Bradford West Gwillimbury appears ready to stop idling and move forward with a ban on truck traffic in the downtown core.
Town staff will be coming back to council as soon as the June 21 meeting with a report on the feasibility of temporarily banning transport trucks along Holland Street while the summer patio program is in place. Local deliveries would still be permitted under the ban.
Council has toyed with the idea of banning trucks throughout the core previously, most recently in January 2020, and, as Coun. Jonathan Scott noted, it’s been a cause championed by many throughout the years, including his Ward 2 predecessor Coun. Gary Baynes, current colleague Coun. Peter Dykie and downtown entrepreneur Nancy Young.
But something has always come up as being required before action could take place, such as putting stop lights at the corner of Line 8 and Sideroad 10.
“The (Downtown Revitalization) Committee was wondering how do we get this out of limbo, knowing that between the Line 8 work and the Holland Street reconstruction, we’re not going to be in a position to get Holland Street done for another three, maybe even four years,” said Scott, who also serves as committee chair.
The recommendation of the Downtown Revitalization Committee approved by council at its June 7 meeting requested councillors reconsider the most recent deferral of the matter. What spurred their direction was a reminder from Bradford West Gwillimbury CAO Geoff McKnight that the truck ban had been pitched as part of the temporary patio program, though ultimately not enacted.
If this pilot is successful, a permanent ban could be put in place as part of the Holland Street transformation project.
“I think this council has shown that our pilots are a really good approach,” Scott said. “They let us learn and experiment, especially in the traffic and the traffic safety realm.”
Coun. Mark Contois was supportive of the ban, as the issue with trucks could only get worse as properties in the downtown are redeveloped.
“Part of the problem isn’t the fact that trucks are going through our downtown core, it’s that our core is so narrow,” he said. “(As well as) the echo from the trucks carrying up and down, especially being in a narrow corridor. As we go higher with densities, that’s going to get worse.”
There was broad support around the council table to at least bring a staff report back on the matter, although, as Coun. Peter Ferragine mentioned, the timing of the request would have been better if it had been made earlier in the year to allow for a ban to potentially be in place throughout the entire duration of the temporary summer patio program.
Coun. Gary Lamb was eager to see the data provided by staff on truck traffic along Holland Street before approving a ban, even temporary, that statistics may show to be less essential than commonly thought.
“All I’m hearing here is anecdotal evidence; I don’t have any numbers,” said Lamb. “Give us the modern numbers. Let us know how many trucks are downtown. Let us know how many trucks are actually performing deliveries downtown.”
Until the Bradford Bypass is completed, he added, the only place to move truck traffic is to Line 8, which is not only already well used by trucks - impacting residents in the older subdivisions to the south and the expanding developments to the north - but also in need of repair, particularly near the Barrie Street intersection, as Deputy Mayor James Leduc pointed out.
Lamb hearkened to his experience as chair of the Traffic Committee, often receiving complaints about speeders and other unsafe driving on certain roads in town. The empirical evidence provided by staff doesn’t always match anecdotal evidence conveyed to councillors, he said. That committee, he added, was the one that proposed to council that a truck turning ban at the four corners would help solve some of the traffic concerns downtown.
Perhaps more importantly, a truck ban could hinder agricultural operations from the Holland Marsh.
“It’s very difficult for truck traffic or loads to get on Bridge Street from Canal Road,” Lamb said, explaining how agricultural operations are currently often utilizing Simcoe Road and Marshview Boulevard in order to get their goods to market. “We need to be careful with this one because we want to make sure that in making one situation better we don’t make another situation worse.”
