Comment 51678

By John Neary (registered) | Posted November 16, 2010 at 20:26:00

@pxtl:

I work in northeast end of the city and I drive on Burlington street, and I'm always bewildered by coworkers that keep going past the old brewery at Wellington (or is it Wentworth). If you turn left there you get a one-way path right to Cannon where you can keep going west instead of slogging through two-way residential neighborhoods.

This sentiment expresses in a nutshell why I am ambivalent about the North End Neighbours' campaign for 30 km/h speed limits on all of their streets.

I'd love to see less high-speed traffic in their neighbourhood. I'd also love to see less high-speed traffic in mine -- Beasley -- which, by the way, is also a "residential neighbourhood." Problem is, if all of the North End streets get 30 km/h speed limits (and those limits are actually enforced), even more traffic will get shunted to Cannon Street than is currently the case. Does anyone in the North End actually think that the traffic problems on James, Burlington, and Bay Streets are comparable to the one on Cannon? Or does traffic in neighbourhoods other than the North End simply not matter?

Don't get me wrong. In principle, I think 30 km/h in the North End is a great idea. But I would prefer to see that as part of an overhaul of our entire transportation plan, which should also include traffic safety and walkability improvements in other neighbourhoods that stand to be negatively impacted if the North End plan is implemented in isolation.

(Or I could argue for a 30 km/h speed limit in Beasley, with conversion of Burlington Street and Bay Street to one way-traffic with synchronized lights to allow trucks to fly through the North End en route to Cannon Street West, but that wouldn't be very neighbourly, so I won't do it.)

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