Raise the Hammer

According to the traffic count that was done before parts of the North End traffic plan were put in place, the average daily volume on Bay in 2013 was 5,754. In 2006 it was 5,110. The count on Wellington in 2013 was 3,696. No 2006 number is available for Wellington, I don't know why. In short, the local street has more traffic than the arterial.

The intention of the partial closure at Burlington and James is to relieve the pressure on Burlington East and on Bay. The exact placing of the closure is a problem.

If it were moved west to MacNab, one block off James, then through traffic would simply proceed up MacNab, now two way,turn south and continue all the way to Barton Cannon or wherever, instead of on Bay.

But the Port Authority building is at the corner of James and Burlington, and this contains the offices of two physicians and a dentist. Patients coming from the east now must circle around a block to get into the parking lot --though they go straight onto Burlington on the way out.

So lets see, the residents matter more than the visitors but then again the medical professionals have been there who knows how long but majority rules but then again the people on one block of Wood and one short block of MacNab may see more cars so should we count them as half... and what about the patients, maybe a time weighted average of number of annual visits plus time vehicle stands on parking lot...

It doesn't work. In this situation, everyone affected has to give some leeway.

It is the case, however, that residents of Burlington East have been giving a lot of leeway to the automobile for a very long time. Apart from the volume and the speeds, residents on Burlington East now have no parking either side. They (and their visitors) would very much like to have on street parking, preferably both sides, which also calms traffic.