SEYMOUR AND ST PAUL

 Victoria Street is great. Its a great street. Wide walking lanes, short cross walks, lots of shops, restaurants and vibrancy. Its the logical choice for all sorts of public events, and the nicest street in our City. But it is hemmed in on both sides by high-speed, wide, loud and dusty Lansdowne and Seymour. These two streets were designed in a bygone era: of large chip trucks coming through Downtown, and based on ideas about traffic engineering in the 70s  and 80s that have proven ineffective - that is why big cities all over the place are replacing their large, high speed, one ways with slower speed two lane streets - with slower average car speeds, but overall higher capacities. And improved Commercial Vibrancy.

In 2019, then Councillor Denis Walsh was asked "what single thing he would fix about downtown". Mel Rothenburger was surprised to hear Denis say - make Seymour a Two-Way Street again.

As the article mentions, despite it being an idea 'on the books' for 20 years, the political will to make it happen is not there. It is one of those things that will have a lot of controversy for and against, lots of the opinions on the matter fairly unaware of the actual subject matter and full scope and implications. And for the proponent, politically, the potential upside is hard to articulate and will be slow to be realized. The success being something that looks and feels vibrant - duplicating the success of Victoria Street. To make that happen, Seymour  is required that it become a slower speed 2-way road - but changing the road does not ensure that it will actually be successful.

Converting Seymour (and Landsdowne) to Two-Way Streets is something Charles Marohn of Strong Towns agreed with when he visited Kamloops in Sep 2022 - and he is an expert in the field of both planning, economic development and a traffic engineer. When Chuck was doing a walking tour with City Staff the hostility of Seymour adjacent to the proposed PAC building site was identified as a hinderance to success. 

But with all the new condos and developments south of Seymour - Chuck suggested that instead of trying to revitalize Seymour - instead turn St. Paul Street into a second "main street" like Victoria, and activate it with shops, restaurants, parklets, pedestrian amenities, etc. Once St. Paul becomes busy, bustling and vibrant like Victoria - then hundreds of people will be crossing Seymour all the time - on foot, bus, bike and car - and then the hostility that is the high-speed one-way road of Seymour will be self-evident in its inappropriate design for a downtown street.

I made a similar case in my 2012 book, advocating there that 4th Ave be made mixed-use, and pedestrian oriented, from end to end. Connecting the Hospital, Courthouse and Government Precint to Downtown - and starting to building bridges, or healing stitches, across the cuts that are Columbia and Seymour. 

However, given that Lansdowne is currently going to be closed for months in order to install the sewer infrastructure that the new apartments and investment downtown require - would be the perfect opportunity to return Seymour to a Two-Way Street in the Short Term - and reimagine it for the Long Term. I wouldn't abandon improvements to 4th or St Paul - but doubling the size of the pedestrian-shed (think watershed) Downtown would be huge - and turning Seymour Two-Ways would be a great step in that direction.

Had, or if, we converted Seymour end-to-end, back to Two-Way it would go a long way to allowing downtown through traffic avoid getting stuck in a bottle neck on Lansdowne. It would also allow the businesses like Red Collar and Rays Locksmith on Lansdowne to maintain better access to their businesses without bumper-to-bumper traffic stuck outside their door all day.