Beacon Hill Park

[Dylan Leblanc]

Hey guys, I'll admit to cutting through the park to get to my mother's house in JB from Cook St. village.

[aastra]

By "rogue trails" do they mean "people walking through the grass"? So shortcuts aren't just bad when we're talking about motorists, they're also bad when we're talking about pedestrians?

I can't imagine a more unsympathetic use of public greenspace than providing shortcuts for drivers or free parking for those that don't want to pay their way.

Hmmm. So how can we discriminate between legitimate park users and those despicable freeloaders? I guess the best solution is to not discriminate at all. Screw the lot of them.

I'd be interested to know how many bandits we're actually talking about here.

Edit: Google Streetview shows about 25 cars parked curbside within the park. So how many of those would be bandits? Half? So we're talking maybe a dozen freeloaders every few hours? (as per the signage which forces the freeloaders to hoof it back from downtown and move their cars at least once or twice per day...)

[tedward]

Originally Posted by Mike K.

The park is as people friendly as can get. I have never, ever had an issue with vehicles in the park. For the most part people are very courteous when they drive through the park and coincidentally the only issues come from commercial buses and horse drawn carriages.

Totally agree. What a waste of $500,000.

[AllseeingEye]

Odd, since 2001 I have lived off and on on either side of BHP - both on the James Bay and on the Cook Street Village side - and have never, ever perceived 'traffic' to be an issue. Nor have I ever heard neighbors, in either location, complain or otherwise comment about it.

Could it be yet another instance where this council is completely out of touch with (fiscal) reality, and is merely looking to invent reasons to justify their positions? A half million dollars for this? I love how the political left in this town seems to think there is this bottomless and Publicly-funded Magic Money Tree out there just waiting to be plucked at any time no matter how inane or banal the reason. And we have what in Victoria, half a billion dollars of real infrastructure needs that require attention? Wow. Sure Dean, Charlene go ahead....after all, what's another half mill?! Sure glad I am moving out of the City in the next year or so as I cannot imagine how they are going to pay for all this without hiking taxes....

[Nparker]

Originally Posted by allseeingeye

could it be yet another instance where this council is completely out of touch with (fiscal) reality, and is merely looking to invent reasons to justify their positions?...

yes.

[Sparky]

^^I need one of those trees that you refer to. Do they grow in Beacon Hill Park?

[AllseeingEye]

Dunno Sparky I think they existed in the old Soviet system and perhaps today in North Korea. Certainly such a tree doesn't exist in Fairfield I can tell you that much....

[sebberry]

This is close enough -

There seemed to be a big event down at Clover Point today - there were cars all over the place but I didn't see what was going on. Anyone know?

EDIT: Some school athletics thing: http://sjd.sd61.bc.ca/other-information/athletics

[gumgum]

Been happening for a few years at least.

[Hotel Mike]

And did you see that some woman photographed an octopus grabbing and drowning a seagull from the Ogden Point breakwater?

[sebberry]

Nope, didn't see that!

[sebberry]

City eyes barriers on Beacon Hill Park roads

Cars short-cutting through Beacon Hill Park could become a thing of the past this summer if a proposed traffic-management plan is adopted by Victoria council.

To make the park more pedestrian and bicycle friendly, the city is considering a $25,000 trial that would see some roads shut to traffic using short posts, reduced parking on others and some roads turned into one-way routes.

[...]

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/life/Ci...#ixzz1vq5E2A3v



Strange. It seems like only yesterday I posted about the city having meetings behind closed doors to figure out where to save money... Oh wait, it was yesterday.


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[Nparker]

Originally Posted by sebberry

...the city is considering a $25,000 trial that would see some roads shut to traffic...

It seems like only yesterday I posted about the city having meetings behind closed doors to figure out where to save money...

Well I think we all know where they could save $25,000 right away.

[aastra]

The city's desperate need to save money is trumped by the city's even more desperate need for traffic management trials in the park.

[sebberry]

Barriers being installed at Beacon Hill Park to limit motor traffic

Expect delays as preparation for pathway pilot program gets underway

City of Victoria crews will begin converting several Beacon Hill Park roads into temporary pedestrian and cycling pathways on Monday, creating minor traffic delays for motorists.

The month-long process will focus on the intersections of Bridge Way and Chestnut Road; Chestnut Road and Circle Drive; Circle Drive and Dallas Road; and at both ends of Heywood Avenue, between Bridge Way and Circle Drive.

[...]

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/Barrier...#ixzz1zxwdwZCY

Idiots....

[Bob Fugger]

They're cutting off Heywood!?!? That's got to be the most ridiculous aspect of this whole thing! Do they think that the cars will just disappear? No, they will shift onto Vancouver Street, which is already horrible because it's too narrow with street parking on both sides.

Oh well, I suppose that I will have to go out of my way to make my way onto Heywood and drive like a total a$$hole, in protest. Vancouver Street, too.

[sebberry]

John Luton replied to a short comment I left on his Flickr Photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/7414536632/

[sebberry]

The changes are an effort to reduce vehicle traffic in the park and address issues such as speeding, drivers using the park as a shortcut, and nearby office workers using internal park roads for free daytime parking.

Is the park that heavily used as a shortcut? Are drivers really "speeding" through the park? Is the 100 block of Douglas Street that congested that people are using the park as a shortcut?

The only really legitimate concern I see here is with drivers using the park for free daytime parking when they go downtown. Easy - set 2hr time limits on the parking in the park.

Cutting up the roads doesn't help with emergency vehicle access either.

[Bob Fugger]

Originally Posted by sebberry

John Luton replied to a short comment I left on his Flickr Photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/7414536632/

Ah, good ol' John Luton...much like this cockamamie traffic scheme, he's the answer to a question that nobody asked.

[jklymak]

OK, the TC as usual has things screwed up. I knew there was no way they were blocking off all of Heywood: http://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/depar...hill-park.html So this just shows Heywood Way being blocked from the Circle to Bridgeway, i.e. about 100 m of it in the park. Bridgeway will also be blocked from traffic.

Personally, I'm fine with these changes, though I don't know that they were entirely necessary.

[gumgum]

Maybe I'm wrong but I don't see any increased traffic to Vancouver St. I do see increased traffic on Park and Cook however.

[gumgum]

From the city's website J posted:

4) Circle Drive: Between Chestnut and Dallas Roads, Circle Drive*will*be*one-way eastbound, heading out of the park.
The westbound lane (leading into the park from Dallas Road up to the Petting Zoo crosswalk)*will serve as a multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists.
New designated parking for families and seniors will be provided.
The route will be part of the proposed Trans Canada Trail connection.

Sounds pretty cool to me actually.

[Bingo]

How about closing all the roads, and build a huge parking lot on the gravel field at the south-west corner of the park, with a 2 hour parking limit?

[sebberry]

I'm trying to understand why it's so bad to have cars in the park?

There are roads in the park for cars, there's grass for people and ponds for ducks.

Occasionally the last two get a bit mixed up, but I've never seen a car on the grass.


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[Nparker]

Originally Posted by sebberry

I'm trying to understand why it's so bad to have cars in the park?...

To paraphrase an earlier post, "because the city of Victoria likes to answer the questions nobody asks". In all my years of visiting BHP (and 90% of that has been as a pedestrian) I cannot recall a single time I was bothered by vehicular traffic. The only part of this waste of taxpayers' money I can even begin to support, is dealing with the cars parking for free along the roadway that leads into/out of the park from/to Southgate across from the foot of Quadra. And the obvious answer to this is to make it pay parking. Heck that might even generate revenue. But as usual our city decision makers have the situation bass-ackwards.