Staff Report: Helmcken Road/Watkiss Way Intersection Improvement Options

TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL PUBLIC WORKS & TRANSPORTATION REPORT

TO: Committee of the Whole FROM: Ivan Leung, P.Eng Director of Engineering DATE: April 30, 2024 MEETING DATE: May 14, 2024

HELMCKEN ROAD/WATKISS WAY INTERSECTION IMPROVEMENT OPTIONS

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to:

1. Inform the Committee of the Whole of potential options to improve the Helmcken Watkiss intersection for all road users;
2. Recommend to the Committee of the Whole an option that reflects Town strategies, initiatives and past Council feedback.

OPTIONS:

TIME CRITICAL:

A decision point from the Committee and Council will allow staff to proceed with the detail design of the Helmcken Watkiss Intersection, scheduled for 2024 (Project Summary C-128).

ALIGNMENT WITH TOWN INITIATIVES:

The recommended option aligns with the following Town strategies and initiatives:

• Strategic Plan (2023-2026): Goal 1: Shift primary transport mode within View Royal away from vehicles to walking, cycling and transit.
• Active Transportation Network Plan (2023): Intersection is identified as a short-term priority for improvements (Action Items 1C, 1D and 2B).

BACKGROUND:

The Helmcken / Watkiss intersection is identified as a priority in the Active Transportation Network Plan (ATNP, Action Item 1D). The barriers to improve active travel within the intersection include:

1. Congestion from high peak time traffic volumes. This significantly impacts intersection levels of service (12,000-16,300 vehicles per day on Helmcken Road, compounded with 8,000 vehicles per day on Watkiss Way);
2. Inability to install leading pedestrian interval signals (“LPI’s”). LPI’s give pedestrians a head start before vehicular traffic proceeds into the intersection. This increases pedestrian visibility, presence and safety. However, due to the high traffic volumes, LPI’s at this intersection would cause additional congestion that would and spread its impact to surrounding intersections. This option is not recommended under current intersection configurations as a result;
3. Inability to reduce pedestrian crossing distance. Reducing the pedestrian crossing distance is difficult given the vehicular demand on Helmcken Road and predominant influence of vehicular traffic.

Congestion from high traffic volumes is the main restrictor in improving active travel at the intersection.

As a result, further analysis is required due to the complex needs of the intersection. This is further compounded by the introduction of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s (“MoTI”) Bus on Shoulders project. Staff subsequently retained a transportation engineer to develop viable options that improve and balance travel for all road users within and around the intersection.

DISCUSSION:

The impetus to improving active travel at this intersection is generally governed by two key design elements:

There also exists a third driver to improved active travel through the intersection, although not recommended at this time:

• remove the right turn slip lane on the Eagle Creek corner of the intersection, resulting in significantly reducing vehicular conflict zones;
• add multi-use paths or equivalent off-street pedestrian and cycling infrastructure for southbound Helmcken Rd (required to optimize new curb alignment).

While there are significant benefits to incorporating this option, there are three trade-offs to consider, including:

1. Helmcken Road is active with emergency responders, given its proximity to Victoria General Hospital. Staff will be engaging with emergency service stakeholders as part of the detail design because there may be a requirement to keep the pavement width as is to allow for emergency vehicles to pass by pulled over traffic.
2. The Committee will need to consider whether to accept multi-use paths within the road corridor. While multi use paths are an appropriate design element and identified in the ATNP, Council has expressed concerns in the past regarding conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians;
3. This intersection is but a small piece to the Helmcken Road corridor that has been identified as a top three priority for improvement in the ATNP. Furthermore, a moderate change in traffic patterns and road alignment will occur as part of MoTI’s Bus on Shoulder project (currently in its detail design phase). In other words, much is planned in the future for Helmcken Road from the Saanich Border to Vickery Road that presents traffic behavior that is unknown today.

As a result, staff recommend this third option be deferred to the future. The benefit of this is that staff will be able to better assess Helmcken Road once new traffic patterns emerge from MoTI’s Bus on Shoulders project. This revised assessment would help inform staff and Council on how to proceed with improvements to the Helmcken Road corridor (Action Item 1C of the ATNP, which offers a range of options including vehicular lane closures, multi use paths and/or buffered bike lanes). This in turn would confirm to staff what design palette to utilize to utilize for this third driver (e.g. raised bike lane vs multi use path vs buffered bike lane).

Concept & Recommendation

It should be noted that there are numerous configurations that can utilize a combination of the design drivers noted above. For ease of the concept design exercise, the transportation engineer has developed three distinct options (Attachment 1), of which can be modified: