Roads to Fix with Asphalt Overlay or Complete Resurface:
- Wembly Place – Mill and Paved planned for 2021
- Fleet St. – Mill and Pave new asphalt planned for 2021
- Lancaster Dr. around the bend – It was fibre reinforced and an overlay done in 2019
- Newhall Dr. – Mill and Paved the centre line in 2019
- Parkland Dr. – Double surface treatment done in 2020. It had culvert replacement and drainage improvements in 2019
- Clarke Road – Mill and Pave new asphalt in 2021 from the Kingston boundary to Princess St.
- Lincoln Dr. – Mill and Pave new asphalt in 2020 from Forest Hill Drive to Hudson Dr. After Graceland subdivision is built out, new asphalt on the rest of Lincoln Dr. can be put in the queue
- Taylor-Kidd from Mona Drive to Gardiners Road – Micro-surfaced in 2020
- Carnaby St. – Half of it was Mill and Paved in 2019. The other half has been completed in 2021
- Waverley Cr. – Rated to be in very poor condition in 2020. It currently supports a transit route, also would require that the underground water and sewer system health is evaluated prior to developing an appropriate rehabilitation strategy
- Meadowood Road – Rated to be in very poor condition in 2020 and Utilities Kingston and Transportation Services will be giving it further review.
- Woodside Drive – Bell Hi-Speed Fiber was installed in 2019. Rated to be in poor condition in 2020. Requires additional review with Transportation as it currently supports a transit route, also would require that the underground water and sewer system health is evaluated prior to developing an appropriate rehabilitation strategy. Utilities Kingston and Transportation Services will be giving it further review.
New Sidewalks
- Wise St. (east half) – planned for 2022
- South side Taylor-Kidd Blvd from Collins Bay Road to Mona Drive – date in 2022
- Collins Bay Road – west side from Taylor-Kidd to Aylmer Cr. – date in 2021 or 2022
- Bath Road from Coronation Blvd to Collins Creek – Completed. This sidewalk cost the city $300,000 and it was built by the Ministry of Transportation.
Update: The city conducted a road evaluation of the entire road system in Kingston in 2019. City Staff presented the results of the road evaluation as well as the prioritization for 2021 this past September. The city spent $6 million on roads in 2019 and has plans to spend $7 million in 2020. The road system will be evaluated now on an annual basis.
Future of the Speed Humps on Mona Drive:
- Residents in 2018 have asked if the number of speed humps on Mona Dr. could be reduced. Emergency services have told me that there are too many in succession and it makes a ride on a stretcher very bouncy
- Resident in 2020 asked if there could be a stop sign put at Rockwood and Mona Dr. as the sidewalk crosses over Mona Dr. at that point
- What is your opinion? Please send me your opinion to losanic@cityofkingston.ca
The Streets Requested for Future Traffic Calming:
- Hudson Drive between Mona and Lincoln
- Old Colony Road bend – submitted in 2019
- Carmil Blvd
- Wise St. bend along the older road
- Lincoln Drive – redo it between Bayridge to Truman
- Westbrook Road between Princess and Woodbine – submitted in 2018
- Chancery St. – submitted in 2018
The Ranking of the District Streets analyzed for Traffic Calming in the Past…
Only the top 6 streets go ahead for speed humps, road narrowing, or bollards. Councillors submit two streets for analysis each year. Streets can move up the ranking as the top streets get speed humps and fall off the list. A street must have approx 1000 vehicles per day before being considered for implementation. After being analysed in past years, the below streets have ranked as:
Rank #12 – Woodbine Road west of Collins Bay Road
Rank #17 – Mona Drive (Taylor-Kidd to Hudson Drive)
Rank #25 – Old Colony Road (Lancaster to Bayridge)
Rank #26 – Prince Charles Drive
Rank #31 – Milford Drive (Lancaster to Bayridge)
Rank #34 – Lincoln Drive (Bayridge to Tacoma)
Rank #37 – Aylmer Cr. (North Leg curve to Taylor-Kidd)
Rank #38 – Aylmer Cr. (Willis to Clarke)
Rank #51 – Waverley Cr. (Edwin St. to Aylmer Cr.)
Rank #53 – Safari Drive (Beagle to Heron)
Transit:
- The 501/502 Bayridge Drive Express is running every 15 minutes this fall 2020. Capacity is not yet at levels pre-COVID-19 to warrant every 10 minutes.
- New Park & Ride location for the 501/502 Express Bus along Bayridge Drive – park at the Jim Beattie Park on Henderson Blvd. It is closer than the Centre 70 Park & Ride.
- If you notice that Jim Beattie is getting full too, please let me know
- If Jim Beattie starts to fill up, then the next park to be used as a Park & Ride will be Bayridge Park
- A new bus route will be opening up through Woodhaven subdivision/Woodhaven Drive/Cataraqui Woods Drive in the fall of 2022 (delayed a year due to COVID-19). This may offer closer bus stops for those residents living north of Woodbine Road and along Princess St. Stay tuned for the route details when the route has been finalized by staff in 2021
- Why doesn’t the city use smaller buses for the feeder routes?
People comment that they see big city buses on the feeder routes with few riders. Several years ago, the city purchased smaller buses to be used on the feeder routes. Unfortunately, the smaller buses broke down more often and it became too expensive to continue their use. There were periods of the day where Route 15 had insufficient seating capacity. The smaller buses only have a seating capacity of 18 seats and given the design of the bus with narrow aisles and limited hand rails additional passengers could not safely stand on the bus. A large bus has twice as many seats plus additional room for standing. The city had problems with vehicle reliability. The smaller buses were not durable enough to provide relialbe service. The frames of the vehicles had to be repaired on an ongoing basis, the vehicle exhaust system would get “clogged” because the bus travels at low speeds, and transmissions had to be replaced prematurely. There were many days where none of the small buses in our fleet were available for service because of unexpected, unplanned maintenance issues. Essentially, the buses are not engineered to operate as conventional transit buses. The average life expectancy of a small bus based on our experience is 5 – 6 years. The average life expectancy of a large bus based on our experience is 12 – 15 years. A large bus will typically last 2.5 times longer than a small bus. The purchase price of a small bus is approx. $225K. The purchase price of a large bus is approx. $575K. Although the initial capital cost of a small bus is lower, the small. bus needs to be replaced 2.5 times compared to a large bus over the same period resulting in nearly identical capital costs. Bus Operator Health and Safety: The city experienced higher incidents of bus operator injuries related to the driver seats on the small buses. The bus operator seats on the large buses are “air ride” and have several adjustments to provide the most optimum seating position customized to each bus operator. Unfortunately, this same type of seat was not available on the small buses mostly due to the size of the seat and the space in the driver cabin area. This held true for other municipalities in Ontario as well other provinces.
Active Transportation:
- The Active Transportation Master Plan states that future bike lanes need to be created along Taylor-Kidd Blvd, Upper Princess St., and Collins Bay Road. Dates are to be determined. I will update this issue with dates
- A request for a foot bridge over High Gate Creek from Centre St. to Prince Charles Drive has been sent to staff. However, since the bridge is would be in the woods and there isn’t a hard surface path through the woods between the two streets and no path that could be maintained over the winter months, it is unlikely that a bridge could be prioritized high on the list
Traffic Light Requests:
- A traffic light was requested for Woodbine Road and Collins Bay Road. I heard that loud and clear during the election. The volume of traffic on Collins Bay Road has more than doubled since the Cataraqui Woods Drive extension was opened up. The problem is the way that the intersection meets – it is not a straight t-intersection. It would have to be realigned to a be “t” and meet at right angles.. That makes the intersection very expensive to install a traffic light. City staff quoted $1 million. A traffic circle was also considered. Due to the volume of traffic on Collins Bay Road, the traffic circle would have to be very wide and that would need filling in the west side of Collins Bay Road which has a steep drop off hill on the north and south sides. That infill would take years for the fill to settle and it also puts up the construction costs to the same $1 million range as traffic lights. A resident asked if a left hand turn lane could be built on Collins Bay Road to turn onto Woodbine Road, especially in the southbound direction. Staff tried to find funding for it in the infrastructure plan and so far, pre-COVID-19, there wasn’t the funding. I regret to provide you with this information that there isn’t the funding to provide a good solution for this intersection.
- Should traffic lights be installed at Woodbine and Collins Bay Road one day, the lull in traffic in between light changes should help drivers turn onto Collins Bay Road from Humberside Drive and also drivers from Safari Drive exiting Ridgewood
- There is also a request to do a new traffic analysis for traffic lights at Edwin/Prince Charles and Collins Bay Road
What to do with Bayridge Drive at Woodbine Road:
- Drivers are continuing to have a difficult time turning left from Woodbine to go north on Bayridge Drive
Options that have been explored: Can the city close the right hand out of the Esso/Tim Hortons? No, the city is not allowed to make Esson/Tim Horton’s close their right hand turn out of the gas station. Can the city buy an easement across a business from Woodbine Road to Princess St.? No, the city cannot make the private landowner give the city an easement thruogh through their lot. Can a 3 way stop sign be added so that cars can freely travel south, but cars going north have a stop sign as does the Woodbine Road traffic? This would be similar to the former Sears entrance to the Cataraqui Mall. No, this was deemed to be too confusing for drivers because there is such heavy traffic up and down Bayridge Drive. A driver could get mixed up and go through the intersection causing an accident. A stop sign is not meant for an arterial road such as the volume of traffic seen on Bayridge Drive. Can the city put in a traffic circle there? I would have preferred this solution. However, the width of such a traffic circle needed to allow the volume of traffic flow through would be very large and it would encroach (and even engulf) on all 4 properties at that corner. There just isn’t the space to build such a wide traffic circle. Can there be traffic lights put at Woodbine and Bayridge Drive? No, because it would back traffic up at Princess St. and Bayridge Drive. The intersections are too close together. Woodbine Road was originally a small dirt farm road running parallel to the main road being Princess St. Bayridge Drive was originally built to never pass over Woodbine Road and go as far north as Princess St. many, many years ago. When Bayridge Drive was extended past Woodbine Road (and now up to Creekford Road), that is when the problems began. What is left to still explore? If traffic gets worse, the left hand turn lane to go onto Bayridge Drive can be permanently closed. However, during very light, non-peak times, this may not be fair to motorists. The city is trying to apply for funding of a possible transit way corridor on Bayridge Drive from Princess St. to Old Colony Road. That means that this small section may be 4 lanes, 1 lane in each direction being dedicated for transit buses. There would no longer be traffic backups due to the buses. On non-peak times, cars could possibly use the transit lane. That would help alleviate the congestion and make it easier to turn left. It is pending funding and with COVID-19, there may no longer be the funding available.
The below streets were submitted to the new Police Chief in 2019, based on feedback during the election, to the Kingston Police Force for more speed enforcement:
- Coronation Blvd
- Collins Bay Road
- Outer Princess St. Highway #2 to Collins Bay Road
- Hudson Drive at Tacoma Cr.
- Taylor-Kidd Blvd from Mona to the outer city
- Bayridge Drive near Lincoln Drive
Requests for Water Pressure Testing was submitted to Utilities Kingston for:
- Truman Drive
- Hudson Drive near Tacoma Cr.
- Tacoma Cr.
- Limestone Drive
- I contacted Utilities Kingston about the water pressure at these sites and UK reported that the water pressure is within the normal range for the area
Requests for a Street Light – stronger light bulbs or an additional light – was submitted to Utilities Kingston for:
- Westbrook Road and Woodbine Road
- Old Hillview Road at the very end
- Maple Ridge Drive in Elmwood
- Rick Hanson Cr.
- Meadowood Road
- I contacted Utilities Kingston if the above 5 streets could have a street light. Utilities Kingston evaluated each site and concluded that an extra street light was not warranted
Lancaster and Mother Teresa Elementary Schools – The school boards did extensive work on Lancaster Drive to try to improve the flow of traffic around the two schools. Please provide any feedback to me about how it has been working. I hope that parents have noticed an improvement.
Bayridge Park – A new fence was installed in Bayridge Park at the baseball diamond and in the park in 2020
Woodbine Park – The stadium lights at Woodbine Park are supposed to be shut off either manually by the last coach to leave for the night or through an automatic timer after 11pm. Residents have noticed at times that the lights stay on well past 11pm. If you find that the lights are on past 11pm, please send an email to the city contactus@cityofkingston.ca to make them aware and Parks staff will investigate it the next day. Thank you.
Ridgewood Estates Two Entrances on Safari Drive – The stone work could not be completed in time last year before winter. When COVID-19 allows regular work to resume, the city will be finishing the stone work of the entranceway. Last fall, public works forestry trimmed the bushes at the entranceway as well.
CN Telegraph Poles along the CNR train tracks – Rather Crooked – Let’s keep the pressure on CN to fix those unsightly poles leaning over all along Bath Road from Collins Bay Road to McEwen Drive as being the worst stretch. The Manager of Public Affairs is our contact and he is at: Daniel Salvatore Daniel.Salvatore@cn.ca