SHAPING OUR FINANCIAL FUTURE: ONLINE CITIZEN BUDGET REMARKS (Raw Comments from Monday, October 19 to Friday, November 13) What are your top priorities for Road Maintenance? What change(s) would you suggest? I would suggest that the City builds roads with a better base, so they don't need as many repairs in the future. For example, near the south end of Ashworth Holmes park, the old tram tracks can still be seen. They weren't removed before putting the road on top. I'm not an engineer, but I don't think putting a thin layer of pavement over the old tracks was the best way to construct the road. Maybe you can remove the pavement and start running trams again! It would improve our transit immensely. We have a large gap in our infrastructure accessibility. There are too many areas without sidewalks, including our industrial areas. We can't expect people to use transit if we do not give them sidewalks to get from their bus to work! I support increasing this portion of the budget so we may continue addressing our road infrastructure needs and begin addressing our need to retrofit and infill sidewalks/pathways. Stop sprawling out into the country and start DENSIFYING to properly use the infrastructure we have now. Better pothole maintenance and better street cleaning are needed. Sanding the roads in the winter should not mean we have to breathe dust and grit for five out of the other six months of the year. more money for fixing the deteriorating roads, especially for residential roads in older neighbourhoods Once again the city talks about how growth is straining the roads. If growth is NOT paying for itself, then we have a problem on how we are funding these roads by going back to existing ratepayers. Great progress so far. I'd keep funding similar. Leave as is but better protection of exisiting roadways that need attention. More outsourcing to the private sector would solve this problem of not getting to all the work that needs to be done this past summer. Build it right the first time! Already the intersection of Betts and 22nd St. W. had to be changed because you never took into consideration the amount of traffic that would be coming into and leaving Blairmore, and having to retroactively add left turn lanes when that could've been done from the start. You assumed 75,000 people would be living in the area, why didn't you build roads for that amount? new roads..you cannot keep adding new residential areas without new roads. Set some funding aside for crews to work at night to repair the existing roads we have to eliminate traffic congestion throughout the city Overpasses at busy intersections, Boychuk and McCormand, no potholes. FIX THE HOLES!!! I support the increase in the road maintenance budget that has already occurred. Use more expensive structure for long term construction life. Please also make clear to people that subgrade, base and subbase are just as important as the asphalt. Roads still not in good shape. So not sure how putting more money towards will make any difference. Make sure the jobs are done well and efficiently. Spend more money to ensure roads built properly instead of continual patching and repairs that are bound to fail in a short period of time or produce a rough ride. I'm primarily a driver but I want to see the city make more roads bicycle-friendly. I would suggest a serious look at efficiencies to be gained by reviewing ALL practices including staffing levels, duplication of repairs, management levels and practices, vehicle and equipment costs. We somehow need to find a solution to the many potholes on the Saskatoon roads. I don't know if there is a solution but it wouldn't hurt to consult with other cities that have a similar climate to ours and see how they deal with the problem. prioritize major road repair based on use, make sure preventative maintenance is a priority. Accessibility. Too many sidewalks are difficult for those with reduced mobility. This leaves them dependent on cars. pot holes and surface reconstruction as roads deteriate. Pot holes. Road Maintenance: Online Citizen Budget Remarks 1 SHAPING OUR FINANCIAL FUTURE: ONLINE CITIZEN BUDGET REMARKS (Raw Comments from Monday, October 19 to Friday, November 13) What are your top priorities for Road Maintenance? What change(s) would you suggest? Roads are still in bad shape overall in this city. However, we have to do things properly. The 40mm mill and fill on Wanuskewin Drive WILL fail within a year or two. This is entirely due to cheaping out by the city. We need to stop building more bridges, or reduce the amount of money spent on transit. The citizens of Saskatoon want to drive their cars. We need to reduce the amount of transit. The city with its electronic fares system knows which times and areas of the city do not use very much transit. These areas should have transit removed. The City knows what hours of the day transit is heavily used. Service should be reduced during hours that service is not used. Service should be provided for low income regions of Saskatoon (likely correlate with heavily used transit stopping points). In the outer richer areas of Saskatoon, Transit service should be limited to major shopping centers. Citizens wanting to use the bus should travel to the nearest largest shopping area. Extra money should be given to the Access area of transit. This is an area of transit that is in higher demand. Better planning as to getting roads done in one trip. Proper patching for pot holes. The pea gravel tar mix the city(or whoever the contractor is) dumps into them is terrible. More time and effort needs to go into building roads that do not crumble and fail 6 months after being paved. Better pot hole repairs. Actually fix the potholes and other things that are submitted! The dip at 33rd and ave P was reported by at least 3 people 3 different times and was never repaired. Bridges, potholes 2013 "dedicated tax amount " set for three years, 2014 extra year added to keep taxes down for 2015. Is this included in the proposed tax increase or is it on top of proposed increase for 2016? make sure things are fixed the right way. Fix the damn roads better communications between departments highly travelled roadways should receive priority Our city panders to drivers too much. If we want to generate successful alternative and mass transit we will need to scale back the amount of money used to enable our dependancy on single-occupant vehicles. As Jan Gehl said when he visited our city, we need to make it as attractive as possible to take alternative modes of transportation and detract from the appeal of single-occupant transportation. We've been feeding our children sugar and they will not be happy when we put them on a regimented diet, but as the adults in this situation, it is important to not just do what keeps them from throwing a tantrum, but which is better for their development. Continue to aggressively fill pot holes. I would like to see all roads in Saskatoon Paved. Reducing overtime costs! These costs should be minimized. Hold the line. The recent increases to maintain our roads has been beneficial. Now we need to stop building so many. Pot holes. Older areas like Nutana require more maintenance than they are currently getting. Potholes! Any road with 2 or more lanes in one direction - work 24hrs. North industrial is an embarrassment more efficient repair process - if crews are fixing one part of a street, they should fix all the potholes a few feet away! Repaving fix potholes. Use a product that dosen't need to be repaired every couple of years. I noticed some streets in WillowGrove were resurfaced this summer, a what 6 year old neighbour hood? Our are on the other hand had not seen any upgrades in 35 years. Pothole repair, roadway settling (evening out some areas), and bridge maintenance for effective traffic flow Prioritize bridge maintenance, but assess the need for snow removal to prevent pot holes on a yearly basis as some years it may not be as necessary as others. Please stop replacing roads that don't need replacement and replace the roads that do need work. We need common sense! I am fine to pay but, fix all the roads -on both sides of the river. I am tired of seeing my community roads being fixed with dirt/gravel. This is ridiculous! It doesn't work and it's a waste of our money. Road Maintenance: Online Citizen Budget Remarks 2 SHAPING OUR FINANCIAL FUTURE: ONLINE CITIZEN BUDGET REMARKS (Raw Comments from Monday, October 19 to Friday, November 13) What are your top priorities for Road Maintenance? What change(s) would you suggest? NOT new bridges that cost millions and millions and are PPPs retain improved streetsweeping and snow removal program, fix potholes especially in pre-war neighbourhoods. Don't do patch up ( in the winter) (XX) did terrible the first time, then another contractor had to come back (more $) & redo the whole street. McKercher for ei. potholes paving Roads in Saskatoon are still in very bad shapes, we have promises building better roads but those are not actually visible on major roads. I wouldn't adjust the Road Maintenance by paying more for this one item. Look at the budget as a whole and allocate it accordingly.