1.7 C
Niagara Falls
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Letter: Bump out is a necessary and effective measure

Dear editor:

Ironically, Samuel Young's letter published Dec. 9, (“Gateway bump out is going to cause accidents,”) illustrates why the three-way stop and bump out is necessary at the intersection of Queen and Mississagua streets.

In fact, it also demonstrates why more traffic-calming measures are needed. With three million visitors a year coming to Niagara-on-the-Lake it should be apparent that more needs to be done. 

Niagara Falls on Portage Road between Mountain Road and St. Paul Avenue is an excellent example of the effective long-term use of speed humps, bump outs, stop signs and lower speed limits as traffic-calming measures. 

While highway safety engineers probably do straighten out dangerous curves, they likely do this on highways, not residential streets. 

What Mr. Young, the driver of this “high-speed sports car” and many others need to recognize is that this is not a highway and driving on these streets in such a dangerous and unsafe and inattentive manner does cause crashes.

It is the government's responsibility to provide and maintain safe roads for the public to drive on. But more importantly, it is the driver's responsibility to drive safely on these roads.

 As a resident of Niagara Boulevard, l commend the mayor, the chief administrator and town councillors for having the courage to implement this intersection and I hope they see that more traffic-calming measures are still necessary.

It has had an immediate and positive effect on lowering the volume of traffic on the Shakespeare/Niagara Boulevard corridor. I am in favour of the town keeping this as a permanent feature.

Mr. Young is such a keen observer of everything that ails this town. It's a wonder he doesn't run for municipal political office. 

He is quick with criticism but short on solutions. If he has an “easy button” at home he should bring it to the council meetings. I'm sure it would be appreciated.

Mike Grecco

NOTL

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