At the February 27, 2024 Regular Council Meeting, Council did not provide authorization to continue with the design and construction of the short-term traffic flow improvements and instead, authorized staff to continue monitoring the intersection operations and revisit improvement options in the future.
The City’s Transportation Division is seeking public input on traffic flow improvements at the intersection of 1st Avenue and Lansdowne Street.
The proposed intersection improvements include the removal of the southbound left-turn lane onto Victoria Street from 1st Avenue and the creation of a second northbound left-turn lane from 1st Avenue onto Lansdowne Street to help increase capacity along the Lansdowne Street corridor.
One of the Transportation Master Plan (2018) Integrated Transportation Strategic Directions is to “maintain mobility performance to a Level of Service 'D' or better for major road approaches at intersections, and by allowing minor road approaches to perform at Level of Service 'E' or better," in accordance with the Highway Capacity Manual Methodology (see table below), which is used by Transportation Engineering Professionals across North America to evaluate the traffic operational performance of intersections.
During the afternoon peak hour, the 1st Avenue and Lansdowne Street intersection operates at a Level of Service 'E,' causing existing volumes in the northbound direction to be higher than the existing southbound left-turn from 1st Avenue to Victoria Street.
In addition to significant delays in the afternoon peak hour, vehicle queueing is often observed beyond the intersection and into Lorne Street, Lansdowne Street, 1st Avenue, and Victoria Street, backing up through the crosswalk and other intersections upstream.
Performing the proposed improvements would change the intersection operation from Level of Service 'E' to 'D' and would reduce delays on Lansdowne Street by 30%, making 1st Avenue more efficient by allowing the Lansdowne Street light to stay green for a longer period.
TIMELINE
The proposed intersection changes would be planned in coordination with the City Centre Sanitary Project scheduled to begin this spring.
While signal optimization alone is not expected to significantly improve traffic flow at this intersection, it is part of a series of improvements planned within the corridor that include:
- additional intersection signal timing improvements along Lansdowne Street
- upgrades to the Lansdowne Street/2nd Avenue rail interconnection
- vehicle detection to provide better efficiency
- potential adaptive signal technology that “learns” to optimize signals and react to varying traffic pattern
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Improvement works funding would be made possible through the existing Intersection Capacity Improvement capital program.
BACKGROUND
On October 17, 2023, Council authorized staff to bring to Council a report outlining ways to improve traffic flow at Lansdowne Street and 1st Avenue.
The Transportation division compiled intersection improveent options and presented them to Council for review on December 12, 2023. The findings of that report can be viewed here.
