ROTHENBURGER – Fixing Seymour Street remains little more than a dream

BRINGING TWO-WAY traffic back to Seymour Street has been a dream for at least a couple of decades. Every few years, traffic planners present a new report to City council that includes it as an option.

Each time, they’re sent on their way with a “thank-you very much.” And nothing is done.

In 1979, turning Seymour and Lansdowne Streets into one-way asphalt connectors seemed like a good way to get trucks from the pulp mill and oil terminal through town faster.

And, it was. Vehicles can move quite quickly through the downtown area and on to Valleyview, or vice versa. Problem is, one-way streets are not people friendly, create more pollution and are less safe than two-ways.

Let’s face it. Seymour is a pretty ugly urban thoroughfare. Nothing about it says, “Stay awhile, relax, enjoy the ambience.”

The culprit is impatience. Goods have to be moved and delivered. Time is money and trucks are in a hurry. Cars are part of the rush, too. Commuters like to get from A to B as fast as they possibly can, and never mind what’s in between.

However, livability is a much bigger priority now than it used to be. Seven years ago, the two-way cause had a champion in then-councillor Denis Walsh. He was convinced Seymour could be returned to two ways while leaving Lansdowne one way east to west as the City worked toward a ring-road configuration that could keep big trucks out of the downtown core entirely.

Walsh saw making Seymour into a two-way street between First and Sixth Avenues as “critical” to the future of the downtown core. Many businesses feel the same.

Walsh, of course, is no longer on council, but the Seymour Street question is back on the table. In a pair of reports that rival War and Peace for length, consultants once again dissect the prospects for Seymour but this time do it in the context of the entire city.

Like Walsh, they conclude that Seymour could eventually be returned to two-way traffic, but say Lansdowne would have to be converted at the same time and retained for now as a designated truck route. And, like Walsh, they contemplate a ring-road eventuality, including a new bridge from Mission Flats reminiscent of the old Singh Street bridge plan that was supposed to kick in when we reach 120,000 population.

But, of course, it all needs “further refinement” and more studies. Meantime, say the Urban Systems experts, settle for some lipstick on the existing one-way Seymour by adding a bike lane, reducing parking and maybe planting some trees between Third and Fourth in front of the arts theatre.

Council, which is mulling over the reports, isn’t likely to push a near-term conversion of Seymour to two ways in isolation of everything else. So, once again, it gets shuffled to the side. A decade from now, we’ll probably still be talking about it — one gets the feeling that fixing Seymour Street is an impossible dream.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and former school board chair, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website. This column also appears in the August edition of The Chronicle.