Residents on Hollywood Crescent were worried that a speeding car might hit a child trick or treating on Halloween. So they asked the City of Victoria for permission to close the street for the night.
They were turned down, but they’re not ready to give up.
Longtime Hollywood Crescent resident Valerie Sovran said several young families have moved into the area in recent years, and the idea of closing the road on Halloween was put forward after a neighbourhood group sprang up.
She said the group has helped create connections among area residents, and the notion of a Halloween road closure came out of a wider concern for speeding traffic on the winding crescent.
In many cases, drivers travelling along Dallas Road fail to slow to the 30 km/h speed limit when they reach the crescent, said Sovran, adding there have been a lot of near-misses for pedestrians.
Visibility is limited in places, she said.
“When I stand in my yard, when I look left, I can’t see what’s coming around the corner from Dallas Road,” she said. “If I look right, I can’t see what’s coming around the corner from the other end of Hollywood Crescent.”
Sovran said options for closing roads in Victoria include block parties — with closures for those available only on weekends — and special permits for events.
“Our road gets closed down every time there’s a bike race or a marathon,” she said. “What we wanted to be able to do was have a Halloween where we could actually activate the community and have a normal trick-or-treating experience.”
A closure would “block off those people who just come winging around the corner,” Sovran added.
The neighbourhood plan was for a two- to three-hour closure, Sovran said, noting that traffic could still get through the area by using St. Charles and Ross streets.
Sovran said city traffic staff told the group that a few similar requests are made most Halloweens but do not get approved.
“I guess we’re saying maybe it’s time to look at that policy,” she said.
Beyond the Halloween issue, area residents have also asked for possible traffic-calming measures like speed bumps, Sovran said.
“We are on the list for an update of a traffic-calming study,” she said. “But we don’t know when that’s going to be coming and how long that’s going to take.”
She said that it might be appropriate for streets with that sort of situation to have closure requests considered, and hopes it is useful to have raised the issue.
“We’re doing what we can do.”
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