Newmarket keeping status quo on Woodspring bike lanes, parking spaces

Yorkregion.com
June 17, 2016
By Chris Simon

Lisa Pena-Sabanal is feeling rejected by the Town of Newmarket.

The Woodspring Avenue resident recently developed a community survey to help determine whether on-street parking was needed along a section of the road, between Bonshaw Avenue and the town border with East Gwillimbury. She knocked on 55 doors in the area and found many of her neighbours wanted access to on-street parking on one side of the road, while also keeping the bike lanes that run along it intact.

Unfortunately, when Pena-Sabanal handed the survey to the town, it was declared invalid because 13 of the participating households lived outside the affected area.

“The request is not to remove bicycle lanes,” she said, in a deputation to council recently. “The request is to simply have some access to on-street parking. The survey identified the option of having 14 spots, however, even having eight spots would have sufficed. The petition proved that many residents wanted on-street parking ... that was complimentary to the bicycle lanes. I hope the results of the survey will be reconsidered.”

Not likely, says the town.

Last week, council endorsed a plan to keep the status quo along the road. Council based its decision on the results of a similar survey conducted by town staff after Pena-Sabanal’s was completed. The town survey was also sent out to 55 homes. However, the town appears to have struggled with validity and accuracy even more on its own study.

Under town guidelines, responses to municipally held surveys must be submitted using an accompanying return envelope. The town received 27 responses via that channel, but it claims the survey was compromised because 24 responses were submitted through a bulk email - some of them duplicates. One home even responded with two different answers.

Staff says sending out a third survey would be too cumbersome.

“As a result, staff could not verify the integrity of the responses received to the survey, nor could they clearly determine what the majority truly wanted,” town engineering services director Rachel Prudhomme said.

“The survey was, therefore, declared compromised and rendered void. Since a clear majority could not be ascertained from the survey, and because it would be onerous to send out a third survey to the same group of individuals, it is recommended that the pavement markings remain ‘as is’. Although the proposed east side parking option that was offered in the survey is physically possible to implement, it does cause safety concerns for pedestrians and motorists alike.”

However, Pena-Sabanal says the town survey lacked inclusiveness and failed to meet some basic accessibility standards. It also failed to clearly state that each household would get one vote. So the town’s inability to conduct a survey is no excuse to ignore the issue.

“To declare this entire process as being ‘compromised and rendered void’ clearly negates the 27 responses the town directly received from the community in what was described as the proper and prescribed fashion,” she said.

The municipality acknowledges there were issues with the town survey - part of council’s recommendation includes a call to improve community consultation on traffic, parking and bike lane issues in the future.

“As a result of this survey experience, staff noted that the methods used for public consultation on traffic matters could be improved,” Prudhomme said.

However, others are pleased by the decision.

“The communication the town provided was perfectly adequate,” resident Donald Matthews said, addressing councillors. “I had no problem understanding it. Taxpayers can make suggestions, but it’s got to be the engineering department that makes these final decisions. Safety is the (primary) factor. What is being proposed (on-street parking) is going to reduce the safety. The town will become liable if somebody is hurt or killed.”

Newmarket Eagles cycling club member Robert Spencer hoped the width of the existing cycling lanes would be expanded. Woodspring is quite wide, but the bike lane only has a width of 1.2 metres. He says that should be expanded to 1.9 m.

“One could easily do 100 kilometres an hour if one so wished,” he said of motorists. “The lanes are too wide. The bike lanes are way too narrow.”

Removing existing street markings and repainting would have cost the municipality about $15,000 to $20,000. The markings were initially paid for by the subdivision developers.