Comment 101909

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted June 01, 2014 at 12:49:22 in reply to Comment 101848

From Chapter 10 of 'Durand: a neighbourhood reclaimed' which details the efforts of the DNA, starting in 1976 to calm traffic, convert the streets to two-way and reduce the speed limit to 20mph!

In 1976 residents of the Durand and adjacent Kirkendall neighbourhoods made a joint plea to the City: "We are all feeling the increasing pressure of heavy unremitting through traffic with the noise, pollution and safety problems that come with it ... We would like the City to assist us in carrying out a careful review of the traffic and transportation policies in our neighbourhoods". The request was ignored.

[Colin Vaughn, a Toronto alderman] provided the Association's annual meeting with a list of deterrents to excessive traffic: narrowing the roadway, installing stop signs at most intersections, diverting traffic by turning most of the residential streets into a maze and positioning obstacles such as speed bumps. His most radical suggestion was for removal of one-way streets.

The Durand Neighbourhood Association proposed interrupting one particularly favoured morning rush hour route by prohibiting motorists descending the Escarpment from filtering through the neighbourhood's residential streets. This request was repeatedly rejected, as was a suggestion to impose a 20-miles-an-hour speed limit on most streets within Durand.

The Traffic Department's obstinate defence of the status quo bred increasing resentment. Nearly every change recommended by citizens, however, minor seemed to spawn an avalanche of reasons why they could not be implemented.

And so it continues: a forty year fight for safe streets in Durand.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2014-06-01 12:52:02

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