Report to/Rapport au :

Transportation Committee

Comité des transports

and Council / et au Conseil

30 June 2008 / le 30 juin 2008

Submitted by/Soumis par: Councillor/Conseiller Rob Jellett

Contact Person/Personne ressource : Councillor/Conseiller Rob Jellett, Cumberland

613-580-2489, Rob.Jellett@ottawa.ca

Cumberland (19)

Ref N°: ACS2008-CCS-TRC-0014

SUBJECT:	SHOPPERS DRUG MART COMMERCIAL/RETAIL DEVELOPMENT (Tenth Line Road / Blackburn Hamlet Bypass Extension)
OBJET :	Aménagement commercial/de détail d’un shoppers drug mart (chemin tenth line/prolongation de la rocade de blackburn hamlet)

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

That the Transportation Committee recommend Council approve provision of a partial-movement site access to/from the proposed widened Blackburn Hamlet Bypass Extension (BHBPE) (from 2-lanes to 4-lanes) subject to future on-going monitoring of traffic operations. The requested movements are right-in, right-out and inbound left turns. Outbound left-turn movements would be prohibited.

RECOMMANDATION DU RAPPORT

Que le Comité des transports recommande au Conseil d’approuver la mise en place d’un accès, qui serait assujetti au contrôle continu à venir de la circulation, à la prolongation proposée de la rocade élargie (de deux voies à quatre voies) de Blackburn Hamlet et depuis cette dernière, avec mouvements de circulation partiels, ce qui entraînerait l’aménagement d’un ilôt tourne-à-droite et d’une voie de virage à gauche entrante. Les virages à gauche sortants seraient interdits.

BACKGROUND

Pursuant to Section 77 (12) of the Procedure By-law, this report was requested to be placed on an upcoming Transportation Committee agenda. Originally, it was requested to go to the Planning and Environment Committee, but given that the report deals with a roadway modification and in consultation with staff, it was agreed that it would be appropriate to have the matter considered by the Transportation Committee.

The subject site is situated in the northeast quadrant of the Tenth Line/Blackburn Hamlet Bypass Extension (BHBE) in the Ottawa community of Orléans. Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) is proposing to develop a two-storey retail store and medical facility, comprised of 1,588 m² GFA retail pharmacy/drug store on the ground-level and 1,521 m² GFA medical offices on the upper level.

Annex 1 and 2 illustrate site context and the proposed site plan, respectively.

Both adjacent roads, namely Tenth Line Road and BHBE, are currently two-lane roads and are planned ultimately as four-lane divided arterials. Adjacent to the site, Tenth Line Road is expected to be widened to four lanes by 2010 and BHBE by 2015. Regarding site access/egress, a right-in/right-out site connection is proposed to Tenth Line Road, and a right-in/right-out/left-in connection is proposed to the BHBE. The left-in movement from the BHBE is considered key to the site’s success as a community health provider and retail establishment given its relatively central location in the Orléans south growth area. It is recognized that a balance needs to be found in providing site access for sustainable new development and accommodating future arterial road traffic in a safe and efficient manner.

As part of the Site Plan Application, a Transportation Impact Assessment (TIA) consistent with City of Ottawa Guidelines was prepared in March 2008. Public Works and Services have reviewed the study and support the full movement connection to the BHBE prior to its widening to four lanes subject to:

• provision of auxiliary turn lanes where necessary to ensure safe operations are constructed; and
• an understanding that left-turn movements will be restricted once the BHBE is widened to four lanes or operation and/or safety concerns arise (as determined by the City).

Public Works and Services does not support left-in access or left-out access to the BHBE after its widening. The comments received on the TIA from staff did indicate that the developer is permitted to provide an assessment and justification to Transportation Committee and Council seeking approval for the desired road feature, which is provided next.

DISCUSSION

Included as Annex 3 is the proposed design for the right-in/right-out/left-in access to the site from BHBE. It is located approximately 100 m east of the Tenth Line/BHBE intersection. The preliminary design features an auxiliary eastbound left-turn lane into the SDM site and two auxiliary westbound left-turn lanes approaching the Tenth Line Road intersection. Based on volume projections, there is sufficient storage provided in both sets of left-turn lanes to avoid any queuing and turn lane impacts.

As area traffic volumes increase, it is anticipated that the westbound queue forming at the Tenth Line/BHBE intersection will eventually extend beyond the approximate 100 m spacing available between the intersection stop bar and SDM site access driveway connection to the east. This scenario can be considered unsafe given certain design configurations, although the proposed design and overall site context are believed to minimize the typical safety concerns. Specifically, motorists seeking to complete left-turns into the SDM site will be required to find an acceptable gap in only two westbound streams of traffic as the auxiliary turn lanes develop downstream of the driveway connection. When these lanes are queued, equal utilization is expected given that two through lanes are maintained west of Tenth Line Road.

A queuing analysis conducted by the proponent’s consultant, determined that:

• the subject queue is not likely to materialize for many years;
• when it does materialize, the queue will block the site driveway to BHBE for a small portion of the peak hour;
• the projected eastbound left-turn site traffic at the subject location is estimated at one vehicle every 1 to 2 minutes;
• as the subject queue will only block the site entrance for a small portion of the peak hour and as the subject left-turn volumes are very low, there will be only a few occurrences during peak periods when the queue will actually block an inbound left-turning vehicle;
• when this occurs, the subject vehicle (which is positioned with a left-turn lane) can safely wait a number of seconds until the queue clears; and
• during the balance of the day, there will be no conflict between the eastbound left-turn movement and the westbound queue.

Based on the foregoing, it is proposed that it is appropriate to permit the subject eastbound left-turn movement, with the option to close it at some future date should monitoring reveal it results in “out of the ordinary” safety-related issues.

CONSULTATION

A community meeting was held on the evening of 30 April 2008 at the Ray Friel Centre where the proposed Site Plan was presented. No concerns regarding traffic operations and/or safety were voiced by the members of the public at this meeting.

Public Works & Services - Traffic and Parking Operations

Public Works and Services (PWS) (Traffic and Parking Operations Branch) have been involved with the associated site plan application from a traffic impact perspective. Through pre consultation meetings and a review of the application’s Traffic Impact Assessment report, staff have assessed the site operation and impact as it relates to the adjacent arterial road network.

As identified earlier in this report PWS does not support a left-turn movement into or out of the site from Blackburn Hamlet Bypass Extension once expanded (median divided four lane cross section).

This decision was reached based on compliance with the City’s road design standards, the application of good engineering design practices for the safe operation of public roads, and in support of the Council approved design concept identified in the Blackburn Hamlet Bypass Extension EA.

Approximately 50% of Ottawa’s 15,300 collisions in 2007 occurred at intersections with the majority of those at signalized arterial/arterial intersections. These figures highlight the importance of safety and safe design when designing intersections and the surrounding area influenced by them.

Minimizing conflict points and driver workload are the fundament issues. This is particularly important for the busiest intersections, arterial/arterial crossings such as the subject intersection, where speeds and volumes are at their highest levels and there is a greater presence of pedestrians, cyclists and heavy vehicles. Driver workload and associated driver expectation is of greatest concern in an intersection’s “area of influence”. When entering into a multi-lane intersection the length of the turning lanes and the queue lengths generated by the traffic signal operation typically set the outer boundaries of this area. It is in this area that the demand on the driver’s attention (driver work load) is greatest as frequent decisions are required to negotiate safe passage. Providing an area where there are no conflicting movements (i.e. left turn vehicles crossing through traffic) is essential. Where left-turns are permitted it is critical that gaps in opposing traffic are adequate, acceptable and left-turning vehicles are not making turns through queued traffic (a recognized collision concern in a number of Ottawa locations). The proposed left-turn into the site is contrary to both these design factors. Although traffic forecasts noted previously in this report indicate that queues will be brief, the forecasts are provided for the site’s design horizon of 2015. Growth in the opposing through movement beyond that time period will see the queues extend for longer periods of time.

In terms of driver expectation, good design practices would suggest that design elements should not be a surprise to motorists. Inclusion of a left-turn at the proposed location and within the City’s 120 m minimum guideline for consideration of full movement access would violate driver expectation with an unexpected median break. Where turns are made through queues, existing problem locations exist in Ottawa where queue lengths are uneven and courteous drivers in the oncoming near lane provide a gap to allow left-turning vehicles to proceed, only to set up a potential collision condition with vehicles approaching in the second lane. This report previously states the queues in the approach lanes will be balanced but there is no way of ensuring this will happen at all times.

Minimizing the driver work load and vehicle conflict points in an intersection’s “area of influence” has been a key factor in reducing collisions in and around Ottawa intersections over the years, and part of the reason the City of Ottawa has one of the lowest collision rates amongst large urban areas and the lowest auto insurance rates where non public insurance programs exist.

Design practices supporting safe operations through driver work load and vehicle conflict management include the restriction of site access movement, near major intersections, from full movement to restricted movement. To accomplish this the standard practice is to use curb deflection and/or fixed medians that extend beyond the intersection’s turning lanes and/or actual or anticipated queue lengths. This is a supported practice by the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) Geometric Design Guide for Canadian Roads and the City’s standard design practice. Examples of this would include neighbouring Shoppers Drug Marts on Innes Road that do not have direct uncontrolled full movement access to their sites.

The design as proposed by this report provides for a median break within the area of influence as defined by the queue lengths associated with this intersection. As previously identified in this report the consultant calculated BHBE queues for the westbound direction would extend beyond Shopper Drug Mart’s proposed site access. Providing the left-turn movement in this situation would violate design consistency, driver expectation and proper engineering design practice for the safe and efficient operation of this road and is therefore not recommended.

Although the proposed design is supported by a monitoring task to allow for the removal or prohibition of the desired left-turn movement in the future should it be deemed unsafe, it has been the City’s practice to prohibit collisions from happening through design where experience tells us they are likely to occur as opposed to facilitating collision occurrences and responding after the fact.

Planning, Transit & the Environment - Infrastructure Approvals

An application for Site Plan Control Approval was filed March 18, 2008 for a retail store and second floor medical/dental clinic. Notice of the application and proposal have been available for viewing on the City website since mid-April and signs have been posted on the site. The application was circulated to technical agencies, the Ward Councillor and community groups for comments. A Community Information and Comment Session was held April 30^th with notice being sent out to property owners within 120 metres of the site. A review of the second submission of the proposal has been completed and other than the request for the left-turn in bound off of the By-pass there are only a few minor issues to be addressed prior to site plan approval.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

The developer will be responsible for any costs related to providing the proposed site driveway connection to the BHBPE and removal of any restricted movements should they be deemed unsafe at any future time.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

Annex 1 - Site Context

Annex 2 - Site Plan

Annex 3 - Preliminary Design of Proposed Full Movement Site Access

DISPOSITION

Staff in PTE will follow through with the decision taken by Committee and Council as part of the Site Plan Control Approval process and in line with the requirements of the City's Notice Bylaw for road modifications.

Site Context ANNEX 1

AN2