- The Oak Street entrance road to the mall has little storage for cars waiting for the light, it will back up into the parkade
- The street level parking will be constantly clogged as people in Victoria try to always park on the surface
- The left turn bay from Saanich Road into the mall is much., much too small to handle the traffic wanting in.
- The access to the upper level is too close to the intersection of Blanshard and Saanich
- The underground parking is set up in such a way to almost ensure traffic problems
There are more problems and I can not see how they can be remedied. The problems arise from core problems in the design of the traffic flow.
From the August 10 issue of the Saanich News
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Traffic snarls at Uptown point to mistake made during approvement process, councillor says
Published: August 10, 2010 1:00 PM
Updated: August 10, 2010 3:48 PM
Saanich council made a big mistake last year by not requesting financial return on a parking variance at the Uptown development that could've been worth upwards of $4.5 million, councillor Vic Derman said.
The error could lead, literally, to troubles down the road.
Though the councillor has only biked, not driven, to the new shopping centre, he said he's seen traffic congesting along Saanich Road where shoppers enter the newly-opened underground parking lot. “That $4.5 million could've been used to address some of the issues that might be appearing now,” Derman said referring to the back-ups and Uptown’s need for traffic control people.
“It will evolve,” said Uptown general manager Roberta Ferguson. “Right now we ask people to be patient with us, because we’re not even finished with phase one.”
However, the traffic control people will be a regular sight at Uptown for the foreseeable future, she said. “I think eventually people will understand the site and we won’t need to have as much traffic help out there, but they’ll be there to help people get comfortable with where they need to go.”
But Derman, who in early 2009 asked that council consider financial return for parking that could help alleviate traffic, said he wants to see a longer-term transportation plan for Uptown that includes more bike racks and public transit.
“There's a whole pile of things (Uptown) can do to try to encourage alternatives where you didn't have to arrive by your car, but I'm not sure that got through to them,” Derman said. “So if we find the vast majority of people are going there in single occupancy vehicles, we could have some real issues there.”
Ferguson said Uptown will begin to roll out a transportation demand management program, that will include the promotion of public transit, bikes and car sharing, in the fall.
kslavin@saanichnews.com
2 comments:
Thanks for this post, and your insightful comments on town planning in general, I find your blog to be a very useful resource.
This place is an eyesore, and I seriously question the judgment of the people who approved this development without consideration of traffic, or aesthetics, or its impact on Victoria. I pass this mall every day on Blanshard on my way to/from work, and from the bus eye level, the lack of imagination in its design is appalling. It is at the entrance of town, why did the councillors not insist on a walk/bike/transit friendly design? Why so much overground parking, wasted space in an area that has not too much real estate? Why that horrible backside view one gets from Blanshard (the first introduction of Victoria to many visitors)? I could go on and on.
One quick suggestion is to make the overground parking a premium/valet parking, which will drive people to the preferred underground parking. But given the roars of complaints from people (who will gladly spend 2000 bucks on a TV) when asked to part with a buck or two for parking, I don't think any private entity would take such an enlightened step to mitigate the obvious externalities its presence at the entrance of our town creates.
Of course, all of these issues affect Victoria as much as Saanich, especially the traffic, but thanks to our little fiefdoms and fragmented decision making, we can look forward to more poorly planned box store complexes like this ruining our area.
Dealing with a neighbourhood park issue with Saanich, I suggested to Saanich council too that Mackenzie is going to become an absolute mess as the mall will attract major traffic from east Saanich. Mackenzie is already overcapacity and this will worsen the problem.
I also foresee problems with the eventual enclosed square. Experience with Market Square and Centennial Square in Victoria suggest that these places become 'dead' zones frequented by undesirables for the most part.
And don't get me started on the numerous Walmart carts that are already showing up in local neighbourhoods and along bike trails. Why oh why didn't they adopt a deposit system or some other means of keeping the carts on site? :(
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