Article content
After years of local advocacy, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the city will ban transport trucks on a section of Manotick Main Street.
In a social media video posted on Monday, Sutcliffe says the City of Ottawa is taking a “couple of important steps” to reduce heavy truck traffic in the south Ottawa village, and that includes banning transport trucks on a section of Manotick Main Street immediately.
Article content
“First, we are going to reduce heavy truck traffic on Main Street and Rideau Valley Drive,” Sutcliffe said.
“Except for a short period every spring, non-local heavy vehicles will not be allowed on these roads and they’re going to have to use other routes.”
Then comes a “comprehensive truck route study” for the village early next year, with the city looking at options to remove Bridge Street from the truck route network entirely.
“It’s going to be the first thorough examination of truck traffic in this area for nearly 20 years,” Sutcliffe said.
An Aug. 2023 study on heavy truck traffic by the Manotick Village & Community Association showed on average, 967 heavy trucks crossed the intersection at Bridge Street and Main Street every weekday between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Those heavy trucks often had to jump a curb onto a sidewalk to make the turn, and “volunteers witnessed many occasions of sidewalk encroachments that forced pedestrians and cyclists to move for their safety.”
The community association said Bridge Street and Manotick Main should be open to local truck traffic only, in order to “dramatically reduce” instances of trucks climbing up onto sidewalks.
“It is the position of the MVCA that any truck doing local delivery or pick-up in Manotick is welcome. We are concerned however about the extraordinary volume of heavy trucks going through narrow streets of the community when they don’t have a local reason to do so. This is a matter of public safety.”
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network