Impacting James Bay

James Bay Neighbourhood Association

An on-going Beacon feature on land use & planning - to alert, inform, and prompt community action - and to celebrate success! 

Cruise Tourism: Transportation Impacts on James Bay: a joint presentation to the December 14^th general meeting of the James Bay Neighbourhood Association (JBNA).

Greater Victoria Harbour Authority (GVHA) CEO Curtis Grad introduced the topic by identifying several land transportation studies on the traffic impacts of cruise-ship visits in 2011.  The studies gathered data on passenger counts, (Topline Consultants), traffic volumes, (City of Victoria Transportation), and traffic noise, (measured by Wakefield Acoustics Ltd.)

JBNA executive member, Brian Scarfe, who analyzed both the Topline and City data, presented his findings, cautioning that they be considered as snapshots - measures taken over relatively short periods of time.  Following are highlights of his report:

Visitor Choices: 

- Overall, 60% of passengers and crew come ashore, with more coming ashore during daytime visits than during evening visits.

- In the daytime only 8.3% of those coming ashore chose to walk; while 20% chose to walk in the evening.   

- 26% of those coming ashore used the shuttle bus service usage.

- Bus tours (e.g., to Butchart Gardens) are more popular in the day (44%) than in the evening (28%).

Traffic Counts & Speeding:  

Analysis of the 2011 data provided by the city, suggests 384 additional vehicle movements per cruise-ship east of Ogden Point at 200 block Dallas, or 1152 additional vehicle movements on three cruise-ship evenings.

- The 2011 values are slightly higher than the 2007 values.  This was likely due to the increase in average cruise-ship size.

- The cruise-related increase in traffic included about 42 additional bus movements per cruise-ship or an additional 126 bus movements on three cruise-ship evenings.

- Overall, the highest traffic volumes were on Douglas Street.

- Although traffic volume impacts on the interior streets of Oswego and Montreal were less than the impacts on Dallas and Douglas, these streets experienced, proportionately, higher levels of speeding when cruise ships were in port.  The only speed data for Superior St is from 2007 and indicated a greater level of speeding than measured on any other street to date.

Noise Impacts:

Andrew Wilkinson of Wakefield Acoustics followed Scarfe's presentation with a discussion of  noise monitoring undertaken on Quebec Street and Dallas Road.   For comparative purposes, monitoring was done on the Labour Day weekend and on an October weekend. 

- Visual monitoring found buses to be major contributors to increased noise levels.  Up to 44 bus movements in one hour were recorded.

- On top of daily average 24-hour noise exposures which already equals or exceeds World Health Organization noise thresholds, cruise-related traffic significantly increased daily average noise levels.  Noise levels were highest at the monitoring site near Ogden Point.

- By analyizing 1-hour noise levels, the effect of cruise-related activity on evenings was evident.  These noise levels would be expected to cause significant sleep disturbances.

- The 2011 noise study reflected about the same levels of noise impact as experienced in the JBNA 2009 study.  

Going forward:

Possible steps to mitigate traffic volume and noise impacts on the community were identified as:

• optimize ship scheduling
• promote alternative itineraries and longer port calls
• vehicle alternatives, including watercraft shuttles
• diversification of transportation modes
• walking

Vehicles for Hire:

Shannon Craig, Policy Analyst with the City, spoke of the Vehicles for Hire By-Law review she is doing.  The review will examine the various commercial transportation and other mobile commercial users with the intent of examining permits to use specific locations, licensing formulas, and an equity of treatment of the various service providers which come under the Bylaw.

On a positive note, JBNA has been advised by Ryan Emerson of Gray Line (Horizons) that the Gray Line double-decker tour buses will not be routed through James Bay for the 2012 season.  

Noise-Snare:

A motion was passed which asks JBNA to request that the City of Victoria monitor the success (or lack thereof) of Calgary's trial implementation of Noise-Snare technology.  Noise-Snare is a noise-monitoring system coupled with photo capture of the noise source (vehicle).   

Report on the January 11^th, 2012 General Meeting

Jarret Matanowitsch of the City Planning department provided an overview of the CALUCs process (Community Association Land Use Committees).  The CALUC presentation was followed by discussions on three developments.  These discussions were outside the CALUC process since one involved a variance permit application with no re-zoning (549 Toronto) and the other two (St James and Niagara/Government proposals) were a second look at projects which had previously gone through the CALUC process.

Victoria Harbour Airport - the debate continues:

Ledcor, the Vancouver developer of the Vancouver Harbour Air Terminal, wrote to Mayor Fortin raising concerns about the City's decisions relating to the proposed Harbour Air Terminal and expanded docks.  His letter pointed out that "taxpayers are entitled to open and competitive bids for the leases Harbour/Westcoast Air now seek to have re-zoned." 

In response to a request from the JBNA Board, the Hon. Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health Canada, replied that her department would lend its expertise to the Environmental  Assessment of the expansion of the Harbour Airport facilities if requested by Transport Canada, the department responsible for the review.   JBNA has made requests of the City and Denise Savoie, M.P., to insist that Transport Canada invite Health Canada to participate in the review.

City Liaison:

- Chris Coleman, recently appointed councillor liaison for James Bay, was welcomed.

- On January 6, 2012, JBNA Board members met with newly elected City Councillors Lisa Helps & Shellie Gudgeon, providing an overview of JBNA Quality of Life and Land-Use issues. The Board has not succeeded in scheduling a meeting with Councillor Ben Isitt.

- The JBNA-GVHA Harbour Pathway Working Group met with Parks staff December 7^th, 2011, to advance the Harbour Pathway project in James Bay.

Schedule:

The GVHA cruise-ship schedule for 2012 has been released indicating more and larger ships in port over longer periods of time.  Ships will typically be here 5 days/evenings per week - Thursday through Monday, but also including some Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Sundays evenings will no longer be ship-free.

February Meeting:

February 8, 2012 New Horizons, 234 Menzies St 7 - 9 p.m.

Agenda items include:

-               development proposal for 151 Oswego Street,

-               how wind may have effected Cruise-Ship Emissions in 2011,

-               the 2012 cruise-ship schedule,

-               the GVHA Cruise-Tourist walking map.

All residents of James Bay are invited to attend and participate.