City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
To Two-Way Traffic Operations
Environmental Study Report
October 2010
3.0
EXISTING AND FUTURE CONDITIONS
The existing and future conditions for the study area are documented on Drawing 1 – Existing
Conditions (ref. rear pocket).
3.1
Study Area
The primary focus for this Class Environmental Assessment (Class EA) includes the one-way
streets, Colborne Street (Brant Avenue to Brett Avenue) and Dalhousie Street (Brant Avenue to
Brett Street) but also includes the extended area generally bounded by Brett Street, Brant
Avenue, Icomm Drive, and Wellington Street.
3.2
Land Use and Development Plans
3.2.1
Existing Land Use
The study area can be divided into two distinct areas as follows:
Downtown Core – Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street extending from Brant Avenue (the
west limits) to Clarence Street.
Commercial/Residential Area – Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street extending from
Clarence Street to the east limits where Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street converge.
The main land use within the Downtown Core includes the following:
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Small commercial businesses;
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Residential units located above commercial businesses;
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Municipal and privately owned parking facilities;
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The Sanderson Centre;
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Harmony Square;
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Market Square Mall including City of Brantford Municipal Offices;
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Brantford Public Library Main Branch;
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Facilities associated with Wilfred Laurier University;
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Various community based organizations; and
•
Vacant properties.
The main land use within the Commercial/Residential Area includes the following:
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Residential units including single dwellings and multiple dwelling units;
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Alexandra Park;
•
Four churches including St. Jude’s Anglican Church, Alexandra Presbyterian Church, St.
Mary’s Catholic Church, and Heritage United Church;
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Small and medium sized commercial businesses;
•
Vacant properties;
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City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
To Two-Way Traffic Operations
Environmental Study Report
October 2010
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•
•
3.2.2
Various community based organizations;
Retirement home, and
Privately owned parking facilities.
Existing Land Use Designation
City of Brantford Official Plan (consolidated 2005)
The City of Brantford Official Plan (Schedule 1 Land Use Plan) provides the following land use
designation along Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street, within the study limits (ref. Figure 3.1).

Core Commercial – is intended to be the primary cultural, entertainment and office
commercial activity area serving the City and portions of the surrounding municipalities. It
is envisaged that the core will accommodate a wide range of uses including: business;
professional and government offices; institutions and cultural attractions; education
facilities; retail and service uses; hotel and convention centres; entertainment, tourism and
recreational facilities and multiple unit residential dwellings.

General Commercial –includes retail and service commercial uses that, by the nature of
their function, benefit from accessibility to and visibility from major collector, minor arterial
and major arterial roads and thereby provide a service to pedestrian and automobileborne trade. These uses include a broad range of retail uses: restaurants and
entertainment uses; hotel and motel uses; personal and business services; recreational
uses; business and professional offices and accessory uses.

Low Density Residential – the main permitted uses include single-detached, semidetached, duplex and triplex residential dwellings.

Medium Density – the main permitted uses include townhouse, rowhouse, fourplex, lowrise apartments, and other forms of low-rise multiple-unit dwellings.
3.2.3
Potential Development
The City of Brantford Planning Department has identified parcels of land in the downtown core
for potential development within the 5 year, 5 to 10 year and a 10 to 20 year timeframes (ref.
Figure 3.2). Development of these parcels will be subject to a variety of factors, which are
subject to change.
3.3
Transportation
Paradigm Transportation Solutions Inc. prepared a traffic study for the Conversion of Colborne
Street and Dalhousie Street to two-way Traffic. The following is a summary of the key findings
of their report. A full copy of Paradigm’s report can be found in Appendix A.
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City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
To Two-Way Traffic Operations
Environmental Study Report
October 2010
3.3.1
Traffic Control
The downtown street network is comprised of a network of one-way and two-way streets, under
the jurisdiction of the City of Brantford. The main east-west streets within the study area are as
follows:
Colborne Street is a one-way street providing traffic flow in the easterly direction through the
downtown. This roadway forms the southerly section of the designated arterial road through the
downtown area. Colborne Street currently has one-way traffic operation in the east direction
from Brant Avenue to Brett Street. Colborne Street has a three lane-cross-section in the
immediate downtown area.
Dalhousie Street is a one-way street providing traffic flow in the westerly direction from Brett
Street to Brant Avenue. It generally has a three lane cross-section.
Darling Street is a continuous east-west two-way route between the downtown and east areas
of Brantford. It generally has a two lane cross-section in the immediate downtown area.
Wellington Street is a continuous east-west two-way route between the downtown and east
areas of Brantford. It generally has a two lane cross-section in the immediate downtown area.
Brant Avenue is a north-south 4 lane two-way arterial road that connects to Paris Road and St.
Paul Avenue in the northwest part of the City and to Icomm Drive directly south of Colborne
Street.
Icomm Drive is a 4 lane divided arterial road that forms an east-west route south of the core
area of Brantford linking Brant Avenue to Clarence Street and the Greenwich Street/Mohawk
Street corridor.
Clarence Street is a 4 lane north-south road extending north from the Brantford Southern
Access Road and Icomm Drive through the downtown area to West Street.
Traffic control within the downtown area is provided largely by traffic control signals at the main
intersections and stop sign control at the minor intersections.
3.3.2
Parking
The current supply of on-street and off-street parking available to the general public is heavily
utilized in most areas of the downtown. The major off-street parking facilities available to the
general public are the Market Street Parkade (on Icomm Drive between Hill Street and Market
Street), the Darling Street Municipal Parking Lot #3 (on Darling Street between Queen Street
and Market Street), the Municipal Parking Lot #4 (on Dalhousie Street between King Street and
Queen Street), and the Public Parking Lot (on Dalhousie Street between Charlotte Street and
George Street). There are over 525 on-street parking spaces, well distributed within the
downtown.
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City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
To Two-Way Traffic Operations
Environmental Study Report
October 2010
3.3.3
Transit Services
The central focus of the City of Brantford transit services is the off-street “transit hub” on the
north side of Darling Street and west of Market Street. This terminal provides a downtown route
terminus for the various bus routes, with an off-street stop for each route and sheltered
passenger waiting areas. The terminal provides timed transfers between the different routes and
it also serves as an inter-city bus terminal for Greyhound Canada Ltd.
Almost all of the public transit services connect to the downtown transit terminal, operating
along the streets within the downtown area. The primary streets used are Colborne Street,
Dalhousie Street, Market Street, Clarence Street, Darling Street, Wellington Street, and Brant
Avenue. Buses typically operate every 30 minutes on weekdays, with service every 30 minutes
during the day on Saturdays and every 60 minutes during evening and Sunday periods.
3.3.4
Traffic Conditions
The existing traffic volumes in the downtown area were established based on weekday traffic
turning movement counts provided by the City of Brantford as well as counts that were
conducted by Paradigm staff in February 2008. As the study commenced, the City undertook
counts at numerous intersections within the study area. These new 2009 counts were reviewed
and compared to the volumes already used in the report to determine if there is a significant
difference in volumes. Based on this, it was determined that the intersections that should be
updated to include the 2009 counts are Colborne Street with Brant Avenue, Clarence Street and
Dalhousie Street with Clarence Street.
The traffic volume summary indicates several important characteristics of the downtown traffic
patterns:
•
The weekday PM peak hour traffic volumes are consistently higher than the weekday AM
peak hour volumes by approximately 10%.
•
The five highest volume intersections are listed below:
• Colborne Street with Brant Avenue, Clarence Street, and Brett Street.
• Dalhousie Street with Brant Avenue, and Clarence Street.
Generally, there are more higher volume intersections on Colborne Street in comparison to
Dalhousie Street. The higher volume intersections occur at arterial intersections such as Brant
Avenue, Clarence Street and Stanley Street. Intersections within the core area east of Brant
Avenue and west of Clarence experience lower traffic approach volumes. PM peak hour
intersection volumes are generally higher than the AM peak hour volumes.
3.3.5
Traffic Operations
The operations of both the signalized and unsignalized intersections in the study area were
evaluated using the 2008 traffic volumes, as well as the current intersection lane configurations.
For this study, the level of service conditions have been analyzed for the unsignalized and
signalized intersections within the downtown area for the critical weekday AM and PM peak
hours. The analyses were conducted with Synchro 7, a traffic signal software package
distributed by Trafficware Corp.
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City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
To Two-Way Traffic Operations
Environmental Study Report
October 2010
The current levels of service conditions are generally satisfactory at most of the downtown
intersections. Overall, the analyses indicate that traffic congestion and delay does not appear to
be a major problem during the peak periods. The areas with higher levels of congestion tend to
be at west side of the downtown area.
There are some isolated sections within the downtown core that are experiencing some queuing
problems, primarily along Clarence Street between Darling Street and Greenwich Drive (ref.
traffic study, Appendix A). The other primary area of concern with regard to queuing issues is at
the intersection of Dalhousie Street and Brant Avenue for the westbound left turn movements.
3.3.6
Pedestrian/Cycling Activity
The highest pedestrian volumes during the weekday afternoon peak hour were observed at the
intersection of Darling Street and Market Street and Dalhousie Street and Market Street. Other
intersections with higher pedestrian volumes occur near the central sections of George Street
and Charlotte Street, while the intersections towards the east and west of the downtown have
notably lower pedestrian volumes. The downtown streets have sidewalks on each side to
accommodate pedestrian travel and the signalized intersections have pedestrian signal heads
to facilitated safe crossings.
The slower speeds on the downtown streets, particularly the non-arterial streets with lower
volumes are more cyclist-friendly and encourage the use of these routes rather than the busier
routes such as Brant Avenue and Icomm Drive. Some bicycle racks and storage areas have
been established to facilitate travel by cyclists. Detailed counts of bicycle volumes were not
available for this study.
It is noted that at the intersections of Dalhousie Street and Colborne Street with Brant Avenue
there are some instances where there are a large number of pedestrians crossing Brant Avenue
which interfere with the westbound left turning traffic at Dalhousie Street and eastbound left turn
traffic at Colborne Street. This results in an increase in delay for the left turning traffic
movements which may affect the overall operation of the intersections and the
pedestrian/vehicle conflicts result in safety concerns particularly due to the dual left turn
movements at these locations. Vehicles turning left in dual lanes have some visibility restrictions
due to the presence of vehicles in the adjacent lane. Pedestrian issues have also been raised at
Colborne Street and Park Avenue where a warrant study by the City has indicated that an
Intersection Pedestrian Signal (IPS) is warranted. The crossing activity is presumably related to
the location of the park north of Colborne Street. Pedestrian crossing issues have also been
noted at Bain Street and Colborne Street where many pedestrians cross to and from the parking
garage.
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City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
To Two-Way Traffic Operations
Environmental Study Report
October 2010
3.3.7
Railway
The CNR Dundas Subdivision Burford Spur line runs along the east side of Clarence Street
(mile 0.87 at Dalhousie Street and mile 0.94 at Colborne Street). CNR has no immediate plans
to abandon this line.
3.3.8
Collisions
The City of Brantford provided traffic collision data for the downtown streets and intersections
from 2005 to 2008. An analysis of this data indicated that the majority of collisions take place at
intersections, as opposed to the street sections between intersections. The intersections with a
high number of average annual collisions (i.e., over 5 annual collisions) are as follows:
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Dalhousie Street & King Street (5 annual collisions);
Dalhousie Street & Queen Street (6 annual collisions);
Dalhousie Street and Stanley Street (6 annual collisions);
Colborne Street & Brett Street (8 annual collisions);
Dalhousie Street & Clarence Street (10 annual collisions);
Colborne Street & Brant Avenue (11 annual collisions);
Dalhousie Street & Brant Avenue (11 annual collisions), and
Colborne Street & Clarence Street (12 annual collisions).
Intersections and mid-block sections that have included collisions with pedestrians and cyclists
from 2005- 2008 are as noted:
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•
•
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•
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Dalhousie Street & Queen Street (1 out of 17 collisions involving a pedestrian, 2005);
Dalhousie Street & Market Street (1 out of 6 collisions involving a pedestrian, 2008);
Dalhousie Street & Rawdon Street (2 out of 13 collisions involving a pedestrian, 2006);
Dalhousie Street between Queen Street & Market Street (1 out of 2 collision involving a
pedestrian, 2006);
Dalhousie Street between Market Street & George Street (1out of 4 collisions involving a
pedestrian, 2008);
Dalhousie Street between Drummond Street & Rawdon Street (1 out of 2 collisions
involving a pedestrian, 2007);
Colborne Street & Brant Avenue (1 out of 32 collisions involving a pedestrian, 2007);
Colborne Street & Charlotte Street (1 out of 7 collisions involving a pedestrian, 2008);
Colborne Street & Drummond Street (1 out of 5 collisions involving a pedestrian, 2007);
Colborne Street & Dalhousie Street (1 out of 8 collisions involving a pedestrian, 2008);
Colborne Street between Brant Avenue & King Street (1 out of 4 collisions involving a
pedestrian, 2007);
Colborne Street between King Street & Queen Street (1 out of 7 collisions involving a
pedestrian, 2008);
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City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
To Two-Way Traffic Operations
Environmental Study Report
October 2010
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Colborne Street between Bain Street & Charlotte Street (1 out of 3 collisions involving a
pedestrian, 2008), and
Colborne Street between Echo Street & Clarence Street (1 out of 1 collision involving a
pedestrian, 2005).
The City of Brantford compares signalized intersection rates to other intersections in the city
with similar volumes to show which ones have ' higher collisions than expected collisions' based
on the average rate for that category. The Traffic Study (ref. Appendix A) identifies those
intersections along Colborne and Dalhousie that are considered to have higher than the
expected number of collisions. The report identifies that the intersections on Dalhousie Street
under one-way operation have higher collision rates than intersections in the City with similar
volume under two-way operation. Dalhousie/Murray and Dalhousie/Stanley have the highest
collision rates of all 24 signalized intersections in the City with an annual volume of 10,000 to
15,000 vehicles per day. Dalhousie/King has the second highest collision rate of the 12
signalized intersections in the City that have a daily volume of 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles per day.
In addition, Dalhousie and Rawdon and Dalhousie/Queen are ranked 3rd and 5th highest in terms
of collision rates for intersections in the City with a daily volume of 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles per
day.
3.3.9
Travel Survey
An important task in the study was a detailed survey of peak period travel in the downtown area.
This survey was carried out to meet two objectives, as follows:
•
•
To develop a more detailed understanding of traffic patterns in and through the downtown
area, and
To provide a basis to estimate how patterns traffic will respond to changes to the
downtown street configuration.
After consideration, the general approach selected for the travel survey was a roadside
interview survey of an appropriate sample of drivers at a cordon around the main downtown
area. At each of these cordons, the required sample of drivers was stopped and asked to
participate in a very brief interview. The questions included:
•
•
•
The trip origin location and the driver’s activity at that location?
The trip destination locations and the driver’s activity at that location?
Is this route the normal route taken for this trip?
Overall, the 20% sample target was achieved at all four survey locations and an overall sample
of about 25% of all vehicles passing the survey location in both directions was interviewed. It is
noted that the survey was conducted while Sir Laurier University was not in full operation.
The data from the traffic survey indicates the following:
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City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
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Environmental Study Report
October 2010
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31% of the trips surveyed were home-based work or HBW trips (i.e., home
origin/destination at one end of the trip and work origin/destination at the other end of the
trip).
41% of the trips surveyed were home-based other or HBO trips (i.e., home
origin/destination at one end of the trip and a non-work or school origin/destination at the
other end of the trip such as shopping or personal service trips).
26% of the trips surveyed were non-home based or NHB trips (i.e., neither end of the trip
is to/from home. An example could be from work to a recreational or shopping activity).
2% of the trips were home-based school or HBSCH trips (i.e., home activity at one end of
the trip and school activity at the other end of the trip).
The travel survey found that about 44% of all non-commercial vehicle trips entering and leaving
the downtown study area have a trip origin, destination or both within the downtown area.
However, the remaining 56% of trips entering or leaving the downtown area has neither an
origin nor a destination within the downtown. The through traffic ranged from 51% at Station 2
to 62% at Station 3. These through trips are adding to the traffic volume on downtown streets
but do not have a business activity within the downtown area. The results of the travel survey
were used to develop a detailed origin-destination database for weekday PM peak hour traffic
entering and leaving the downtown. This data was utilized in the detailed assignment analyses
of future traffic patterns with changes to the street network.
3.4
Natural Environment
Existing conditions within the study area are presented on Drawing 1 – Existing Conditions (ref.
rear pocket).
3.4.1
Terrestrial Resources
The majority of the study area is highly urbanized. The following natural features are noted:
•
•
Trees within the boulevard along both Colborne and Dalhousie Street, with numerous
mature trees in the residential area east of Clarence Street.
Manicured municipal parks including Alexandra Park between Park Avenue and Peel
Street, Armories Gore Park, War Memorial Park, and Tom Thumb Park at the west end.
3.5
Existing Infrastructure
3.5.1
Utilities
Various underground and overhead utilities existing within the study limits, including Brantford
Power, Union Gas, Bell Canada and Cable TV. Within the downtown core area, utilities are
located underground, under the road or within the sidewalk area. Outside of the core, utilities
are either above or below ground. Location of utilities were not reviewed in detail in this study,
and will need to be confirmed in the detail design phase.
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City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
To Two-Way Traffic Operations
Environmental Study Report
October 2010
3.5.2
Municipal Services
Existing municipal services include watermain, sanitary sewer and storm sewer. Much of the
municipal services in place on Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street, between Brant Ave. and
the intersection of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street, is past or nearing the end of its service
life and must be replaced or rehabilitated. However, there are sections of existing infrastructure
that has been reconstructed relatively recently, and is in acceptable condition. These sections
include Dalhousie Street from George Street to Clarence Street, and Colborne Street from King
Street to Charlotte Street.
Figures 3.3a and Figure 3.3b present a summary of the anticipated service life remaining for
watermain, sanitary sewer and storm sewer within the study limits.
3.5.3
Pavement
An assessment of existing pavement conditions was completed by Terraprobe (ref.
Appendix ‘C’).
3.5.4
Streetlights
Downtown
The City upgraded the illumination in the downtown area in 2005. The upgrades were carried
out to improve lighting requirements for traffic and pedestrians. As a result of this the existing
high pressure sodium lamps were replaced with metal halide lamps. Metal halide lamps are a
white light source that is conducive to pedestrian traffic for colour recognition.
The luminaires are Acorn post top style mounted on decorative concrete poles. The poles are
6.0 m. This height relates to the pedestrian scale and also in line with the building heights in the
downtown area. There are approximately 107 on Colborne and 32 on Dalhousie of the metal
halide acorn style luminaires in the downtown area. The majority of the concrete poles and
luminaires appear to be in good condition.
Outside Downtown Areas
All of the road lighting outside the downtown area is high pressure sodium in cobra head type
luminaires mounted on round concrete poles. The concrete poles are 12m direct buried type.
3.5.5
Traffic Signals
Both Colborne and Dalhousie Streets have one-way traffic and the existing signals are designed
for one-way traffic with pedestrian crossings at each location. The existing traffic signal system
has two poles with a simple two phase operation that is pedestrian and traffic actuated.
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City of Brantford
Conversion of Colborne Street and Dalhousie Street
To Two-Way Traffic Operations
Environmental Study Report
October 2010
A number of the existing traffic signal installations within the downtown area are in poor
condition (both poles and underground) and warrant replacement, with or without two-way
conversion.
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