1979-05-21 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Public Hearing re: Closing of a portion of Rugby Road The Mayor closed the public hearing and thanked everyone who came and spoke. A public hearing was als0~ held on this date for the purpose of hearing comments from the public with regards to whether or not the partial closing of a portion of lower Rugby Road should be made permanent. Mr. John Greene, Director of Public Works stated that on October 18, 1978 the north end of Rugby Road was blocked to all traffic from west bound By-pass and south bound Hydraulic Road for a six months trial period. Traffic counts were taken before the trial period started and also during the closing. He stated that the survey shows that traffic for a twelve hour period on Rugby Road has decreased by 600 vehicles and the corresponding increase on Dairy Road was just under 100 vehicles. He stated that as a result of the closing it was found that alot of the traffic went somewhere else, since there was a net decrease of traffic in and through the neighborhoods. Mr. Paul Saunier of Rugby Road addressed the Council in support of the permanent closing of the south bound lane of Rugby Road. He pointed out that during the experimental period accidents have dr~pped from 14 to 2 ina six month period. A number of people addressed the Council, some in favor of the permanent closing and some in opposition. Mr. Peter Wyeth addressed the Council and stated that the closing of the lower part of Rugby Road while being extremely beneficial to those residents has left unsolved and has actually contributed to the terrible traffic problem for all of Dairy Road and upper Rugby Road as well~ He requested that City Council look at the whole pr.oblem and not just a part of it in order to do what is fair for everybody. He stated that the proposal to close 1.o~er Rugby must be combined with a proposal that will satisfy the residents of Dairy Road. He proposed that the experimental phase of the closing of lower Rugby be continued and no permanent structure be placed until such time as additional solutions are worked out to the satisfaction of all the residents of the area. He suggested that Council table this issue until the residents of Dairy Road can meet and workout with City Traffic Engineers some additional solutions to the traffic problems. He suggested that this could be accomplished by the fall. Mr. Albro asked if the two l~ft lanes off of Hydraulic Road could be continued if Rugby were,opened to south bound traffic and Mr. Greene answered that he believes they could be. Mr. Buck stated that after hearing the comments of the neighbor- hood he was incline to favor the closing of Rugby Road to south ba.und traffic. He suggested that action be deferred to give the ,n~ighborhood an opportunity to try to work out a solution.