Regional Council votes to keep Lancaster ramps open

The Planning and Works Committee voted to remove the Highway 85 ramp at Lancaster Street earlier in the month and were hoping that Regional Council would uphold the decision at Wednesday’s meeting.

The debate on whether or not to close the Lancaster ramps was hotly contested by Regional Council, dividing Kitchener and Waterloo in more ways than one. Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic was on the side of keeping the ramps open and Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe was in favour of the motion to close them.

In McCabe’s argument, she cited safety concerns from a traffic report from Commissioner for Transportation Services, Mathieu Goetzke.

“Because of the short distance of the Lancaster ramp, the information that he provided at the time was that Bridgeport ramp has about 25,000 vehicles go on and off those ramps every day. Lancaster has significantly less at about 3500 or 5000 but has significantly per capita more crashes that occur there because of the problems and the safety issues with that ramp.”

McCabe added that those dangers are why the Ministry of Transportation is on board with removing the ramps on their dime, but in order for the region to have the MTO cover the cost, they had to commit now.

Vrbanovic strongly urged council to vote down the motion, and in response to McCabe, who called out a Kitchener City Councillor for siding with Waterloo, he said that it does not represent Kitchener’s wishes.

“The recently elected new councillor is the only person out of 11 members of council who did not support [the ramp] staying open.”

There were also multiple passionate delegations that tried and push the motion over the line, as well as others who pleaded their case to council for why the ramps must stay open.

A delegate that wants the ramps to be accessible noted that traffic volume will soon be worse in the area.

“The intersection of Bridgeport Road and Lancaster will become a nightmare one the 1200 more residential units are finished behind the Tim Horton’s. The line up of cars in all directions will add to our carbon footprint by causing excessive idling times for the cars waiting to turn on to Bridgeport.”

He proposed possibly keeping one of the ramps open, while closing the other. Another delegate in opposition to the motion, Cynthia Sundberg, is worried about higher volume of traffic.

“It’s going to create more congestion and I think the potential collisions, that intersection at Bridgeport and Lancaster is very, very busy and it’s awkward for pedestrians and cyclists.”

Victoria Hand spoke in favour of the motion to close the ramps – or at least modify them – from the perspective of a cyclist. She told Council that she is “entitled” to her life.

“You have probably seen my fluorescent jacket, my helmet lights up with indicators to tell you where I’m going. I’m as visible as I can be. I’m as safe as I can be. And I still wouldn’t take my teenage nephews down that road on their bikes.”

After all the comments, it was time to go to a vote, and for the second time in recent meetings, a big decision – in reference to the Waterloo Regional Police Service Budget – at Regional Council resulted in a tie, meaning the motion was defeated.