Wise Street Sidewalk

As part of the City’s ongoing efforts to make it easier to get around Kingston through active modes of transportation and improved pedestrian safety, a new sidewalk is being constructed along the west side Wise Street between Megan’s Street and Woodbine Road.

Community input was collected through the City’s online Get Involved Kingston platform from Feb. 8 to Feb 24, 2023, this input has informed the locations for benches to be placed along Wise Street as part of the upcoming sidewalk construction.

Summary of Feedback and Responses

During the engagement, 257 visitors viewed the Get Involved Kingston project page, five of whom offered feedback through the interactive maps by dropping pins to mark locations they would like to see future rest areas or provide additional comments specific to that location. Overall 13 comments were received, three regarding rest area location and 10 were contained additional comments.

Participants noted a desire for benches to be placed in the general area of the intersection of Wise Street and Woodbine Road as well as a location at the mid block point along Wise Street located at the intersection of Wise and Megan’s Streets. The proposed locations will be reviewed taking into consideration AODA requirements and existing constraints within the right of way to determine the best placements.

The map below depicts the general locations selected by participants that were considered by staff.

The City also received comments and questions regarding the proposed design and scope of work. The comments are provided below grouped by theme. Comments are copied verbatim and may contain errors.

Construction and design concerns related to the sidewalk

Can sidewalks not be so slopey that two can’t walk side by side without one person being on a slant? The whole city is full of these crazy sidewalks—good for cars going into driveways but bad for pedestrians, especially older, in wheelchairs etc.

I understand that re-ditching is within the scope of this scope of this project. I assume that this will include the replacement or repair of the entrance culverts where necessary? Many have damaged inlets and outlets. There is also frequent ponding in this stretch of the road and within the ditches.

Concerns about the current state of the roadway

road pavement needs to be redone. The road is full of potholes and floods out in many parts along the road.

The original portion of Wise St is in immediate need of road resurfacing. The potholes and uneven pavement needs to be addressed at the same time as the sidewalk installation. Vehicles swerving to avoid poor road conditions will cause a hazard for pedestrians especially in the section of sidewalk adjacent to the roadway.

Concerns about street lighting

There is not enough lighting on Wise Street and not safe to walk on the street currently.

There is a serious lack of adequate street lighting in the original portion of Wise St. There are sections that are very dark due to a lack of overhead lighting. With the increase in pedestrian traffic expected now that a sidewalk will exist, their safety needs to be addressed by increasing the lighting so that they may travel safe on this section of Wise St. The modern portion of Wise St (western section) has overhead lighting on every utility pole, that is not the case on this section of Wise St. This is the time to modernize and provide safety for this section of Wise St. (Note: this comment was received twice).

Suggestions to improve the pedestrian experience

It may be worth assessing whether to add a pedestrian warning signal here, depending on how much pedestrian crossings increase after the sidewalk is opened. I would recommend signs and paint and see how it goes from there.

A garbage can located on this pedestrian pathway could be beneficial - especially due to the amount of dog walkers in the area

What's next?

This project is currently in the design phase following the public feedback. Construction is expected to take place later in 2024.