This petition is not only for the ersidents of the Fairview Ave corridor in question, but all of St Thomas who uses or travels on Fairview Avenue. The citty wants to increase traffice by reducing the road from 4 driving lanes to 2 driving lanes with a center turning lane. These changes will cause more traffic and congestion for our city. 

This petition is in regards to the proposed changes to Fairview Av, between Elm and Talbot, changing the street from 4 lanes to 2 lanes with a dedicated turning lane in the centre of the street. This petition was created by a family of residents who have lived on Fairview Ave since 1989.

The company who assessed and helped to guide the city to this proposed outcome is from the Kitchener Waterloo area. How can a company who doesn’t use our roadways to understand them fully, accurately make assessments about how to reduce congestion on the roads?

Emergency vehicles will be restricted and will encounter traffic congestion when using Fairview Ave to get across the city to treat or help community members as there will be less lanes to manoeuvre. 

Fairview sees a variety of vehicles daily, such as dump trucks, transport trucks, fire trucks, ambulances, tractors and more. Reducing the lanes to 2 driving lanes will cause increased congestion with all the regular and large vehicles that use the roadway. 

A bike lane down a less busy street, such as Manor road, would allow everyone access to ride a bike, crossing the same corridor, while keeping the busier street, Fairview, more accessible and moving well. 

Alternatively, using the existing boulevard to create a bike path, instead of changing the street, would allow for bike lanes on Fairview and allow for the street to remain 4 lanes, so traffic can flow more efficiently. 

Currently cars back up passed Forest and Steele when the traffic lights south to north are red. With one lane of traffic on each side the cars will be backed up twice as far, restricting access to leave or enter resident driveways on Fairview Ave. Southbound cars will be backed up to or passed Chestnut St after reducing the road to 2 lanes.

Prior to 1994 Fairview Ave was a 2 lane road. It was increased to a 4 lane road back when our city had less than 30,000 residents due to the increase in traffic on Fairview. No new throughways have been added (Centennial was just narrowed) to reduce traffic on Fairview. Traffic has increased but the city wants to reduce lanes for a street with more traffic than ever before. 

If any of the proposed changes are implemented the time allotted for crossing at the stop lights and the new proposed pedestrian crossing at Forest and Fairview must be extended. As it is now, there is not an adequate amount of time for the less able bodied to be able to cross before it is no longer safe to do so. Fairview Ave has a significant number of seniors and people with disabilities and must remain accessible to all residents in the city. 

During construction on Fairview construction vehicles often need to park on Fairview Ave, reducing traffic to one lane on that side of the street (there has been a vehicle parking on the street between Elm and Chestnut most of the summer off and on for the build of a pair of semi detached homes. With 4 lanes this is not a problem as the South bound traffic can use the inside lane to pass the parked vehicle. In the future, with 2 lanes of traffic, drivers will need to use the center turning lane to avoid the parked vehicle, which increases the risk of accidents if any other vehicles are using the center turning lane. If the turning lane is in use, it will cause congestion. Construction on Fairview Ave is very common, especially with the empty lots at the corner of Fairview and Wellington. 

Delivery vehicles from businesses such as Amazon, hardware stores, furniture stores and so many more all park on the street as they deliver products and services. Not all driveways will accommodate these large trucks. This will fully block all traffic travelling in that direction, but there is no alternative available when products need to be delivered. 

When the city does tree trimming, street sweeping, city sewers, etc they block one lane of traffic on one of the busiest streets in the city. Now, with 4 lanes, cars can pass these big city trucks, using the inside lane. With one lane of traffic for each direction, this will no longer be an option and will back up traffic causing serious congestion and traffic jams.

We beg the city council to look to the other cities around us to see how much the bike lanes are actually being used. The majority of cities who have spent the money to put in bike lanes have seen very very few using the bike paths. Bike paths have not decreased the number of vehicles on the roads in these cities (with the exception of huge metropolises like the GTA and Vancouver). 

Currently accidents on Fairview typically happen at intersections when they occur. Rarely do accidents happen between intersections. After reducing the traffic to 2 lanes with a center turning lane, impatient drivers will go around people turning right into their driveway or delivery trucks stopped in the lane of traffic, using the center turning lane, which increases the risk for accidents as people using the turning lane will need to watch for cars suddenly veering into the turning lane to impatiently dart around the stopped vehicle. 

The city of St Thomas had an information session that Bob attended. Community members were not permitted to speak, but were told there will be an information session in November for the community to come and voice concerns. If you provide your email or phone number we can make everyone aware of when the meeting will take place, so we can get as many people in attendance who oppose these changes, and make a larger impact. We need to make it clear to the city that this is not what is best for our community. 

We encourage everyone to email or call to voice your concerns and let the city know that we demand to keep the current 4 lanes but open to discuss alternatives. Please contact the City Manager, Michael Bradley (519-631-1689 Ext 4120 or email mbradley@stthomas.ca), Dan Koppert, City Manager of Capitol Works (dkoppert@stthomas.ca) or Cory Pietrzak, C. Tech, Project Technologist Environmental Services, Capital Works (519-631-1680 Ext 4179 or email cpietrzak@stthomas.ca) and to St Thomas City Hall in General at customerservice@stthomas.ca or by phone at 519-631-1680 - then press 0(Mon to Fri 8:30am to 4:30pm). 

Please feel free to reach out to Bob Lawrence and/or Jennifer Lawrence-Leach (creators and driving force behind this petition) at bobandbonniel52@gmail.com and/or jenniferlawrenceleach@gmail.com, if you have any questions or concerns. 

Further information can be found online at www.stthomas.ca/fairview-ave-construction/