Lynwood Avenue has seen an influx of traffic since the College/Edinburgh intersection closed and residents are worried about community safety
A oncequiet residential street has become a traffic nightmare after main road closures due to construction.
Lynwood Avenuehas no sidewalks or crosswalks. The many kids who live on the street typically play road hockey and basketball, or rollerblade down the winding road.
But since a section of College Avenue West and the intersection at Edinburgh Road South closed on May 21 for the installation of underground infrastructure and protected cycling infrastructure, the road has been flooded with traffic, with a constant flow of cars,city buses and larger vehicles like propane tankers.
During the morning and evening rush hour, and when three nearby schools are starting and ending, it can be bumper-to-bumper traffic on the street.
“Now, it's challenging just even to walk to school because there are no sidewalks, there are no crosswalks,” said Lynwood resident Arlene, who wished to only use her first name.
“It’s literally bumper to bumper,” she said of the traffic. “It is not safe for all the kids on the street and it's and it's not really fair that they've gone from being able to play in the street to not even being able to safely walk to school.
“But even beyond just my kids, we have a few elderly people on our road. It's not safe for them to walk. We have a lot of joggers that go through here. A lot of dog walkers. It's just really turned a residential street into a main roadway,” she said.
Lynwood is an official detour for bicycles, pedestrians and four transit routes; all other motorists are expected to steer clear, instead taking main arteries like Wellington Street West, Stone Road West, Gordon Street and the Hanlon to get around.
There are orange bicycle detour signs along the street, which some residents fear are confusing drivers. Traffic calming measures have also been installed in the form of three side-by-side speed cushions in the middle of the street.
These were intended to encourage people to stay on detour routes, and slow driving for those who do go down Lynwood, said Paul Hutchinson, supervisor of traffic engineering with the city,
Hutchinson said staff have heard a number of complaintsfromresidents since the intersection closed on May 21.
“We encourage all residents that do not reside on these local roadways to use the posted detour routes,” he said. “That’s what we would expect and hope for.”
Hutchinson said the traffic team is monitoring activity on Lynwood and surrounding roadways, but that it takes time for drivers to adjust their behaviours “when two major roadways that intersect close for a significant period of time,” and that it’s not uncommon for people to drive up to the road closure to see if it is in fact closed.
“So we’re hopeful that over the next little while, people do adhere to the detour routes and adjust their behaviour,” he said.
Ward 5 councillors Cathy Downer and Leanne Caron said they received an email from a resident earlier this week with concerns about traffic, u-turns and speeding.
“This street is only meant as a detour for pedestrians, cyclists and transit. Hopefully, once drivers who have missed all the signage and notices realize the intersection is closed and Lynwood is not a shortcut, it will get better. However, there are no sidewalks on Lynwood, so this creates an additional concern,” Downer said in an email.
“Our traffic staff have worked to avoid this, and with enforcement and traffic calming measures, the intent is that the short-cutting is short-lived,” Caron said. “Residents cannot handle three months of cut-through traffic.”
But residents fear the speed cushions are not enough to prevent a collision.
Of note, there are several schools nearby.
Before the closure, some nearby residents would already use Lynwood as a shortcut, giving the street a boost in traffic before and after school.
“Now, it's just crazy,” resident Alex Somos said. “It's literally bumper to bumper from eight in the morning until 10 a.m. We don't have sidewalks. Walking along here, from a safety point of view, is quite challenging.”
Somos said he’s thankful for the speed cushion that was placed in the middle of the stretch of road, but thinks there should be more – one on either end of the street.
“People are accelerating at a rapid rate. There’s lots of kids here, I’m afraid something terrible could happen. It’s very concerning.”
He said the noise is “confounding,” since the street is normally “very quiet.”
Somos said he loves bikes and believes in bike lanes, but thinks it should have been done slowly over time rather than closing “one of the main arteries of Guelph” for three months.
“I don't think the city thought this well at all,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like they actually thought about the residents very much.”
Jamie Tatham said he’s had a hard time backing out of his driveway, and that service people like postal workers are having a difficult time getting around.
“I'm being inconvenienced and all my friends are outraged,” he said. “It's a bad situation, but I don't know if it could be alleviated in any way.”
John Gruzleski thinks people will drive down Lynwood no matter what, and that when nearby roads are closed, Lynwood is typically flooded with traffic – but never for this long a stretch.
“It’s particularly bad this time of year and will be until the end of June because of all the schools,” he said.
“That being said, I don’t really know what the city can do. They can’t change the bus routes without essentially knocking out a huge number of people who would normally take the buses. I don’t know how they can prevent people from driving on this road.”
He and others said they don’t want traffic to be diverted tootherresidential streets either, for fear of putting other children and pedestrians at risk.
Several residents suggested the bike detour signs are confusing, and said they wanted additional speed cushions and an officer directing traffic before and after school when the traffic is heaviest.
Hutchinson said the bicycle detour signage “is quite clear” and in line with the Ontario Traffic Manual guidance.
“So I don’t think it’s the detour signs for the bicycle routes that are causing the problem, I think it’s more traffic in general choosing to use these roadways.”
It’s unlikely the street will see more speed cushions added either.
Due to accessibility concerns with having too many speed cushions on one section of roadway, he said the speed cushions “have been implemented in the fashion that we were able to.”
However, he did say the project team is considering having a police officer present when schools are getting in and out.
