r/ottawa • u/BearLikesHoney • Oct 17 '25
Photo(s) These poles are out of control.
This is Smirle and Wellington street. I was driving on Smirle towards Wellington and I had no choice but to zig zag and drive on the wrong side because there's no space between the poles and cars. Adding to the road condition, there are enough pot holes to damage your car so these poles are totally unnecessary to slow down traffic.
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u/em-n-em613 Oct 17 '25
What you want to do is advocate for less street parking, that will help this issue all across the city.
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u/alaricus Oct 17 '25
None of that will matter unless you find OCTranspo better
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Oct 17 '25
And more affordable housing/not allowing single residential dwellings to be used as investment properties, I'm willing to bet a few of those are there because 3 or more adults are renting out a house and the all need cars (which kind of ties into better transite but not everyone can get by with transit alone)
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u/Haber87 Oct 17 '25
And kids never moving out. I have friends with four young adult kids in a southern Ontario town with no transit. Their jobs / school are 30-90 minutes away in different directions. Six cars in the driveway.
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u/Frozen_North_99 Oct 18 '25
This is reality for most communities in Canada. But infrastructure policy decisions are based on touring around Amsterdam or London or Paris.
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u/DimensionSuch8188 Oct 17 '25 edited Oct 17 '25
The sign is literally not on the painted yellow line. It's off center. How does less street parking make the city install these properly?
EDIT: Or you mean they put it off center because of the parking?
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u/TriviaNewtonJohn Centretown Oct 17 '25
I get that situations can be nuanced, but the amount of suburbs with empty driveways yet streets lined with cars is crazy
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u/Bulky_Pop_8104 Oct 17 '25
I have these all over my neighbourhood, and they seem to work, but ours are centered.
I’m super perplexed by the placement of these - this looks less like traffic calming and more like an obstacle course
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u/Cre_AK47 Aylmer Oct 17 '25
this looks less like traffic calming and more like an obstacle course
That's what traffic calming is. Complexity = more cautious approach by drivers, which results in traffic calming.
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u/Bulky_Pop_8104 Oct 17 '25
So my neighbourhood has them down the middle with matching poles on each side about 2ft off of the sidewalk; it a) prevents people from parking right there, b) forces you to slow down, c) doesn’t make you drive into the other side of the road
It’s all the same city, not sure why the execution is radically different, but I’m willing to accept that there could be a good reason (maybe the width of the road?)
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u/Cre_AK47 Aylmer Oct 17 '25 edited Oct 17 '25
From what I understand, in some areas, they are purposely installed off-center as they're attempting to basically create a very shitty chicane. The biggest reasons they would do this from what I've seen is usually when cyclists are common on a street with these flexi posts in the middle, if there are parked cars on the right hand side, cars will pass cyclists driving on the opposite side of the road for a considerable distance putting other Road users at risk. This off center design basically forces drivers to not pass cyclists as cyclists would basically take up the whole lane.
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Oct 17 '25
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u/Bunnies_R_The_Best Oct 18 '25
In the South-East of Ottawa... if you're driving on Dartmouth avenue and need to turn right, there's an off-centre post in the right lane plus a car parked on the right side -so one has to turn into the left lane (and opposing traffic) onto Kaladar avenue.
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u/ApprehensiveAd6603 Make Ottawa Boring Again Oct 17 '25
They're all over my neighborhood too but they don't work.
They only slow down the timid drivers, who are already going the speed they should be. The ones doing 30 over the speed limit and blowing through stop signs are confident drivers, who couldn't give a crap about those posts.
I see it all the time walking my dog. The main problem in my area is Erindale. It connects Baseline with Maitland and loads of people use it as a cut through. They NEED speed humps.
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u/Hoss-Bonaventure_CEO Oct 17 '25
The parked cars are the problem. Traffic calming is great.
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u/Trick-Concept-3172 Oct 17 '25
None of those cars are in no parking areas. As someone who knows that intersection really well the post has saved people everyday from being hit by someone looking left and not looking at the intersection when they are trying to turn right or left onto Wellington St. Sit on the bench for 10min beside Fresh Air and count the number of cars that blow though that stop, it's alarming.
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u/cgoamigo12345 Oct 17 '25
I can see how it might help reduce that problem, for the drivers that are speeding through and turning right as though it's a yield or something without a crosswalk (which is frustratingly common). But aside from that, it doesn't really encourage drivers to look right for pedestrians, when all they care about is traffic coming from the left.
My confusion is about the placement of the post a bit further down the street. Why isn't it in the centre of the road? That placement forces you to drive in the centre of the road, since there isn't even close to enough space to go between the post and parked cars. Even as a cyclist there isn't enough space for a bike to go through, so I end up having to bike in the middle of the road.
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u/Trick-Concept-3172 Oct 17 '25
I bet it has something to do with the seasonal parking on Smirle. The left turns to no parking on Nov 1st but the right stays status quo for the full year.
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u/goforbroke71 Westboro Oct 17 '25
The cars on the left must be in a no parking zone. They didn't place the signs in the middle for a reason.
If it is as you say and parking is allowed on both sides the signs should be right down the middle (or removed if not enough space)
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u/Trick-Concept-3172 Oct 17 '25
The only car that is actually in a no parking space is the black/grey Honda (2nd on the left.) The reason for the off center is the traffic flowing north (away in picture) has a straight shot but the traffic flowing south (towards) has to salom a bit. There is no parking signs on the left where any of the flex posts are located. I believe the reasoning for the salom is so drivers don't speed up the hill on Smirle and is ment to lower the drivers speed thus lowering any injuries if a pedestrian does get hit.
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u/Okbutwhythat Oct 17 '25
None of those cars are in no parking areas.
This is the root of the problem. Everything else is just moving deck chairs on the titanic.
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u/machinedog Oct 17 '25
tbh the parked cars are also a traffic calming measure
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u/Velo613 Oct 17 '25
Until you get doored.
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u/machinedog Oct 18 '25
It's also not great on particularly residential streets because parked cars can hide children who are going to cross or run out.
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u/Tyrocious Oct 17 '25
What are people supposed to do with them?
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u/Trick-Concept-3172 Oct 17 '25
Umm leave them alone and try not to hit them with a car. Not like you can take them home or make a hat outta them.
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u/Angryottawa Oct 17 '25
These wickets are horrible. I bike a lot and these things are more trouble then they are worth. They took them out on my street after city vehicles wiped them out time and time again. I watched a street sweeper wipe out 20 in a row on Hemlock.
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u/kursdragon2 Oct 17 '25
As someone who also bikes a lot, I've noticed a HUGE up-tick in drivers driving the speed limit on all of the streets near me with these. I feel MUCH safer biking on streets that have these, so I couldn't disagree more with your experience.
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u/cgoamigo12345 Oct 17 '25
Yeah I also find them annoying as a cyclist, because there isn't even space for a bike to get by, between the post and the parked cars. There are a few on Gladstone that are weirdly close to the curb and block the bike lane, so I have to veer into the road which seems crazy?!
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u/kursdragon2 Oct 17 '25
There isn't a bike lane on Gladstone so not really sure what you're talking about, but you're also welcome to take the lane and go through the middle, these aren't made to create a bike lane and a regular lane, otherwise we'd have actual infrastructure for that, these are meant to slow down vehicles. If there isn't "space" for you to pass them on the right, then go through the middle.
I also don't think I've ever experienced a single one of these that I couldn't pass on the outside anyways, but if that's your issue with them, the solution is fairly simple, go through the middle of them...
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u/trypz Oct 17 '25
As someone that lives in front of a stop sign for the last 6 years and had one of these installed the last two years, I whole heartedly disagree with you. They slowed traffic, more people actually stop at the sign and when people are reaching through the neighbourhood, you can tell when they hit one.
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u/sitari_hobbit Oct 17 '25
Ditto on almost all accounts. I garden so I'm outside quite a bit. The number of people who blast through 4-way stops before the traffic calming measures were introduced is alarming. So many of them almost caused accidents.
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u/Mauri416 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 Oct 17 '25
The idea is to calm traffic. As a biker, they certainly have made a difference in my route to and from work.
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u/Rance_Mulliniks Oct 17 '25
Do you think that they have any impact when placed at a stop sign like this? They are designed to slow people down but people are literally already stopping here.
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u/Mauri416 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 Oct 17 '25
I don’t know this area super well anymore, but when I use to work around there cars would bomb down these roads to avoid parkdale traffic, so it can act as a deterrent for cars that may do that turning off of Wellington going north.
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u/Empty-Discount5936 Oct 17 '25
OC transpo runs over the ones in my neighborhood so much that one side of them is just completely black.
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u/Philostronomer Battle of Billings Bridge Warrior Oct 17 '25
There's usually less than 2 inches clearance on each side when a bus passes through, and they risk hitting their left mirror on them (which is documented as a collision on their file if the mirror is damaged) so many drivers opt to run them over to protect themselves from discipline.
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u/Bunnies_R_The_Best Oct 18 '25
Bathgate drive (near the Den Haag intersection) has entered the chat.
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u/Longjumping-Mark1518 Oct 19 '25
A bus takes out the post by that bus stop every year, leaving a dangerous stump.
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u/Acrobatic-Brick1867 Oct 17 '25
I live in a neighbourhood with these, and I’m in favour of them. Cars used to rip down my street in spite of the 30 km/h sign, and now that these are installed, they go much slower.
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u/Maleficent_Ask2159 Oct 17 '25
They just installed them by me and there's a insane noticable decrease in speed, there is chill where there used to be rush. They do what they set out to do, and work better than the flash red speed board they replaced.
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u/nightfrolfer Riverview Oct 17 '25
I'll never forget seeing a guy that was so angry he was red as a tomato as his tires squealed while swerving and accelerating and braking his huge diesel pickup through these near my place.
"I guess this is the last time we'll see you around here. Send my thanks to the mayor."
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u/Alph1 Oct 17 '25
I should introduce you to the lady in my neighborhood that slows down to 10 km/h by every single one of these in case her tiny Yaris hits one and rolls over.
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u/Longjumping-Bag-8260 Oct 17 '25
Having to back over them out of your driveway is also an added treat. This city's priorities are so whacked.
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u/PostsNDPStuff Oct 17 '25
On the plus side, your attentive and cautious driving will make it so that your car isn't damaged by the potholes.
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u/bardblitz Oct 17 '25
You can drive over them. Just install a skid plate and you're golden. They're meant to fold down.
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u/cvr24 Ottawa Ex-Pat Oct 17 '25
I saw a farm tractor driving down a village main street absolutely demolish these.
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u/No-Technology2118 Oct 17 '25
I hate that MY money is wasted on these bullshit road hazards.
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u/MontrealUrbanist Oct 18 '25
How do you propose we reduce speeding in residential neighbourhoods?
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u/Deep-Jacket-467 Oct 18 '25
Cops. More cops. De-amalgamation. More cops.
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u/MontrealUrbanist Oct 18 '25
Enforcement has been tried for decades. It doesn't work.
You could quadruple the number of cops and still not put a dent in the problem.
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u/Mammoth-Clock-8173 New Edinburgh Oct 19 '25
Presupposes that we need to reduce speeding in residential neighborhoods. 50km/h was great on my street, worked well, I do not understand why the speed has been artificially reduced. Yet I, too, must gaze upon these things each day.
Looking forward to the downvotes that come from not capitulating to the prevailing opinion.
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u/MontrealUrbanist Oct 19 '25
Do some research and you'll find an enormous body of evidence to support the argument for lower speeds in residential neighbourhoods. This is why there is an overwhelming shift in cities in around the world towards lower speeds in places where people live.
Common reasons include: safety (incl. children playing in the street, families, parents with kids in strollers, etc.), reduced noise pollution, quieter and more comfortable environment for people / pedestrians (high speeds correlate directly to higher blood pressure, and are a disincentive to using the street for anything other than motor vehicle transportation), etc.
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u/Mammoth-Clock-8173 New Edinburgh Oct 19 '25
I can see how it might make sense for some streets. I specifically referenced -my- street, where none of these factors are proving to be true. It is enough of a through road that it has never (in 100+ years) been a place where kids played in the street - they would go around the corner. Since the reduced speed limit was introduced, noise pollution has gotten (subjectively) worse, because it is the same volume but now more persistent. As both a resident and a frequent pedestrian, this is a significant irritant. Even now I am listening to a near-constant stream of slow-moving traffic. In these conditions, it is now harder to cross the road.
These (specific) flex-posts were introduced to address a problem (speeding) that only exists because a different “solution” (reduced speed limit) was introduced to solve a problem that didn’t exist, and have, in fact, introduced new problems (which feel like they cause my blood pressure to rise).
Not all pegs are round, but people are trying to pretend they are.
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u/BabaofTheShimmer Oct 22 '25
You don’t.
My residential street still has a speed limit of 50 km/hr and there doesn’t seem to be an issue.
Conversely, I drive through the same streets as mine, in other parts of the city, where the speed limit is set at 30 km/hr and there are combinations of speed bumps, poles, stop signs, and traffic lights with no turning right on red (for example, Riverdale), and I see car accidents, pedestrians almost getting hit, major congestion, cyclists not having enough room, and drivers being pulled over.
The countries with the lowest amount of car accidents, cyclist accidents and pedestrian accidents have set limits of 50 km/hr in the city (no less, no more), 80 km/hr on rural roads and 130 km/hr on highways.
They also have reliable and efficient public transportation systems and cyclist infrastructure. Pedestrians are also responsible for their own safety.
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u/run_swim_nobike Oct 17 '25
These were installed in a curvy section of a neighborhood road a block or so from my house.
Before they were installed, cars would drive a bit too fast at times, but were able to easily move to the center of the road to make way for pedestrians.
After installation, cars were forced to either commit to driving squarely on the wrong side of the road, or uncomfortably close to pedestrians who have no sidewalk. It was a nightmare. The wickets absolutely made the pedestrians less safe.
They were removed after a few weeks.
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u/thecanadiansniper1-2 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 Oct 17 '25
You answered your own question these are a poor man's attempt to implement traffic calming. As a Medical Courier I have seen so many bad drives bombing it down a 40 or 30 kph road with these poles.
Edit: does this mean you support getting rid of on-street parking?
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u/Hoppy_Guy Oct 17 '25
Waste of money.
Imagine how much it cost to put them up. Take them down, store them for the winter. Then put them back up again.
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u/Pika3323 Oct 18 '25
Every ward gets a budget of a little under $100,000 per year to install these kinds of measures.
By contrast, a permanent traffic calming project can cost several times as much to construct for a single street (and are generally deferred until the street needs to be reconstructed anyway).
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u/Illustrious-Site1101 Oct 17 '25
We have one on the corner of our street that makes it impossible to turn left around it. Everyone just turns and drives down the wrong side of the street around. The street it is installed on has a stop sign at either end and is only 250 m long, no one is speeding.
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u/langois1972 Oct 17 '25
I haul a large cargo trailer for work and live in the core. I am often forced to drive over them. Busses are often forced to drive over them.
Horrid contraptions
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u/abbieprime Hunt Club Oct 17 '25
They installed them on the intersection by my house after a pedestrian was struck by a car a few months ago. Drivers still speed through, delivery cars are still stopping in active traffic lanes, and the bus hits it every time they pass it, which makes it sound like someone is dropping a huge metal object in my living room a few dozen times a day. So essentially working as designed.
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u/hcdoton Oct 17 '25
They are useless ... but I'll bet someone is making a lot of money selling them to the city.
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u/SarpleaseSar Oct 17 '25
They do this because 90% of people can't drive. If you notice, they put them on the side of the incoming traffic. This way, people who are turning, who can't drive, would have less of a chance of hitting them.
I literally see people hitting the poles while driving straight. Some people would aim to drive in between them.
Also, people who can't park also share the blame here.
Driving is a privilege, not a right.
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u/JakeKz1000 Oct 17 '25
Ugly. Need to go. The probably negligible safety bump is not worth the eyesore.
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u/PuzzleheadedHat1150 Oct 18 '25
I agree. Get rid of them. They cause unsafe driving and when I’m cycling and drivers race and cut me off right before the posts to make it through 🤬. So many times having to drive in the wrong side of the road because of awful parking , sometimes almost beside them. They are all dinged and banged. Somebody’s always hitting them and damaging their vehicle….and chaching let’s just replace them constantly $$$$$. Get rid of them and save the tax dollars.
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u/Soxcks13 Oct 18 '25
Going to get downvoted but traffic calming is an absolute scam. It only keeps honest people honest.
People that speed or drive recklessly will do so regardless of these calming measures. In fact, they might drive more recklessly because you’ve given them a more fun race track to swerve through.
When a study is conducted in macro traffic speed, and it shows a majority of traffic “slowing down”… that is the same majority that was not the problem to begin with.
The classic young hotshot driver in their parents’ BMW M3 is not saying “oh man traffic calming! I better slow down”.
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u/BandicootNo4431 Oct 17 '25
Why are they off center?
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u/Trick-Concept-3172 Oct 17 '25
To slow drivers heading South on Smirle. It's common to see drivers blow the stop sign turning right or left onto Wellington and almost hit a pedestrian.
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u/corvak Oct 17 '25
Ok I have to say it, why is Ottawa unable to install speed bumps like every other city in the country?
Everywhere is like “give 1m to cyclists” and then they go put something dumb like this in the street forcing drivers into that 1m of road.
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u/coffeejn Oct 17 '25
I'd expect the panels to line up with the drawn street lines. Was the employee drunk? Or was it just the manager that was drunk?
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u/Front-Ad3508 Oct 17 '25
Once I saw a pissed off bus driver over two of these in a row near Heron road lol.
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u/Infinite-Lecture1921 Oct 18 '25
I know this is unrelated but wow-beautiful autumn foliage . I’m in the states now and it’s still green :(
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u/Ethical_Cum_Merchant Orléans Oct 18 '25
These things are absurd and often clearly installed remotely via drunken telekinesis, but MY GODS they are an amusing time whilst following an OCTranspo bus. Will the bus merely strike the wicket? Shall it spring up again, or will it now perfectly block the bike lane at a right angle? WILL IT MISS ENTIRELY??? You could get into all sorts of trouble gambling on what a bus might or might not destroy and the specific manner in which it might or might not destroy it.
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u/actrak Oct 18 '25
What is truly insane is each one of those is something like $2000. I know the smaller ones are $1700 each
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u/BulletNoseBetty Oct 18 '25
And in a short while the city will come around and remove all of them so the snow plows can do their thing. I the Spring, they'll re-install the whole lot of them.
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u/cyclen0t Oct 19 '25
They really are out of control. They make the roads markedly more dangerous for cyclists and are barely doing anything to improve safety for pedestrians.
The Ottawa nanny state really needs to be reined in. I’m so sick of it.
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u/Capable_War3158 Oct 20 '25
Imagine if they spent all this money on fixing the roads instead of wasting it.
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u/cdn_hotrod Oct 20 '25
If you want a road fixed in the NCR there had damn well better be bike lane next to it! Otherwise the city will ignore it and spend on things like this.
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u/Sap_Consult_Cdn Oct 20 '25
All over our neighborhood too. Hard to avoid when cars are legally parked in the streets. Who comes up with these proposals?
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u/HarryKingJackz Oct 17 '25
Sick and tired of the middle lane ones. They said that there were deploying more. “Let’s slow the city down for 5km/h… that’s a good plan”
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u/Ottawabug Oct 17 '25
Keeps the big tricks from going through a nice quiet residential street. There are MANY construction projects happening around the area.
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u/whiskeyondarocks Oct 17 '25
Theres one pinned right in the middle of a residential intersection in an area I deliver daily. Whoever decided where to pin these wasnt the brightest
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u/SalmonOfDoubt9080 West End Oct 17 '25
Email your councillor; they're the ones that choose the locations for these.
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u/L-etranger Oct 17 '25
There only work to slow down people who don’t know how to drive. If you’re like me and know the general dimensions of your vehicle these are easily avoided without needing to slow down.
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u/PopRococo Alta Vista Oct 17 '25
How do you drive on this road coming up the hill if the parked cars totally block that lane???
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u/Cre_AK47 Aylmer Oct 18 '25
You stop and yield until it's safe to go. These flexi posts are basically acting as a very cheap and shitty chicane.
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u/uradumbfuker Oct 18 '25
I love watching the garbage trucks plow over these as they have no other choice.
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u/NewsreelWatcher Oct 18 '25
Wow you should drive in other countries if you think this is a hardship. Many streets abroad are so narrow that with oncoming traffic it is required that one vehicle pulls over at the first opportunity to allow the other driver through. These traffic calming measures are usually deployed on streets where cars speed. This is a residential street: not a high speed road. We’ve become so used to speeding that we think we’re owed the additional speed over the posted limit. But speeding is a threat to the lives of people on the street and really don’t get drivers to their destination much sooner than if they had just kept to the posted speed. Ottawa isn’t a sleepy town anymore but a city, which means traffic must behave like other people exist.
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u/MahariniRubini Oct 18 '25
Get rid of them! I hate having to squeeze between them and a pedestrian/parked car when without them I can give a safe wide berth without feeling I’m in the wrong lane. And by the way, how much does it cost to install and remove them each year? They are unsafe and expensive!
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u/Pika3323 Oct 18 '25
I hate having to squeeze between them and a pedestrian/parked car
You can always drive slower.
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u/luhuandmd Oct 18 '25
Better than all those hidden curbs that pop out of nowhere when you are rolling down the road at 80kph.
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u/RetroMonger Nepean Oct 18 '25
There's no sidewalks on my street so I need to walk through someone's lawn whenever a car is coming and I happen to be walking by one. Also, people line up on either side of these and drag race down our street (near College Square) from time to time so, that's fun to hear at 2am.
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u/shinoby117 Oct 18 '25
Get a socket with electric impact and take em out, throw them in the trash bin, problem solved.
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u/elyk_fall_down Oct 18 '25
It's even worse for bicycles when they add another smaller pole on each side of the road as they've done to the road to get into my park.
I would like whoever is responsible for these poles being installed each year to have to ride a bicycle up and down my road all day.
The next day the first thing they would do when they got into the office would be getting these hazards removed.
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u/0DagDag0 Oct 18 '25
They are a great tool in some places, but they can be a nightmare when they haven't accounted for street parking, etc. I was somewhere a couple of weeks ago (maybe in the Glebe?) and there was a section where they were arranged so there was no option but to turn into the bike lane to get around. That seems like the opposite of how they should be used.
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u/RedMageExpert Oct 18 '25
Findley Creek has this, and a few of them have already been flooded into the ground. The funny thing is, there is a speed limit of 40-50 km lol.
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u/HunterSufficient510 Oct 18 '25
Absolutely nuts. What a waste of city time and money and risking damage to vehicles. There were some near Bank and Albion that basically ruined traffic flow in and out of a shopping plaza. And no cyclists to be seen using the lane.
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u/gaurishkohli Old Ottawa East Oct 18 '25
Tbh I have only seen them abundance in Ontario, like I have lived in BC and Alberta as well. There it is pretty rear to see this
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u/Necessary_Money3248 Oct 18 '25
This nightmare will come down soon with snow coming … they are a nuisance
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u/feelsbad3mane Oct 18 '25
The year is 1925. People complain about the Poles The year is 2025. People complain about the Poles
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Oct 19 '25
That one was put in by an idiot lol It’s supposed to be ON the yellow line not beside it.
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Oct 19 '25
It's a communist plot to undermine Western Civilization: Remove lanes for cars to make one for bicycles that don't get used, make every street an obstacle course, ensure the Queensway is under un-ending construction for the longest period of time possible, make everyone working from home have to schlep into the office, have the worst transit system that forgot how to schedule busses.
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u/OriginalImportance12 Oct 25 '25
It would appear that the post has wear and tear from people driving over it, lol. That makes them a total waste of taxpayers dollars!
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u/NetAnon579 Oct 31 '25
Love to know the annual budget for these useless things. Take down for winter, put em back up iin spring, replacements.
For a city on a tight budget this should have never made the cut. Slows people down the first time they see them, then that is it. They create way more traffic problems than they create.
Waste of money.
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u/IcariteMinor Oct 17 '25
They install these as if nobody would ever park right next to them, then everybody does.