Calming Traffic

By Sarah Pugh

I have lived in James Bay for more than 10 years, but moved from the Beacon Hill Park end to the first block of Montreal St. in January, and subsequently experienced my first Summer of Cruise Ships. I was expecting the air quality issues from the ships and the buses, but what I was unprepared for was the volume and speed of taxi traffic along Montreal. Toward the end of the summer, in response to residents' complaints, the city put up a temporary "Respect the Neighbourhood" sign and a radar speed indicator next to the playground. The taxis temporarily slowed to a mere 10-15 km/h above the posted 30 km/h speed limit, which was admittedly a vast improvement over the 20-30 km/h above the speed limit they had been employing previously. Fortunately the only casualty throughout the summer of speed-demon taxis was a neighbourhood cat - but the low body count is attributable more to luck and good parenting on the part of families frequenting the playground than to the skill and caution of cab drivers.

Buses, air pollution, speeding taxis - all to get cruise ship passengers THROUGH James Bay. Victoria is the only cruise ship port on the west coast (possibly in the world) that requires passengers pass through a strictly residential area in order to reach the shops and restaurants at which they offload their supposedly copious amounts of money. There's a good reason we're the only one - it's not a concept that works particularly well. Residents are annoyed, and cruise ship passengers probably aren't thrilled either.

There is, of course, the question of whether Victoria, which is theoretically a "transition town" dedicated to a goal of development within a sustainable framework that doesn't rely on oil, should even be welcoming cruise ships, which are not only chewers up of diesel fuel and spewers par excellence of carbon dioxide (2-7 times, per passenger, the carbon footprint of a typical long-haul airline flight), but which also dump pollution of various sorts into our precious and beautiful oceans. I'm not naive enough to think that pointing out the fact that actively investing in tourism runs contrary to Victoria's stated goals of sustainable development will actually sway anyone at City Hall though. There are still things that the community of James Bay and the City of Victoria could do to minimize the impact that the cruise ships have on our residential area (and suck as much money out of them into James Bay as we can). Here are a few ideas:

1. Develop a retail marketplace AT Ogden Point. Cruise ship passengers, according to my research, dearly love nothing more than being able to jump off the ship and start shopping IMMEDIATELY. If they can do so right at Ogden Point, many will not bother getting on the buses or taxis to go downtown or elsewhere. (I presume this is top of the list for the Ogden Point development committee - I have no idea why this is not already in place. Every other port has something of the sort.)

2. Rezone Dallas Rd to permit retail and restaurants. Easily within strolling distance, boutiques and cafés along the waterfront would be a unique draw for cruise ship passengers, other tourists and locals as well.

3. Encourage passengers to walk more. I've met some lovely people from the ships out walking, but they are a small minority. Some of the barriers are the distinct possibility of getting lost, and the perception that it's a long walk to anything worth seeing (ie, stores catering to tourists). It would be great if there were zoning to permit kiosk-type businesses along the waterfront route to downtown, and it would cost very little to mark frequent routes (like to the Five Corners shopping area, Beacon Hill Park, Fisherman's Wharf, and downtown) with cute little colour-coded footprints or arrows. If the cruise ships themselves could let passengers know that walking in Victoria is a great idea, and, that there shops and restaurants nearby, so much the better.

4. Build picnic tables along the waterfront, from the small beach adjacent to the breakwater, along the pedestrian path up to Beacon Hill Park, and actively promote "A Walk and a Picnic" as an activity for passengers. It's a short walk to Thrifty Foods or Ambrosio (or the market on a Saturday), then back to the beach for a picnic with a world-class, amazing view. Food carts temporarily deployed in the parking spots along the sea wall would also be a great idea.

5. Permit no more than 2 vessels to dock at a time. When 2 ships are in port, it's busy, but not insane. When there are 3 or 4 in there, it feels like an invasion. Surely there are bright sparks out there (human or computer) who can figure out an inter-company schedule that doesn't require all the cruise ships to descend on one place together. It can't be fun for the passengers, either.

6. Restrict traffic more in James Bay. If necessary, put a cap on the number of buses and taxis that can run out to the cruise ship dock. Encourage cruise ship use of BC Transit. Put up more 4-way stops (especially at Oswego & Simcoe (which is a dreadful intersection anyway), and Montreal & Niagara..

7. I'm sure some of these ideas will come out of the planning committee for Ogden Point that's now recruiting - it would just be nice to see something happen sooner rather than later. Until City Hall wises up and realizes that promoting Victoria as a cruise ship port is contrary to Victoria's stated sustainability goals, we're stuck with the cruise ships so we may as well make the experience as minimally painful as possible.