Reader writes: Traffic lane configuration on Lakeshore at Brant is all wrong. Let’s change it.

 

Eva Amos, a Burlington resident would like to see stronger traffic controls along the Lakeshore, especially at Brant and Maple where she feels the right hand lanes are used by aggressive drivers to rush ahead of the traffic flow. She thinks making those right hand lanes, right hand turns only.

By Eva Amos

BURLINGTON, ON November 11, 2011  –The concern I have and have been expressing to council for years now, since Lakeshore Road was reconfigured in the downtown core is the bottleneck this has created in the core and especially the aggressive driving behaviour of many drivers in this particular area.  The reply I get most often from council members is that Lakeshore is not a highway and the intent is to slow traffic through the downtown.  This is all very commendable but in my opinion this configuration does nothing but cause road rage and encourage aggressive driving behaviour.

As a driver I have been cut off too many times to count, by the aggressive driver roaring up the curb lane, just to get in ahead of the long line of drivers, patiently waiting in the middle lane, as the signage instructs us to do.  Putting signs up and painting some lines on the road simply doesn’t work.  Most drivers do stay in the through traffic lane but at every light change there is the driver(s) waiting to beat the traffic and put the rest of us at risk.  This to me is like saying most drivers stop at a red light, only a few run them.  This is not OK.  It is not a speeding issue.  It is an aggressive driver issue, which I thought we were trying to cut down on.

If the configuration is to remain, which it seems it will, let’s make some changes to the traffic flow.  Some suggestions I have made but have gone unanswered are:  make the curb lane going westbound at Brant and Lakeshore a right turn lane only.  This would allow the driver, patiently waiting to turn right at Brant, but stuck behind the driver waiting to roar up the curb lane to cut off the through traffic, to make his turn, thus taking the aggressive driver out of the lane.    The same could be done at Maple and Brant coming eastbound.

Also make it a no right turn on red at Brant and Lakeshore.  Also at Maple and Lakeshore, turning right.  Again the aggressive driver is in no position to come up the curb lane when traffic is coming through.  This would all slow traffic down I realize, but isn’t that the intent of council.  It would certainly make it safer for all.  Drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.

It is my understanding the engineering department has recommended the configuration remain until 2019.  I understand from an earlier e-mail from Jack Dennison that council would probably review this recommendation in 2011.  It is now November 2011.  I don’t think it

There was a time when Lakeshore was known as Water Street and traffic was a little slower. But Burlington isn't a sleepy little town anymore - traffic has to be controlled.

has or will happen this year.

I am not suggesting Lakeshore Road should go back to 4 lanes, although this could be done with parking meters put along this stretch of roadway, with parking only in off peak hours.

This would add some much needed parking in the downtown core and add some revenue for the city.  It seems to work well in Oakville.

Ideally we would get everyone on transit and bikes but the reality is, this is not going to happen.  We are not a sleepy little town anymore.  We are a big city with a large population.  Let’s try and get our residents around safely.

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