If you ever doubted Leasiders’ concern about our community’s traffic woes, you had only to attend Ward 15 Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin’s November 25 town hall meeting. Held in Leaside Gardens’ William Lea Room, the town hall attracted a standing room only crowd. Also in attendance were numerous senior City staff.
It was certainly a lively and informative evening.
Comments focused on congestion, speeding, and construction-related matters. How do you reduce the impact of construction blocking arterial streets such as Bayview and Eglinton avenues or Laird Drive? What can be done to expand road capacity as well as create safer sidewalks for pedestrians? The City’s congestion manager Roger Browne described various actions to address specific challenges, for instance, charging road closure fees and enforcing them swiftly. Another suggestion: give buses a dedicated lane again, to allow pullout and improve surface transit reliability and scheduling.
When it comes to police enforcement of traffic signage, especially on our internal streets, we were told that there is little the police can do, short of massively increasing police numbers, which is neither feasible nor affordable. Physical narrowings and speed pads are effective, and roundabouts are an efficient use of road space.
On a lighter note: because drivers slow down when they think they’ve attracted police interest, parking empty police cars around the neighbourhood can be remarkably effective! Who knew?
As many Leaside Life readers know, I’ve been involved in Leaside’s traffic matters and in charge of several official traffic studies for many years. Decades even. Once upon a time, a lot of Leasiders who lived on adjacent “quiet” low-volume traffic streets were unwilling to address traffic problems on busy streets like Southvale, McRae, and Broadway, lest their problems spread. “You knew yours was a busy street when you moved there,” they’d say. That was a divisive strategy, and counterproductive.
Our digital age has produced car navigation systems which suggest routes through Leaside in real time. More of us now realize that no street is immune. I’ve been encouraged by the resultant change in public attitudes toward neighbourhood traffic control, working together for Leaside as a community, not just individual street versus street.
The Leaside Residents Association board meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. These are public meetings, and you are welcome to join us, and join in. Our January, February, March and April meetings will be on Zoom. For contact information and more details and updates, visit leasideresidents.ca/contact-us.
Our next board meeting is on Wed., Jan. 7th. In the meanwhile, we wish you and your families a very Happy New Year!
