Richardson Street is a corridor route that runs between Oak Bay Avenue and Fairfield Avenue and plays an important role connecting Oak Bay to Victoria.  Currently upwards of 4,000 vehicles transit the corridor each day.  The City of Victoria wishes to convert Richardson St. to a primary bicycling corridor by limiting traffic using the route to 500-1,000 vehicles per day and reducing the speed limit on the route to 30km per hour.

Richardson St. is currently a popular bicycle route and has been functioning well as a shared corridor with both bicycles and cars sharing the route. . 

This plan has lacked consultation with the neighboring municipality of Oak Bay and will have a negative impact on alternate routes, increasing traffic volumes and transit times for those who transit this area on a regular basis.  Of note, the impact on Fairfield Road - with its two schools and shopping centre, is likely to be significant. Further, it may negatively impact emergency response times for ambulance, police and fire, and may negatively impact the ability of residents to evacuate the area if necessary.  

The proposed plan should be sent back to the drawing board.  There is no reason why a bike lane similar to the lanes that have been installed elsewhere cannot be implemented on Richardson WITHOUT impacting vehicular traffic on the route. Alternatively, a proposal that converts Richardson St. to a one way route (either into or out of the core), with the other lane being converted to a two way bicycle route would also be an improvement over the proposed plan.  

We are asking the City of Victoria to refrain from implementing the changes to Richardson St. as planned and to ask that revised plan that maintains Richardson St. as a collector route be considered.

Sincerely,

Victoria Residents