On Feb. 7 I wrote to Metrolinx and Councilor Mihevc
| Crosstown <Crosstown@metrolinx.com>, Councillor Mihevc <councillor_mihevc@toronto.ca> |
I am a big supporter of the Crosstown initiative and understand there has to be some short term pain for the long term gain.
However, I think the City and Metrolinx needs to do a better job coordinating responses to the traffic situation. We are now seeing frustrated drivers blatantly breaking the law (for example, driving north bound on one way south-bound streets to avoid the lines going to north, especially on Glen Cedar). My biggest fear is that a child will be killed because no one is actually looking at the secondary effects.
And of course, the situation is exacerbated by the city's snow removal process. As I've said to Councilor Mihevc in the past, failure to remove the snow banks, especially near the schools in the area, is a significant risk at the best of times. Failure to remove them now is wreaking further havoc on traffic patterns caused by the Crosstown construction. Yesterday, I saw four vehicles become stuck in snow banks at the same time at an intersection on Chiltren because the traffic was so heavy and there is only one lane to drive due to the snow and as they tried to avoid each other, they got stuck in the snow and completely blocked traffic in all directions. And this was at school drop off time with many kids walking.
It's not very difficult to realize that by changing the traffic patterns on Eglinton, you are going to have secondary effects in the in adjoining neighbourhoods, and if you want to keep the traffic moving and not have pedestrians killed, you need to remove the snow, and not let city crews pile it up on both sides of the streets reducing every street to a single lane for both directions of traffic.
And if you don't believe me, I'd be happy to meet any Metrolinx or Councilor Office staff member for a walkabout and see the problems first hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment