Buses trunle around town regularly carrying no-one but the driver.
At night, inthe dark,I think of a movie I saw when I was a child ,around about the time of SnowWhite and the Seven Dwarfs. It was called The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with a headless horseman galloping wildly through the forest terrorizing all who saw him.
It's hard to see there's a driver in the bus , let alone passengers.
A couple of years ago, Council was notified a bus run on Industrial Parkway was to be cancelled.
Councillor Gaertner objected.
Council referred the matter to the Chamber of Commerce. They objected. .
It was cancelled. We never noticed or heard from anyone inconvenienced by the cancellation.
Since then, concrete pads of different sizes have been laid at bus stops that I never knew were there. Never saw a passenger waiting or walking . Never saw a person dismounting from a bus. .
If there are any, I believe we can be assured they are being transported by bus. They are not walking.
Nevertheless we are to build sidewalks on both sides of Industrial Parkway to connect the concrete pad bus stops. .
The project is so huge it must be undertaken in four phases.
The last figure I heard was $2 million.
One hundred and forty street trees will be removed from our urban forest to make way for concrete sidewalks for invisible pedestrians and passengers transported by heavily subsidized buses driven by a lonely bus driver.
The trees to be destroyed are probably along the road that services Sheppard's Bush on one side and the railway on the other..
Services is somewhat of a misnomer, since there are no buildings on either side of that serpentine right of way.
Removing trees on the Sheppard's Bush side will expose the rusty five foot high chain link fence that serves no useful purpose.
Behind it , there's a weed infested berm that can't be maintained.
That's a misnomer as well.
It's a pile of road rubble stashed there to save money from disposing of it properly.
It obscures the view of the playing fields. Like the passing traffic might somehow interfere with the games. .
It takes up space that might be better used for parking and yes, a pathway for potential pedestrians and people on scooters.Or even mayhap, straighten the crazy bends in the road.
The road should be dubbed Timpson's Folly. It got him elected.
ReplyDeleteIt is my understanding from a statement made some time ago that it is "POLICY" that requires sidewalks to be installed on BOTH sides of Industrial Parkway, all the way from Yonge Street in the south to St. John's Sideroad in the north. What is the specific POLICY and when was it established?
By the way, Windy is always objecting to something or other.
I would suggest in the strongest possible terms that policies can be unmade as quickly as they are made.
Just look at the ludicrous breach of the Procedural Bylaw this past couple of weeks when a decision of Council concerning the awarding of a contract to the Auroran for the town's Billboard was overturned - quite illegally. There was also a memo from the CAO in connection with this matter that made no sense whatsoever.
It appears that members of Council and the CAO were completely at sea in a leaking raft without an oar, and were doomed to suffer a watery end.
If Council cannot deal intelligently with something as simple as a town Billboard ad, how in blazes do we get into a situation where a massive capital expenditure of $2million has been de facto approved as a part of the town's POLICY?
Can anyone demonstrate why sidewalks are required? Possibly Windy should conduct a walk to explain the merits.
Further, it is my understanding that all those little concrete patches built for designated bus stops were financed by the Region.
If this is the case, here is another reason for doing away with Regional government. Fisch, Fisch - go away!
What happened to Mr Timpson? I met him once when he was on the Traffic- Advisory board. I think he was the 'chair ' because he sat at the head of that table & ordered the others around. He was actually funny - started out by saying we were wasting our time & he ' did not do ' Stop Signs. Eventually the Council of that day decided that they did do Stop Signs.
ReplyDeleteWhat will it add to the annual budget to clear all those miles of sidewalks that no one will use? Just asking if it has been considered.
ReplyDelete