By Staff
July 17th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
A reader popped us a note asking if we were aware of what people are saying about the traffic light situation in Burlington.
Under the question:
Former Halton Regional Police Chief Gary Crowly, Regional Chair Gary Carr and former Mayor Rick Goldring stand at the intersection of Brant and Dundas with signs telling the public that red light runners will be photographed and fined.
What’s your least favourite thing about Burlington?
They got the following on
Lol. When we left the city in the family van, we played a game that we could make it to the QEW without stopping. I think we have 6 red lights in the 3 km distance. IIRC we made it….once.
i think i hit 6 just crossing the highway
walkers line and
fairview
harvester
toronto bound off ramp
hamilton bound off ramp
south service road
mainway
It takes me longer to get to work from Burlington -> Burlington than it takes my coworkers who live in Hamilton when there’s no traffic in the morning. They just have a straight shot down the highway, I spent 10 minutes sitting at red lights as no traffic passes in front of me.
Seriously what the **** is up with that. It’s like it’s designed to be as annoying as possible on purpose.
Stop the survey…this is the correct answer.
Yup. Traffic lights has to be the top answer.
Burlington, home of the red light.
Come for the simple life, stay because of the red lights
I was just saying to my dad that I would pay $10 to a fundraiser that is raising funds that will go to implementing the software like Hamilton. I can’t imagine it’s very expensive anymore it was in the early 2000s but Burlington didn’t go for it and Hamilton did! I would pay out of pocket outside taxes for this.
How about this one. I live at Torrance St. & Lakeshore Rd. There is a light for crossing at the creek just past the intersection so pedestrians can cross Lakeshore to get to Old Lakeshore Rd.
Meanwhile, I sit in my car trying to make a left hand turn onto Lakeshore and cannot do it because no matter what time of the day it is Lakeshore going west is jammed solid. So I watch as Mabel with her teacup poodle press the button and traffic stops and off she goes across the street and 150 yards down I am still sitting trying to make my left. Why not move that light to the corner of Torrance & Lakeshore so that both cars and Mabel can cross at the same time and get out of this friggin mess!
It’s only gonna get worse, Burlington is over populated. And more to arrive. The City has no care for the public.
There has been zero progress on the issue of traffic congestion and traffic light synchronization in the past four years. The City’s inane focus on bike lanes, rainbow sidewalks and speed bumps clearly takes precedence at City Hall.
This issue is resulting in increased pollution, inordinate delays, excessive costs, and frustration for businesses and citizens. The technology already exists in England and Europe to adjust speed limits, hold back traffic from entering major routes, and, if necessary, extend advance greens. The City’s Transportation Department needs to take some initiative, investigate some of these measures, and where feasible, pilot them.
To start with, the City needs to take a serious look at the length of advance greens at major intersections. I timed the one at Guelph Line and Fairview the other day. It was 15 seconds for westbound motorists on Fairview heading south on Guelph Line. Not enough to move two cars through. Conversely, I sat at the traffic light at Drury Lane and Fairview for 12 minutes waiting for the red light to change so I could make a left and turn west on Fairview.
Ridiculous and unnecessary!
Traffic lights #1. Speed bumps (humps) #2!
Chris – Please do your research before replying with such an uniformed response. There is lots the city can do to solve this issue. There is a whole suite of smart technology that can be implemented to optimize traffic patterns. There are sensors to monitor traffic volumes, AI and advanced computer models. Yes, public transit will help, but with the development we’re experiencing the city needs to take action on this issue; which as was pointed out was a promise made by the mayor in the last election. A WOKE response to this question is completely unacceptable with the technology available. I find it totally hypocritical with all the discussion about climate change there is no discussion on this topic. Our climate action plan talks about idling by-laws which is comical when you think about the math of GHGE (cars idling in parking lots vs. cars idling due to non-optimal traffic management) and then do little to optimize traffic patterns – and in fact intentionally create congestion in certain corridors.
Really despite all the talk and promises, there’s little any council can do about traffic lights. Synchronization is not the be-all and end-all. We don’t really have just one direction to think about at any location in the city, and when you optimize for one direction, other directions suffer increased delay. There may be some tweaking around the edges that can help when the system is able to respond in real time (which the Region is supposedly working on rolling out, first in Oakville), but it isn’t going to move the needle materially. Reducing the number of cars on the roads, by making the other modes of travel better for certain trips, will help a lot more.
Many people cite Hamilton’s light system as a model. However that city had to basically destroy its downtown business district and gut its urban tax base in order to facilitate its timed light multi-lane one way roads (virtually expressways) through the core. It’s easy to drive through, which has made it less of a place you want to drive to. We are not going to do that to ourselves in Burlington for very good reason.
Could not be more in agreement. I’ve called the city about this and was told that the lights and how how they are not synchronized is on purpose to slow traffic down. They (the city) have succeeded. Worst spot making a left north on Brant St from Plains Rd. The light changes to red at the next corner (by the MEC) and now you have grid lock because cars are blocking the intersection of Brant and Plains. Next worse is Fairview west bound from Maple to King Rd. The lights off the QEW are set to counter the traffic west bound when Maple and Fairview turn green. At rush hour you have grid lock blocking the intersection which is dangerous with the nearby fire station. Burlington has the worst traffic control in the country.
In that same Reddit discussion there are also a lot of comments about our inadequate transit system.
In 2018 Marianne Meed Ward campaigned on these issues:
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2018/11/18/10-questions-with-incoming-burlington-mayor-marianne-meed-ward.html
[Q] What are some of your priorities outside of halting rapid highrise development?
[MMW] Address traffic congestion and transit.
I can’t say that I’ve noticed any improvement since then!
during the last municipal election, all kinds of talk about sync’ing traffic lights. Lots of talk about Seniors Centre in Aldershot. Now, we’ve got a woke, stay-at-home cancel-culture council. I really hope someone runs against these folks before they duplex and triplex all the single family homes in this city.