"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Saturday 19 February 2011

About Options

Children in the family usually means the desired objective is to live on a street with minimal traffic.

The sound of a train horn, three shorts one long,is unbearable, the desired option is not to live n a house backing on to a railroad track.

The circumstances are different. The option is the same.

Do not buy a house on a street designed to collect cars from dozens of smaller streets and carry them to major traffic arteries.

Do not buy a property with a yard that slopes up to an embankment that carries a track the carries a train that crosses two roads equidistant that blows a long horn to warn cars it's a comin' down the track lickety split.

It's not a good idea even if the council is only too willing to commit however much public money , to create the illusion a remedy is at hand and it is not for the home-owner with sensitive hearing to move to a house that doesn't have the problem.

Councils are elected. Chances are the great unwashed masses will notice taxes increasing faster than their means to pay for stuff that has nothing to do with their best interest.

At the moment, at least a couple of new collector roads are experiencing speeding problems. The problem is not new. It's as old as the automobile.

It's the reason we have thousands of police oficers on the public payroll.And a hefty one it is.

A traffic engineer is part of a town's staff complement. He advises Council on regulation warrants and such that justify certain constraints on traffic to conrol hazards created by drivers.Usually in their own neighbourhoods.

The municipality pre-spends millions on planners and engineers to ensure road alignments are such as to provide for safe and smooth movement of traffic
engendered by the new homes to be built.

Houses fill up, traffic spills out just as intended.

But the amount and speed was never envisioned by home-owners on the collectors. Changes are demanded. Politicians are spooked. Demands are accommodated.

The Regulation urban speed is 50 Kliks. Despite professional advice, speed limit is lowered to 40 kliks. So simple...right?

Wrong.

The Pols can pick whatever airy-fairy number they choose.They do not enforce speed limits.

Police officers do or don't, as the case may be.

Only an officer of the law,on the spot,can order a driver to stop and receive a ticket.

Only an officer understands through experience,a ticket issued where regulation urban speed limit is 50 kliks but the sign says forty, is unlikely to stick and is not worth the paper on which it is printed.

We spend millions on manpower, vehicles, radar equipment and all it takes to control speeding drivers.

Then we do something dumb like tampering with the regulation urban speed limit. The speed at which all drivers, including traffic court judges, police officers, sergeants, superintendents and chief's expect to be able to drive in an urban area. We sabotage the efforts of the only method of enforcement we have,on pain of penalty of fines and demerit points,to drive at a safe and reasonable speed.

We do it because homeowners believe it's right.

It's not..

The pols don't want to argue with homeowners. Traffic engineers don't argue with the pols. Police don't need to argue with people who are not the bosses of them. They are officers of the law. They know what they know.

Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. Frustrations grows.Money and manpower are spent. Nothing is accomplished.

If an accident happens and someone is injured and an investigation shows advice of a professional was rejected....

Well what do you think?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid, my parents bought a house in Mississauga that backed onto a very busy rail line. The GO Train came and went several times a day and the other track was a very busy freight line. The house itself was in serious need of some TLC, which may explain why my parents were able to afford it. We had those old single pane windows that rattled fiercely when the trains passed by. In the beginning we thought we would go crazy with the noise of the constant rail traffic and the rattling windows.

You know what? We got used to it. It wasn’t more than a month or two before we hardly noticed it. It just became part of the everyday noise of the neighbourhood. There were benefits. Our backyards were more than double the size of our neighbours on the opposite side of the street and we had a very sturdy fence that was well maintained by CN. The folks planted a few trees out back for some privacy and after a few years they were able to afford new windows. As a kid, it was nirvana to my sister and me not having to live in an apartment anymore and share a bedroom. After we left home, the folks sold that house for more than double what they paid for it.

Where I live now, I have a very small home with a decent size backyard that was more than big enough for my children and their friends to play in. When my kids were little, they did play hopscotch on the driveway and ride their bikes on the street, but only when I was outside to supervise them. When the kids got older we replaced the swing set with an above ground pool. Enticing my children to play in their own backyard has never been an issue. The street is busy, and there are idiots who speed without regard for the children and families that live there. A fairly busy through street like mine may be undesirable to some, but when the snow comes my street is ploughed and the sidewalks are cleared post haste. Some of the less travelled roads in the area sometimes wait 2-3 days for clean-up.

My point being, that having all the urban amenities in a quiet rural setting is a lifestyle beyond the reach of the average middle class family. Trade offs have to be made. It is that simple. If you don’t like the noise of trains, don’t buy a home close to a track. If you buy a big home on a postage stamp lot, make sure there is a park close by for your children to play in. If you are buying a home in a new development, check out the surrounding area, make sure your neighbourhood will offer the amenities that you want. Don’t believe anything the developer tells you; their main interest is selling you a home, not making sure the neighbourhood is the right fit for your needs.

Regards,
Luckywife

Anonymous said...

I wish the police would hand out a few tickets to those who park illegally on Conover outside Hartwell P.S. I have written many times about how parents park on both sides of Conover and their little ones run out from between cars to cross the road. In my opinion sooner or later there will be an unnecessary tragedy. The no parking signs are quite clear but they are ignored. York Regional police, where are you when you are needed?

Get a Grip said...

I think its way past time that our politicians stop pandering to the whining and bitching minority and start thinking about what's important. Cars speed and trains whistle, so get use to it, no one forces anyone to live anywhere , the choice is simple. if any two bit politician thinks they can create the Garden of Eden like that last bunch did they too will find themselves unemployed in four years