The following article appeared in the November 11 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
A growing number of downtown merchants want to leave the light on for potential customers.
Downtown Guelph Business Association board member Lorenz Calcagno spoke to about 60 people Tuesday at the Alma Gallery about a plan to alter traffic signals and patterns, all in an effort to increase downtown traffic.
Lorenz — and several others — believe the pedestrian-friendly “scramble” style traffic lights, which simultaneously stop vehicular traffic in all directions and encourage cross-walking in all directions at St. Georges Square, drive potential customers around the downtown core and into residential neighbourhoods away from businesses.
“I think it’s an interesting concept,” said the city’s manager of economic development and tourism, Peter Cartwright, who attended the meeting. “Personally, I don’t like driving down Wyndham because of that light.”
Tom Dowd, who is a huge proponent of downtown Guelph and owns the Alma Gallery and a yoga studio, also dislikes the light.
“Everyone downtown talks about that stoplight. That light kills a lot of traffic,” he said. “I always joke that it’s the only time I get to read. I can pull out a novel and read a few pages while I wait.”
Calcagno said he’d like the city to reprogram the lights by the end of the year. He also wants traffic from Highway 24, also known as Wellington Street, rerouted up Wyndham Street and into the core — the way traffic flowed before changes were made in 1977. That year, Highway 24 was routed around the east of the city, between the river and the city’s eastern edge, to Eramosa Road.
Calcagno also noted that the bypass around Brantford’s downtown all but killed it. A slide show depicted decrepit vacant buildings in decay. And Calcagno said Georgetown’s downtown underwent a moot massive makeover because traffic from Highway 7 remains bypassed around the core.
“We’ve killed our downtown,” Dowd said, noting that several buildings remain vacant on the site of the proposed downtown library.
“We need to make our downtown busy,” Calcagno said.
He cited Erin, a town “in the middle of nowhere,” with no tourist destination and no bypass, has a vibrant downtown — and, according to Calcagno, rent three times as costly as Guelph’s — because traffic is force-fed through the core. He said Stratford, Kingston and Eugene, Ore., are similarly successful for the same reason.
“It only makes sense. The more traffic you get, the better business will be,” Dowd said. “And these are things we can readily change.”
Calcagno spoke with 18 different people, groups or organizations in preparation for his presentation, which drew a rousing round of applause.
“Now, we have to stop talking and start doing,” Dowd said. “We need to come together as a community and as a city.”