Traffic and parking study – Chelsea village centre sector

Ideally located at the entrance to Gatineau Park, the Chelsea village centre sector benefits form an advantageous urban setting, taking into account the residential offer, commercial vitality and accessibility to a major recreational site administered by the National Capital Commission (NCC).

CIMA+ conducted a mobility and parking study focusing on the challenges associated with requests for infrastructure assets from the municipality and the NCC, and from visitors and the local population, within the Chelsea village centre sector.

The key elements of the analyses that were conducted include multimodal mobility, accessibility, safety, fluidity and parking.

The evolving dynamic of local mobility, which feeds seasonal recreational attractions, along with the impact of the COVID‑19 health crisis, necessitated a series of surveys, traffic counts and various other observations. As a result, from the start of the mandate in the fall of 2019, before the beginning of the pandemic, to its completion in the fall of 2022, the mobility professionals assigned to the mandate analyzed multiple solutions involving various geometric and operational paths, resulting in the municipality of Chelsea and the NCC being able to optimize travel in accordance with a variety of contexts within a relatively limited sector, namely the Chelsea village centre sector.

The presence of multiple stakeholders with diverse interests meant that the project team had to adopt a rigorous consultation and coordination approach. In fact, in addition to the municipality of Chelsea and the NCC, a number of concerns expressed by citizens, commercial organizations, the Ministère des Transports du Québec, private developers and the public transit authority (Transcollines) were taken into consideration in the proposed solutions.

Therefore, within the context of the analyses that were conducted, the professionals from CIMA+ provided the municipality of Chelsea with recommendations concerning the following:

  • The geometry and operation of the Scott / Kingsmere / Old-Chelsea intersection. A number of options were developed and compared using multi-criteria analysis to evaluate performance in terms of fluidity, safety, operation and execution constraints;
  • The parking management strategy for the village centre, taking into account the interests of the NCC and commercial operators;
  • A proposal for the future layout of a public transit route with advanced autonomous technology;
  • The development of a strategy for implementing recommended measures in accordance with evolving contexts as a function of increasing recreational traffic, numerous new construction projects involving private developers and changing local mobility trends.

Executing the mandate enabled CIMA+ to provide the municipality of Chelsea with recommendations involving innovative layouts adapted to the local context and the concerns of the various stakeholders, following a coherent implementation sequence.

In addition, the changing realities linked primarily to new mobility trends following the health crisis, along with the need to consider the interests of a municipal council that was renewed during the course of the mandate, required a high degree of flexibility and adaptability with respect to the approach taken by the project team.

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