Still About Road Hazards

Elizabeth Bishenden has left a new comment on my post "An Age Old Lament About Traffic":

Evelyn, you give us all something to think about. The best part is that you don't mind a bit of discussion.

I don't think it is "insane" to consider adding "lumps and bumps" to some of Aurora's streets.

Look at some of the roads in this town.

Aurora Heights Blvd west of Haida is engineered as if it were carrying traffic that travels at 80km/hour or more. Guess what... it often does. The speed limit might be 50 km/hour, but anyone who has lived in that area can tell you that the speed limit is regularly exceeded. Who cares if it is the local residents or somebody from afar? The situation is still dangerous for pedestrians.

There are streets in our community that have either bad design or a design that is out-dated, and they are dangerous.

What is wrong with acknowledging that both road design and driver patterns are not what was expected when the road was built? What is wrong with making things better than what the builders gave the town?

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Elizabeth, I will take your last point first. roads are not  designed for pedestrians. They and driver patterns are exactly what they have always been since the advent of four wheeled vehicles . Even horses  galloped too fast  to be able to stop on a dime.

A road takes months to construct. It's done in full view of the passing throng. First there's the removal
 and finding a place to dump the  old material. Then there's the creation of the road bed. There's the grading with the huge machines.  Placement of various grades of material and in between each layer,  rolling and tamping, rolling and tamping and finally  grading and sidewalk constriction  for pedestrian safety and curbs to keep vehicles on the road and boulevards provided to store snow and separate pedestrians from vehicular traffic.

Prime purpose of a road is to allow vehicles to travel in a space separate from pedestrians.Grading is
 to allow rain and melting snow to drain away to catch basins.Water ,storm and sanitary sewers are accommodated in the road bed.

All of it designed for the amenity of  people whose homes front on  that road and others that lead to and from.

Millions  are spent on  roads designed  with every features  necessary to meet  the needs and safety of users.   I forgot to mention street lighting..

In your own neighbourhood , when   new roads were completed ,we proceeded to spend yet another $211.000. scattering concrete obstacles called chicanes here and there like cushions on a couch, to create deliberate hazards to compel drivers to use other roads. We added speed bumps. On top of that we closed off roads making it  impossible  for  people who live in the neighbourhood. to reach their homes without driving twice around the block. Using more gas and spewing  more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere while they are at it.

We reduced parking amenity with the infernal chicanes.

If the residents were informed they had to take it or leave it. I never heard about that.

We spent tax dollars on consultants to create a heritage neighbourhood. At one point we broke out a brand new sidewalk because  a couple of limp wrists said it wasn't in "keeping with the character" of the neighbourhood. We spent an additional $30Ks to replace it with a "roll-over" curb which isn't a curb at all. Eighteen months later it was such a mucky mess from vehicles  which   rolled over it, we had to pave with  interlocking stone to clean it up for pedestrians to walk without sinking the mire..

Elizabeth, yours is a charming  neighbourhood. It is old. It has all the flavour of heritage. By it's  nature, it is at  the core  of a developing town. Residents have  the amenity of being able to reach stores and other commercial and professional services and recreational facilities and programs  within walking distance. 

If your desire is to live, where  a hundred years ago.there  was  a village, it is not reasonable to  expect to  turn the clock back to  the days of  horse and buggy and enjoyment of quiet backwater streets You cannot have everything. At least not at my expense. .

If the entire town  must  pay what it costs to provide you with roads and sidewalks  and lighting,you should at least be prepared to share it with the rest of us.

If residents of  Aurora  Heights have drivers driving at excessive speed , they have to take the trouble to pick up the phone and let York Regional Police know about it. every time they see it.  Speeding tickets and de-merit points are the only reasonable and practical way to control speeding. And god knows that service is costly enough as well.

Throwing lumps and bumps about to make roads constructed at a cost of millions for safe movement of traffic, is insane I say.

I live on a backwater street. Not long after I moved here,  I realised the inconvenience of  every amenity  in the town, school, church, swimming pool, skating rinks, art classes at Church Street school. library, doctor not being within walking distance. I started to look in the old town for a handier alternative. Even  taxes were less for the  gracious old homes on  tree-lined streets.

Every time I came home to my ticky- tacky box ,where not an inch of space was wasted, where I could reach up and paint walls and ceilings without a ladder, (I even painted the eavestrough and windows once), which sat on a sixty-three foot wide lot on a street with shoulders for ample parking , and  a mortgage  I could afford, I was glad of it.

 The kids being able to learn to ride a bike in safety. play hockey or soccer or occasionally hit a ball with a  bat, or hop-scotch or skip rope on any part of the road we lived on or visit the salamander pond  and catch tadpoles, and play in a corn field or walk across the field to  watch a circus train one Sunday morning,  that was the offset for having to live beyond walking distance from all town amenities.

 I made a choice. We all make choices. It's not for me to tell anyone else what their choice should be.
But I'll be damned if I let someone else tell me I have an obligation  to fork out thousands of dollars in taxes to fulfill every fantasy out there, to create the illusion of life in the last century and enjoy all modern convenience at the same time.

Insane is what I said Elizabeth and insane is what I meant.

Pshaw!!!