Changes coming to Halifax’s busiest shopping street
On a bright and sunny afternoon, Spring Garden Road is normally bustling with pedestrians, cyclists, and traffic.
But on Monday, July 4, the street will look different than usual, when the city starts its “daytime transit only pilot.”
“On Monday, you’ll be seeing some regulatory signage changes,” says Elora Wilkinson, Halifax’s principal planner for urban design. “You will also see banners to communicate and to help people know what’s coming.”
“You’ll also see an enhanced enforcement plan, you’ll see HRP in the area, really focused on education at the beginning,” she adds.
The pilot project means that every day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., the only motor vehicles allowed on Spring Garden Road between Queen and South Park Streets will be city buses and emergency vehicles.
Personal vehicles, taxis, delivery vehicles, and rideshares will not be allowed.
The city says the idea is to make the street better for those who use it most.
“So pedestrian experience, reducing some of the noise on the street, the congestion, but also creating a space where transit can get through in a way that's reliable,” says Wilkinson.
Some pedestrians say they're up for the change.
“I think it'd be a really neat thing to try, I’m really curious to see how it will work over the next year,” says David Langelaan, who works nearby.
Visitors Carole Prevost and Sylvie Emond from Ottawa agree.
“I love it!” says Prevost. “It's quieter too, when you're just the pedestrian walking.”
Though Emond thinks closing the street daily may be too much of a shift.
“I think it's a good idea,” she says, “but I would only do it on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.”
Vehicles will be able to use side streets to cross Spring Garden Road and flow through the area.
That means traffic can pass through southbound on Birmingham Street, northbound on Dresden Row, and northbound on Brenton Street (with a left turn only required on Spring Garden to South Park Street).
The city is also changed Clyde Street into a two-way street between South Park and Brenton Streets.
But some who rely on getting their vehicles into the area for a living predict problems.
“We can't really stop close to this corner so we should go up fifty meters,” explains taxi driver Dave Buffett, as he points to where a taxi may have to pick up a client in lieu of being able to stop on the street.
Buffett, who’s also head of the Halifax Taxi Drivers Association, says the changes will mean some clients will have to walk further to catch their cab.
“I can see a lot of confusion, I can see a lot of missed calls because they went to the wrong corner for example. So I don't see any positives,” says Buffett.
Some businesses agree, with a recent survey conducted by the Spring Garden Road Business Association finding opinions among 100 respondents split right down the middle.
Stephen MacNeil of Citadel Music says the past two years on the street have been anything but harmonious for his business, so he’s just hoping for the best.
“It’s hard to say,” says MacNeil when asked about what it could do to his customer base.
“We just went through COVID,” says MacNeil. “The street was shut down last year completely, like, the sidewalks are about three feet wide (for streetscaping construction), so it can't get any worse than it has been.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Leafs star Auston Matthews finishes season with 69 goals
Auston Matthews won't be joining the NHL's 70-goal club this season.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Doug Ford calls on Ontario Speaker to reverse Queen's Park keffiyeh ban
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Speaker Ted Arnott to reverse a ban on keffiyehs at Queen's Park, describing the move as “needlessly” divisive.
'A living nightmare': Winnipeg woman sentenced following campaign of harassment against man after online date
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.