SaltWire E-Edition

Spring Garden Road now transit-only

NICOLE MUNRO nmunro@herald.ca @Nicole__munro

It was business as usual on Spring Garden Road on Monday morning.

As people drove their vehicles along the downtown Halifax street, it was clear they either didn’t know about the pilot project that had just come into effect — or didn’t care.

As of Monday, Spring Garden Road from Queen Street to South Park Street is open only to buses, cyclists and pedestrians from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

But on the first day of the pilot project set to prioritize pedestrians and public transit, things didn’t go according to plan.

Drivers made their way down the street, driving past signs of a prohibition sign over an arrow, indicating the street is closed, with the listed exceptions.

Unlike Argyle Street, which closes to all vehicle traffic throughout the summer, there are no barriers to prevent drivers from going down Spring Garden Road.

That was until Halifax Regional Police officers showed up just after 10 a.m.

Officers stopped drivers as they made their way along the closed section, handing them a double-sided card with instructions as provided by the municipality.

Elora Wilkinson, an HRM principal planner of urban design, said the change for

drivers isn’t going to happen overnight.

“This is a substantial change to how the street works and it’s going to take some time for everyone to understand the new rules and adjust their new activities and how they get around in the area,” Wilkinson said in an interview Monday.

“We really want to take some time to help people learn what those new rules are since it’s such a large change.”

The transit-priority corridor — a first for Halifax — will be assessed in six months and again in a year’s time, when the pilot project wraps up.

Drivers will be able to cross Spring Garden Road southbound on Birmingham Street, northbound on Dresden Row and travel northbound on Brenton Street. Clyde Street will be converted to two-way, between South Park and Brenton streets.

Wilkinson said police officers will be stationed at the intersection of Queen Street and Spring Garden Road, as well as the South Park Street and Spring Garden Road intersection for the next week weeks to direct traffic and inform drivers of the new rules in place.

“After a few weeks, then we’ll begin with some of the more formal enforcement like ticketing and that sort of thing,” she said.

Failing to obey a traffic sign results in a $180 fine.

Aside from the road signs, Wilkinson said the municipality intends to put up banners on signposts and an overhead banner to let people know about the road restrictions, but barriers aren’t in the future.

“This is a hard one to enforce and communicate because we have 800 buses along Spring Garden Road in a single day, so ... because there are so many buses coming every few seconds, it would be hard to have any physical block,” Wilkinson explained.

“Anything that restricts a vehicle would restrict a bus, so that does make this a little bit more difficult because we can’t just simply put a gate up.”

Wilkinson said HRM is looking into other tools that could help with enforcement, such as a red light camera ticket, but they are not available in Halifax as of yet.

“We’re trying to get a little bit creative. It’s going to be an evolving process as well. This is a new type of street that we have to enforce, with new rules, so we’re trying what we think may work right now and as we see how things are working, we may make adjustments over the coming months,” she said.

If you see the Harbour Hopper heading down Spring Garden Road, don’t worry. It’s classified as a bus under HRM’S definitions.

Wilkinson said the Harbour Hopper and tour buses fall under the exception, but aren’t allowed to make any stops.

As of right now, Wilkinson said the municipality will see how the pilot project goes before it eyes any other streets to be potentially converted to a transit-only corridor.

“There’s definitely potential for other streets, but nothing on the radar specifically at this time.”

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2022-07-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-07-05T07:00:00.0000000Z

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