Letters to the Editor for January 27, 2015

Eastern construction will extend East End traffic chaos

The city is planning to close Eastern Avenue basically between Leslie and Coxwell for an entire year for sewer upgrades.  No westbound traffic and only one lane eastbound.

Why this wasn’t being done while the work along Leslie disrupted traffic is totally beyond comprehension. Why it would take an entire year to finish just a few blocks is also a big mystery (unless you observe the normal city construction patterns of “dig a hole, then wait another month to actually do something” routine).

If you read the city’s announcement, they make it sound like they will do us all a big favour by re-opening Queen Street lanes at Leslie and another lane along Lakeshore, but just till Feb. 28. When they closed Eastern at Leslie last summer for a few weeks, there was traffic chaos that added close to a half hour to everyone’s commute time.

Here’s a suggestion: why not restore Dundas as a four-lane arterial route as it was designed? Why must those of us in the East End endure yet another year of traffic chaos for something that could easily be done in a quarter the time?

Michael Erdman

Lyall Avenue

 

Drivers not the only ones on the road

Re: Beach drivers some of the worst around (Letters to the Editor, Jan. 13, 2015):

The most interesting irony in Deann deGruijter’s letter, regarding the rudeness and lack of consideration of Beach drivers who do not care to “share the road” with each other, is that the majority of drivers refuse to share the road with all other modes of transportation.

Neither pedestrians nor cyclists are welcomed in our streets, because we have prioritized motor vehicle transportation at the expense of all other modes of transport.

Even if cyclists do something completely legal, like take the lane on their bike, they are looked at as a rude cyclist.

Our decades-long failure to plan a sustainable urban transportation system in Toronto has created congestion costs up to $11 million a year, says a report from the C.D. Howe Institute.

Business groups such as the Toronto Board of Trade have expressed dismay at underspending on infrastructure in the Toronto area, saying it is hurting the local economy – let alone the social ills, one of which is the rudeness and impatience of stressed-out drivers, expressed in the reader’s letter.

Transportation should be a core issue when planning our streets, roads, buildings and communities, yet we insist on being comfortable in the status quo while we endlessly debate with no end in sight.

Lela Gary

Air Pollution Coalition

 

Macdonald worthy of Beach memorial

I want to respond to Gene Domagala’s Beach Memories column (Jan. 13, 2015) about a suitable tribute to Sir John A. Macdonald, whose vision of a railway from sea to sea helped create Canada.

I say no less than a fine sculpted statue of noble scale be erected at the RC Harris site, far from the dog path along Nursewood

Rather, build it at a point on the vast front lawn where people can see it while driving by.

Carmin Priolo

Merrill Avenue East

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