Notes from COMMUNITY meeting on Tweedsmuir.

Monday June 7th at 532 Tweedsmuir.

About 30 residents attended the meeting.

After considerable discussion and exploration of issues and concerns and options, there was
overwhelming agreement on the following points:

The character of the street must be preserved.

Preserving the RESIDENTIAL character

1. Tweedsmuir must be designed so that it functions as a residential street.

2. Priority must be placed on reducing the problems caused by traffic

a. because the current use by vehicles causes conflicts with pedestrians and

b. because the current use by traffic is incompatible with the residential designation
of the street.

3. Steps must be taken to keep the cut-through traffic off the street.

4. Steps must be taken to keep the speed of the traffic down.

5. No greenery is to be lost.

6. No trees are to be removed.

7. No driveways are to be shortened.

Keeping cut-through traffic out and keeping speeds down

8. Physical changes must be made at Byron and at Clare to discourage cut-through

traffic.

9. Physical changes must be made along the length of the block to discourage fast
traffic.

Steps to be taken along the roadway

10. The street must be narrowed to discourage cut-through traffic.

 11. The street must be narrowed so as to reduce traffic speed.

12. The street should be made 5.1 metres wide - the same width as Highland and Picadilly,
two other RESIDENTIAL streets in the neighbourhood.

13. Additional steps must be taken as required to ensure that everyone can easily enter and
exit their driveways.

14. Narrowing the road will have additional benefits in dealing with snow. A narrower
road means that less snow is put into the snow banks from the road. It also means that
more space is left at the side of the road to pile the snow.

When the traffic problems are dealt with, a sidewalk is not needed.

15. With the narrowing of the roadway, and with effective steps being taken to discourage
cut-through traffic and fast driving, no sidewalk is required.

Summer problems

16. Sidewalks add to traffic volume and speed problems in summer – thus undermining
the RESIDENTIAL character of the street.

17. Sidewalks increase conflicts between cut-through traffic and cyclists, skateboarders
and children in summer.

Winter problems

18. Sidewalks create snow removal and access problems in winter and so they should not
be installed.

19. Sidewalks increase conflicts between cut-through traffic and pedestrians and seniors in
winter, and so they should not be installed.

20. Sidewalks increase the cost of road maintenance in the winter, and so they should not be
installed.

21. We can not expect the City to provide a higher quality of snow removal services on
Tweedsmuir than it provides on other streets.

A SIDEWALK IS NOT WANTED.

22. A sidewalk would dramatically change the character of the street – by removing
greenery, removing trees, increasing the amount of pavement, and changing the character
of the street.

a. The character of the street is what attracted residents to the street,

 b. The character of the street is consistent with the character of the
neighbourhood,
c. The character of the street is consistent with the residential designation of the
street, and

23. The character of the street must be preserved.

Enforcement strategies won’t work

24. We can not rely on the enforcement of rules as a means of keeping the through-traffic
out and keeping traffic speeds down.

Priority for preserving our street – and our safety

25. Priority must be placed on making physical changes to the street:

a. to discourage cut-through traffic and

b. to keep traffic speeds down.