Here’s one for you –you won’t believe it – a photo-op at a traffic intersection. Your tax dollars at work.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  November 17, 2011 Halton Region is inviting the media to a photo opportunity of Halton dignitaries at Halton Region’s first multi-lane roundabout at Tremaine Road (Regional Road 22) and Main Street in Milton to celebrate the completion of the Tremaine Road widening.

 

Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr, The Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Labour and MP (Halton) and the Mayor of Milton, Gord Krantz, will be available for photos and interviews.

Designed to improve the flow of traffic - but is it worth holding a photo - op for?

Can you believe that these people are all going to show up at a traffic intersection  to have their pictures taken and be interviewed about a road?

They are going to do this Friday afternoon – other than their first born and their Mother’s – who else will be on hand for this stellar event ?

Regional Chair Carr tasting honey on a farm tour - better use of his time than getting his picture taken at a traffic intersection. Must have been a slow day at the office.

Surely they have something better to do.  If Friday is a slow news day someone might manage to get lost and actually get to the intersection and “marvel”  at a traffic intersection.  If the Regional Chair were offering a reception at the Regional Museum just up the road it might get a little coverage; news people are notorious for showing up at an event where the food is free and a bar that just might be open.

It appears that politicians are also notorious for doing whatever it takes to get their pictures in the paper.

The only newsworthy aspect of the event is that the round-about they want to have their pictures taken at was paid for with federal Infrastructure Stimulus Funding, of which Halton Region received $10.6 million towards the $16 million project that included the widening of Tremaine Road to four lanes, installing a water main and creating the Region’s first multi-lane roundabout.

The widening of Tremaine Road will improve the efficiency of Halton’s transportation network and maintain the safety of residents. This project provides the critical infrastructure and capacity in the road network for surrounding residential and employment lands in the rapidly expanding areas of central and west Milton.

 

 

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Reader writes: Traffic lane configuration on Lakeshore at Brant is all wrong. Let’s change it.

 

Eva Amos, a Burlington resident would like to see stronger traffic controls along the Lakeshore, especially at Brant and Maple where she feels the right hand lanes are used by aggressive drivers to rush ahead of the traffic flow. She thinks making those right hand lanes, right hand turns only.

By Eva Amos

BURLINGTON, ON November 11, 2011  –The concern I have and have been expressing to council for years now, since Lakeshore Road was reconfigured in the downtown core is the bottleneck this has created in the core and especially the aggressive driving behaviour of many drivers in this particular area.  The reply I get most often from council members is that Lakeshore is not a highway and the intent is to slow traffic through the downtown.  This is all very commendable but in my opinion this configuration does nothing but cause road rage and encourage aggressive driving behaviour.

As a driver I have been cut off too many times to count, by the aggressive driver roaring up the curb lane, just to get in ahead of the long line of drivers, patiently waiting in the middle lane, as the signage instructs us to do.  Putting signs up and painting some lines on the road simply doesn’t work.  Most drivers do stay in the through traffic lane but at every light change there is the driver(s) waiting to beat the traffic and put the rest of us at risk.  This to me is like saying most drivers stop at a red light, only a few run them.  This is not OK.  It is not a speeding issue.  It is an aggressive driver issue, which I thought we were trying to cut down on.

If the configuration is to remain, which it seems it will, let’s make some changes to the traffic flow.  Some suggestions I have made but have gone unanswered are:  make the curb lane going westbound at Brant and Lakeshore a right turn lane only.  This would allow the driver, patiently waiting to turn right at Brant, but stuck behind the driver waiting to roar up the curb lane to cut off the through traffic, to make his turn, thus taking the aggressive driver out of the lane.    The same could be done at Maple and Brant coming eastbound.

Also make it a no right turn on red at Brant and Lakeshore.  Also at Maple and Lakeshore, turning right.  Again the aggressive driver is in no position to come up the curb lane when traffic is coming through.  This would all slow traffic down I realize, but isn’t that the intent of council.  It would certainly make it safer for all.  Drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

It is my understanding the engineering department has recommended the configuration remain until 2019.  I understand from an earlier e-mail from Jack Dennison that council would probably review this recommendation in 2011.  It is now November 2011.  I don’t think it

There was a time when Lakeshore was known as Water Street and traffic was a little slower. But Burlington isn't a sleepy little town anymore - traffic has to be controlled.

has or will happen this year.

I am not suggesting Lakeshore Road should go back to 4 lanes, although this could be done with parking meters put along this stretch of roadway, with parking only in off peak hours.

This would add some much needed parking in the downtown core and add some revenue for the city.  It seems to work well in Oakville.

Ideally we would get everyone on transit and bikes but the reality is, this is not going to happen.  We are not a sleepy little town anymore.  We are a big city with a large population.  Let’s try and get our residents around safely.

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More than 500 regional residents had unhappy discussions with police officer during Thanksgiving weekend.

By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON  October 17, 2011  –  While Thanksgiving weekend is a bit behind us now – it is a date that will remain on the minds of a number of people in Halton Region who had unintended meetings with a police cruiser or an unmarked police car during the holiday.

Halton Regional Police report that laid the following charges:

 

Impaired Driving – 9 charges

Roadside Suspensions – 14

More than 500 people got to see this crest up real close and personal on Thanksgiving weekend. More than 500 calls to lawyers made later in the day.

Distracted Driving – 79 charges(including 43 in relation to hand-held devices)

Aggressive Driving – 405 charges(including 340 for speeding)

Seatbelt Offences – 22 charges

Prohibited Driving – 7 charges

Dangerous Driving – 4 charges

These were part of a national road safety partnership called Operation Impact and they will certainly have an “impact” on those that were pulled over.  The goal of the program was to remind drivers that an essential part of traffic education and enforcement is to save lives and reduce injuries on our roadways.

Assigned officers focused on behaviour that puts drivers, passengers and other road users at risk:  impaired driving, seat belt use and all aspects related to aggressive/distracted driving.  The focus resulted in a total of 540 Highway Traffic Act charges being laid.  Great day for the lawyers.

 

 

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