{"id":25941,"date":"2020-02-13T19:27:17","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T00:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25941"},"modified":"2020-02-13T19:27:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T00:27:27","slug":"future-of-one-way-traffic-on-centre-street-questioned-by-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/future-of-one-way-traffic-on-centre-street-questioned-by-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Future of one-way traffic on Centre Street questioned by Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It has slowed traffic and occasionally confounded\ndrivers, but the future of one-way traffic on portions of Centre Street in\nAurora\u2019s Heritage Conservation District is being questioned by Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Council received a report on the future of\ntraffic calming measures in the Centre Street area after nearby residents\nraised concerns about traffic infiltration and non-compliance with the one-way\ndriving restrictions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Town has received multiple requests from area\nresidents to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing one-way section of\nCentre Street, particularly related to vehicles travelling the wrong way,\u201d said\nMichael Bat, Traffic Analyst for the Town of Aurora, in a report. \u201cA poll was\ninitiated in February 2019 by staff to gather opinions from residents and the\nresults are generally in support of Option One \u2013 Do Nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should Council ultimately heed the results of the survey,\nthis would result in maintaining the existing traffic calming measures while\ncontinuing to press the York Regional Police to monitor and enforce\nnon-compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council, however, might go another way when the matter\ncomes before Council for final approval at the end of the month. Upon receipt\nof the report at last week\u2019s General Committee meeting, Council members\nquestioned the survey, noting the low response rate of just 17 per cent of\nimpacted residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a tough one,\u201d said Councillor Wendy Gaertner,\nwho sat on Council when the one-way traffic restrictions were first put in\nplace, noting the lacklustre response rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Mayor Tom Mrakas said Council had limited\noptions on how to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can either do nothing, we can eliminate the one-way\nor we can basically tell police to go and sit there 24 hours a day and make\nsure no one is going the wrong way,\u201d he said. \u201cBeyond that, I am not really\nsure what we can do. It is up to this body to decide what to do and put a\ndecision forward and we\u2019ll decide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Rachel Gilliland said she agreed Aurora can\u2019t\nask York Regional Police to have an officer sitting there at all hours of the\nday monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would have been nice [if the report] had alternative\nrecommendations\u2026 to lengthen one-way or to remove it so we can make this\nchoice,\u201d she said. \u201cAs far as I am concerned, I would remove the one-way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor John Gallo was less clear on his preferred\noption because, in his opinion, the survey results just weren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy standards are really high and I wouldn\u2019t consider\nthis a success in terms of engaging the public. Sometimes I wonder even though\n13 \u2013 80 per cent of the people \u2013 want it, have we really gotten a cross section\nof what that neighbourhood wants? I would hazard to say we probably didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, however, Councillor Gaertner said\nthe matter appears simple on the surface: measures in place now are just not\nworking and residents are unhappy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we ever signed this area properly,\u201d she\nsaid. \u201cI think there needs to be a sign at Yonge and Centre, perhaps, that\ngives the map of the traffic calming area and very clearly says one way only\nbegins at Spruce Street. I think we do need some ticketing. I don\u2019t think we\nneed much, but we need to get the word out that sometimes people are being\nticketed. I feel strongly about this signage and just making it obvious and\nperhaps using red to get people\u2019s attention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Harold Kim said he agreed with this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven that the residents who are most impacted have\nclearly stated at least from the survey they want the status quo, I am fine\ngiving them that choice,\u201d he said. \u201cI agree with Councillor Gaertner that if\nthere are signs on Yonge Street that will help ameliorate the situation on\nCentre Street, I think that would be a great suggestion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Kim said he would vote for keeping the status\nquo, a sentiment shared by Mayor Tom Mrakas \u2013 at least for the time being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reason I am for the status quo right now is moving forward there are going to be some changes in the area with regards to Metrolinx and the grade separation [at Wellington and the GO Station for a traffic underpass] and, during construction, Centre Street is going to be heavily used\u2026and the traffic flow is going to change in the area due to that construction,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should wait and see what\u2019s going to happen with that before we implement any changes to Centre Street especially. Ultimately what happens with that grade separation could [impact] Centre Street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has slowed traffic and occasionally confounded drivers, but the future of one-way traffic on portions of Centre Street in Aurora\u2019s Heritage Conservation District is being questioned by Council. Last week, Council received a report on the future of traffic calming measures in the Centre Street area after nearby residents raised concerns about traffic infiltration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Kp","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 11:18:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}