tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854734498362657333.post445443416594610040..comments2024-03-18T14:23:35.602-05:00Comments on Observations, Reservations, Conversations: The Polo Park Traffic CongestionJohn Dobbinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16469872007840292315noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854734498362657333.post-20191060496562169642012-12-16T13:21:50.894-06:002012-12-16T13:21:50.894-06:00At one time my father was both the architect and o...At one time my father was both the architect and one of the minority owners of the then Polo Park Shopping Centre. When they developed the old race track which lay at the outskirts of Winnipeg next to vacant land before going west to St. James.<br />As part of the development they provided the road layout for Empress and built the Empress overpass to and from Portage Avenue without participation of the City of Winnipeg.<br />the City then proceeded to develop the area around the shopping centre and the then new stadium without any long range planning to what we have today. Bad roads, signals that get you nowhere, noe real turn lanes, and bad congestion.<br />Extending St. Mathews through to Metro Route 90 will be of no benefit as like Silver - when you arrive to turn south there is no turn signal. The city only reacts - it does not plan.macarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14486977887269743752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854734498362657333.post-23268278286134361472012-12-13T18:56:17.703-06:002012-12-13T18:56:17.703-06:00man, i had just stopped being angry about the deve...man, i had just stopped being angry about the development on the oak bank line. good post bytheway.ekimsharpehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15100571778278590106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854734498362657333.post-26777428478053708412012-12-13T12:59:58.109-06:002012-12-13T12:59:58.109-06:00Good analysis, but I think if we're going to m...Good analysis, but I think if we're going to make Polo Park a viable commercial center for the foreseeable future, we need to look a bit bigger than just the streets immediately around Polo Park. Really you could draw a square from Portage on the south, Empress on the east, Kenaston in the west, and Ellice or Sargent in the north and look at it cohesively. I think we need to avoid cute, gimmicky (and probably cheap) little tricks like Silver & St. James. It might mean building an overpass or twoUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11454357851659437429noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854734498362657333.post-40230618862003135222012-12-13T09:31:30.927-06:002012-12-13T09:31:30.927-06:00I agree that aside from Silver not much happened. ...I agree that aside from Silver not much happened. <br /><br />Silver and St. James is not exactly the easiest corner. If you proceeding straight into the movie theatre, you run smack dab into a large speed bump. This means traffic going straight slows to a crawl. <br /><br />Likewise, it can be chaos just before the signal as people are turning in and out of Future Shop and Canadian Tire.<br /><br />Whoever heard of such an intersection? People throw caution to the wind turning in the area because it isso poorly set up.John Dobbinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16469872007840292315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5854734498362657333.post-37800424118723853102012-12-12T19:18:24.866-06:002012-12-12T19:18:24.866-06:00I recall that about seven or eight years ago there...I recall that about seven or eight years ago there was a much-heralded plan created by the City to deal with traffic in the Polo Park area. The Silver Avenue extension was the only significant improvement - beyond that it involved the addition of one or two left-turn lights and the prohibition of left turns at Ellice and Empress. Pretty underwhelming, and I hope that the new plan is a bit more effective than the old one was.<br /><br />An obvious start to improving traffic flow in the area is to install left-turn arrows at just about every light in the area. Cars turning left into the stores quite often have to wait for an amber light before they can turn left, which causes immense backups at busy times. I can't figure out why you wouldn't want protected left turns at intersections to let a few cars through and break up the backlog a bit. One Man Committeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10586227505412268204noreply@blogger.com