 40,000. The upshot of this is that ice time for minor hockey and figure skating is vastly over subscribed. Saanich should have nine ice sheets.
Saanich should place a two sheet arena at Commonwealth, they should partner with UVic to build a new two sheet facility there. Beyond that they should be looking at building an arena that could seat a couple of thousand somewhere near city hall - that should also have a second sheet of ice. Doing all this would still leave Saanich at only eight ice sheets, less than the Canadian average.
The Cedar Hill rec centre is right on the border with Victoria. I think it would make sense for Saanich and the City of Victoria to partner on this facility and add a 50 metre pool and ice rink to the facility. It is right on the border and both municipalities would benefit.
Saanich needs to become much more proactive in park maintenance. There are numerous parks that need a huge amount of help right now to save them from invasive species. One only needs to go to Knockan Hill, Cuthbert Holmes and Mount Doug to see the damage ivy and blackberries are doing. It looks like park management in Saanich is more by neglect than action. In the case of Cuthbert Holmes Park Saanich has effectively abandoned 16 acres of land. This land has no value for people or for wildlife. Is Saanich so land rich in parks that it can afford to waste all this land?
Saanich is also not doing enough to connect people to the water in this region. On the Gorge there is a nice walkway but the park area towards the inner harbour is very underused and is missing vital links. There should be some space to make it easy for people to launch canoes, kayaks and sailboats. There should be an effort made to complete a park and trail from the end of Gorge park all the way through to Selkirk water.
Over in Gordon Head and Cordova Bay, there are few decent park access points to the water. There is more than 10 kilometres of shoreline between Mount Doug and Cordova Bay and not a lot of very inviting access points to the water. Yes, there are a a bunch of access points, but the majority of them a rather obscured and certainly do not have any real ability for the public to park and access the water.
Saanich is very much short of a park where you could hold events with a couple of thousand people, there is no place the municipality of Saanich could hold a large community celebration. It is also short of parks that are enjoyable garden parks for walking in.
I do not get there is an serious plan or effort by Saanich to expand the number of parks. I am not entirely sure why this, but when one looks at the council inaction on sidewalks and thereby encouraging cars, the lack of decent management of many of the parks and no plan to acquire the park land needed, it really begin to feel like Saanich council is not very interested in parks for any purpose or generally making the public more active.
This is enough for now because I suspect what I am suggesting is so far beyond what council will consider that there is little point in suggesting many of the other things parks and recreation need in Saanich.
I will finish by comparing Richmond and Delta with Saanich. Richmond has 40% more people than Saanich while Delta has 20%, They both serve as the Saanich of Greater Vancouver in may ways. Richmond has 8 public ice sheets, Delta has four public and one private. Richmond has two large indoor aquatic centres and two outdoor pools, Delta has three aquatic centres and two outdoor pools. Richmond has 8 community recreation facilities like Cedar Hill, all of Delta's recreation centres have pools and/or ice rinks. And finally Richmond has a lot of sidewalks, more or less everywhere there are decent sidewalks, Delta is more sidewalk challenged but better than Saanich. If they can do it, why is Saanich not trying harder?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
George Abbott coming to town
Another candidate for Liberal leader is coming to town. Wednesday in Duncan and then Thursday in Victoria. This is your chance to meet the possible next premier and put your questions to him.
This Wednesday and Thursday, I will be in Victoria and Duncan for Meet and Greet events with party members and local residents about my campaign to become the next Leader of the BC Liberal Party and the next Premier of BC.
I hope you will be able to join me to ask any questions you have, share your ideas and learn about my vision for our party and our province.
Here are the details – please invite your family and friends and RSVP by replying to this email.
George Abbott in Duncan
Wednesday January 19th
12:00 noon
Duncan Travelodge – Silver Bridge Inn
140 Trans Canada Highway, Duncan
George Abbott in Victoria
Thursday January 20th
7:00 PM
SUB Upper Lounge, UVIC Student Union Building
3800 Finnerty Road (Ring Road)
Victoria, BC
Hope to see you this week,
George
George Abbott Leadership Campaign
P: 1-877-453-0645
E: george@georgeabbottforbc.ca
W: www.georgeabbottforbc.ca
F: http://www.facebook.com/georgeabbottmla
T: http://www.twitter.com/georgeabbott4bc
Y: http://www.youtube.com/user/GeorgeAbbottforBC
Kevin Falcon in Victoria at noon on Wednesday at the Stickey Wicket
I am getting emails from all the various campaigns and I have meant to post some of the dates candidates for leader are in town, but life got in the way.
This is an invite from Kevin Falcon. If you are a member of the Liberals, friendly to the Liberals or really do not like them, this is a chance to come and hear the man who may be the next premier of BC.
The time to join the NDP has past, but there is still time to join the BC Liberals and have a vote on who will be the next premier of BC. Frankly, you have more input over the direction of BC politics by joining one of the parties and voting for the next leader than you do during a general election. This is also a chance for youth over age 14 to take part in deciding who will run the province.
This is an invite from Kevin Falcon. If you are a member of the Liberals, friendly to the Liberals or really do not like them, this is a chance to come and hear the man who may be the next premier of BC.
The time to join the NDP has past, but there is still time to join the BC Liberals and have a vote on who will be the next premier of BC. Frankly, you have more input over the direction of BC politics by joining one of the parties and voting for the next leader than you do during a general election. This is also a chance for youth over age 14 to take part in deciding who will run the province.
You are invited to a conversation with B.C. Liberal Leadership Candidate Kevin Falcon
When: Wednesday January 19th, 2011
Time: 12:00pm until 1:30pm
Where: Sticky Wicket Pub and Restaurant in the Maple Room, 919 Douglas Street
RSVP: info@kevinfalcon.com
On February 26th members of the BC Liberal Party will vote for the next Premier of the Province.
Please take this opportunity to talk to Kevin, ask questions and share your views on the future of British Columbia.
And if you know people who are not members, but would like to know more about the leadership race and the BC Liberals, please feel free to forward this invitation.
Sincerely,
Team Kevin Falcon for Leadership
Listening-Learning-Leading
Friday, January 14, 2011
Quadra Cedar Hill Community
I am going to look at his neighbourhood a bit more closely over the next few weeks and I would love to hear anything interesting people can tell me about it. It is a neighbourhood that is sort of out of sight and therefore out of mind. No one talks about it in the same way as Gordon Head or James Bay.
What is like to live there?
What are the hidden places?
What does it need to make it a better community?
Is it a livable neighbourhood?
What is like to live there?
What are the hidden places?
What does it need to make it a better community?
Is it a livable neighbourhood?
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Mckenzie and Hwy#1 intersection
The perenial traffic problem on the top of most people's minds in this region is the issue of what to do with the intersection of Mckenzie and Highway #1. I have been giving it a bit of thought within the context of no one seemingly interested in spending a lot of money on the intersection.
The intersection is only one part of a road network in the area and it all needs to be considered to have the impact needed to make a difference. Just building a single $30 to $40 million interchange will actually not address many of the problems the area around the intersection is not set up to deal with more traffic.
First change that is needed is for all the lights in the region to be synchronized with real time traffic data. This can be done by having cameras in numerous locations paying attention to the traffic. This data would be fed into a computer which would then develop the most efficient way the lights should operate. We would have more vehicles moving and therefore be able to move the traffic faster. One benefit of this system is that it will change the light patterns as needed and a change in traffic flows would be easily accommodated.
For this to work, I would see the following lights within the network:
In an ideal world all the traffic lights in the region would be coordinated through one central computer system. When there is no or low traffic it would be helpful for the system to be able to change lights as needed to allow people to drive with not having to stop.
Changing how the lights work will have a benefit, but far short of what is needed.
Looking at the traffic coming into town, there is a major division of the traffic at Mckenzie/Admirals and Highway #1. A large portion of the traffic turns left from the highway onto Mckenzie. One solution to this is to build a dedicated left turn overpass. A single lane doing this from the highway to Mckenzie would allow for a lot of traffic to continue moving.
Coming into town there could be a longer lane for traffic wanting to get onto Admirals, in fact the lane that exits at Burnside could be extended backwards through the intersection and then 100 to 200 meters further back.
Going out of town, having Highway #1 three lanes from Saanich road through to 200 meters beyond the lights at Mckenzie would increase capacity and one of the lanes could be an HOV lane, three or more only. This change should reduce the back ups at all the lights right back to Finlayson or even Hillside.
The one problem with this change is that there are only four lanes on the bridges over Burnside. I am not certain there is enough space, but both bridges have sidewalks on them that are not connected to anything and could be made into traffic lanes, the problem is that their might be a need to make the lanes narrower than is normal for a highway and make the bridge stretch officially a 60 km/h zone.
Traffic coming onto Mckenzie faster would cause an increase in problems at the next two intersections. There are some solutions possible there.
Mckenzie and Burnside Road West can be improved through several changes. Going westbound, Mckenzie could easily be made a three lane road all the way through to the bridge over Interurban. Having the extra lane up to the light would allow the storage of more cars and the extra lane after the light would give the space for more traffic to traverse the intersection.
View Larger Map
On Burnside Road West, one important change is to make the eastbound part two lane for some 200 meters before the light. At the light the left turn bay needs to be removed. What I would replace it with is a left turn bay 50 meters to the east of the intersection to allow people to turn left into the lane where people going west currently turn right to access Mckenze in the direction of Admirals. The existing left turn lane is too short and causes backups all the way back to where Burnside and Interurban split.
A third land on Mckenzie towards Admirals also makes sense, though this lane should funnel onto Highway #1.
The next intersection is Mckenzie and Carey Road and I think is one that should be removed. There is very limited demand to go from Mckenzie to Carey or vice versa. The way one would remove the light would be to build a short tunnel for Carey under Mckenzie. You allow a right turn access to Mckenzie westbound from Carey and allow for the return by making the right turn off Mackenzie eastbound to Carey slightly longer so that it can meet Carey at a 90 degree angle and allow for left hand turns into the new tunnel.
For traffic wanting to turn left from Carey onto Mackenzie westbound, I would reroute that traffic via Kenneth onto Glanford. I am 100% certain that people in Kenneth will hate this idea and demand it not happen.
The Glanford and Mckenzie intersection has few options for improvement. The best that I can see happening is three lanes in each direction on Mackenzie coming into the intersection. I would also have larger left turn storage bays on Mackenzie and add left had turn storage bays on Glanford. In ideal world I would make Glanford two lanes north and south bound for 200 to 300 meters after Mckenzie.
Now to go to Highway #1 going into town there is Tillicum and Highway #1. There are some changes that would improve this intersection. Going northbound on Tillicum, one of the two lanes should feed into a left turn lane onto the highway. Right now the limited size of the left turn bay backs up all the traffic and means people miss the light regularly when they did not need to. The majority of the traffic north bound on Tillicum is headed for the highway west bound.
With all these changes, which in my back of the envelope calculaltion could be done for $15 to $25 million, would make a dramatic difference during peak hours and reduce the congestion on the Colwood Crawl dramatically. If one were to only choose a few of the cheaper fixes, there would be significant improvements to traffic.
The intersection is only one part of a road network in the area and it all needs to be considered to have the impact needed to make a difference. Just building a single $30 to $40 million interchange will actually not address many of the problems the area around the intersection is not set up to deal with more traffic.
First change that is needed is for all the lights in the region to be synchronized with real time traffic data. This can be done by having cameras in numerous locations paying attention to the traffic. This data would be fed into a computer which would then develop the most efficient way the lights should operate. We would have more vehicles moving and therefore be able to move the traffic faster. One benefit of this system is that it will change the light patterns as needed and a change in traffic flows would be easily accommodated.
For this to work, I would see the following lights within the network:
- Highway #1 and Mckenzie
- Highway #1 and Tillcum
- Douglas and Saanich Road
- Mckenzie and Burnside Road West
- Mckenzie and Carey
- Mckenzie and Glanford
- Mckenzie and Pat Bay
- Mckenzie and Douglas (this is the light just beyond the Pat Bay overpass)
In an ideal world all the traffic lights in the region would be coordinated through one central computer system. When there is no or low traffic it would be helpful for the system to be able to change lights as needed to allow people to drive with not having to stop.
Changing how the lights work will have a benefit, but far short of what is needed.
Looking at the traffic coming into town, there is a major division of the traffic at Mckenzie/Admirals and Highway #1. A large portion of the traffic turns left from the highway onto Mckenzie. One solution to this is to build a dedicated left turn overpass. A single lane doing this from the highway to Mckenzie would allow for a lot of traffic to continue moving.
Coming into town there could be a longer lane for traffic wanting to get onto Admirals, in fact the lane that exits at Burnside could be extended backwards through the intersection and then 100 to 200 meters further back.
Going out of town, having Highway #1 three lanes from Saanich road through to 200 meters beyond the lights at Mckenzie would increase capacity and one of the lanes could be an HOV lane, three or more only. This change should reduce the back ups at all the lights right back to Finlayson or even Hillside.
The one problem with this change is that there are only four lanes on the bridges over Burnside. I am not certain there is enough space, but both bridges have sidewalks on them that are not connected to anything and could be made into traffic lanes, the problem is that their might be a need to make the lanes narrower than is normal for a highway and make the bridge stretch officially a 60 km/h zone.
Traffic coming onto Mckenzie faster would cause an increase in problems at the next two intersections. There are some solutions possible there.
Mckenzie and Burnside Road West can be improved through several changes. Going westbound, Mckenzie could easily be made a three lane road all the way through to the bridge over Interurban. Having the extra lane up to the light would allow the storage of more cars and the extra lane after the light would give the space for more traffic to traverse the intersection.
View Larger Map
On Burnside Road West, one important change is to make the eastbound part two lane for some 200 meters before the light. At the light the left turn bay needs to be removed. What I would replace it with is a left turn bay 50 meters to the east of the intersection to allow people to turn left into the lane where people going west currently turn right to access Mckenze in the direction of Admirals. The existing left turn lane is too short and causes backups all the way back to where Burnside and Interurban split.
A third land on Mckenzie towards Admirals also makes sense, though this lane should funnel onto Highway #1.
The next intersection is Mckenzie and Carey Road and I think is one that should be removed. There is very limited demand to go from Mckenzie to Carey or vice versa. The way one would remove the light would be to build a short tunnel for Carey under Mckenzie. You allow a right turn access to Mckenzie westbound from Carey and allow for the return by making the right turn off Mackenzie eastbound to Carey slightly longer so that it can meet Carey at a 90 degree angle and allow for left hand turns into the new tunnel.
For traffic wanting to turn left from Carey onto Mackenzie westbound, I would reroute that traffic via Kenneth onto Glanford. I am 100% certain that people in Kenneth will hate this idea and demand it not happen.
The Glanford and Mckenzie intersection has few options for improvement. The best that I can see happening is three lanes in each direction on Mackenzie coming into the intersection. I would also have larger left turn storage bays on Mackenzie and add left had turn storage bays on Glanford. In ideal world I would make Glanford two lanes north and south bound for 200 to 300 meters after Mckenzie.
Now to go to Highway #1 going into town there is Tillicum and Highway #1. There are some changes that would improve this intersection. Going northbound on Tillicum, one of the two lanes should feed into a left turn lane onto the highway. Right now the limited size of the left turn bay backs up all the traffic and means people miss the light regularly when they did not need to. The majority of the traffic north bound on Tillicum is headed for the highway west bound.
With all these changes, which in my back of the envelope calculaltion could be done for $15 to $25 million, would make a dramatic difference during peak hours and reduce the congestion on the Colwood Crawl dramatically. If one were to only choose a few of the cheaper fixes, there would be significant improvements to traffic.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Tattersall is finally going to get an upgrade
Tattersall has been rough road that does not meet the needs of this region. It has been patched over and over again, it has a hardpacked and dusty parking lane on the north side which is not a nice place to walk or cycle. It sounds like Saanich is going to finally go ahead with the upgrade to the street.
The plans to do something have been on the table for more than six years now, though I am not sure how much $3.2 million will get you other than nice pavement. It sounds like there will be more sidewalks, but I am not certain they will be proper ones and on both sides.
The street would benefit from being made a four lane street, but given the move against lanes for traffic around the region, I highly doubt this improvement will come.
One thing I hope would come of this is an improvement to Cecilia Creek. There is a short surface stretch right at Tattersall, it would be nice to improve access to the creek and maybe even consider taking the creek out of the pipe and make some form of bridge.
The plans to do something have been on the table for more than six years now, though I am not sure how much $3.2 million will get you other than nice pavement. It sounds like there will be more sidewalks, but I am not certain they will be proper ones and on both sides.
The street would benefit from being made a four lane street, but given the move against lanes for traffic around the region, I highly doubt this improvement will come.
One thing I hope would come of this is an improvement to Cecilia Creek. There is a short surface stretch right at Tattersall, it would be nice to improve access to the creek and maybe even consider taking the creek out of the pipe and make some form of bridge.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Oak Bay Gordon Head Recall with four weeks left
According to an article in the News Group the recall efforts are stalling out. With 25 days to go the campaign is still at least 8000 signatures out from where they need to be. Latest news from the campaign had them still under 7000 signatures.
This means the number of signatures needed from this point onwards is 320 a day but they have managed only about 200 per day to date. This masks the fact that in the first two weeks they managed about 60% of their signatures to date in the first 14 days and only 40% in the next 21 days.
Based on the results to date, 10,000 signatures looks like it will be the maximum amount they will achieve, a long way from the close to 16,000 they need.
This means the number of signatures needed from this point onwards is 320 a day but they have managed only about 200 per day to date. This masks the fact that in the first two weeks they managed about 60% of their signatures to date in the first 14 days and only 40% in the next 21 days.
Based on the results to date, 10,000 signatures looks like it will be the maximum amount they will achieve, a long way from the close to 16,000 they need.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
December Real Estate Sales
The Victoria Real Estate Board MLS stats are out for December. The news is mixed.
The prices show a spike upwards for single family houses but a large drop for condos. The median price for houses rose dramatically, which means the bottom end of the market is moving less than the top end of the market. The relatively low number of sales in December means the data can be moved a lot be a few sales.
Overall the sales volumes for December were low for December. In the last seven years one would normally expect 195 sales of single family homes in December, last December it was 162 or 83% of an average year.
11.1% of the single family homes sold in the region in December sold in Oak Bay, in November this was 4.3% of all single family home sales. Of the total value of sales, Oak Bay was 16.5% in December and 5.2% in November. This means that Oak Bay was a much bigger factor in Decembers numbers than it normally is. Factoring out Oak Bay in December reduces the average price to $607,500, a drop of close to $40,000. Doing the same in November has a much smaller impact with the average going from $636,600 to $632,800. Factoring out the Oak Bay numbers means the region had an almost 5% drop in prices in December for single family homes.
Even with the low number of sales, twice as many properties came onto the market as sold. The December 2010 inventory is just under 3300, about 750 more than December 2009. This is the second highest inventory for a December in the last decade. Total sales in 2010 were below 2009 and 2008 numbers.
All in all there is no evidence I can see of a crash in the market, but on the other hand there is nothing in the numbers that tell me I should be optimistic about prices in 2011
The prices show a spike upwards for single family houses but a large drop for condos. The median price for houses rose dramatically, which means the bottom end of the market is moving less than the top end of the market. The relatively low number of sales in December means the data can be moved a lot be a few sales.
Overall the sales volumes for December were low for December. In the last seven years one would normally expect 195 sales of single family homes in December, last December it was 162 or 83% of an average year.
11.1% of the single family homes sold in the region in December sold in Oak Bay, in November this was 4.3% of all single family home sales. Of the total value of sales, Oak Bay was 16.5% in December and 5.2% in November. This means that Oak Bay was a much bigger factor in Decembers numbers than it normally is. Factoring out Oak Bay in December reduces the average price to $607,500, a drop of close to $40,000. Doing the same in November has a much smaller impact with the average going from $636,600 to $632,800. Factoring out the Oak Bay numbers means the region had an almost 5% drop in prices in December for single family homes.
Even with the low number of sales, twice as many properties came onto the market as sold. The December 2010 inventory is just under 3300, about 750 more than December 2009. This is the second highest inventory for a December in the last decade. Total sales in 2010 were below 2009 and 2008 numbers.
All in all there is no evidence I can see of a crash in the market, but on the other hand there is nothing in the numbers that tell me I should be optimistic about prices in 2011
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