{"id":29151,"date":"2021-04-16T00:45:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T04:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29151"},"modified":"2021-04-16T00:45:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T04:45:30","slug":"future-of-one-way-traffic-on-centre-street-questioned-again-by-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/future-of-one-way-traffic-on-centre-street-questioned-again-by-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Future of one-way traffic on Centre Street questioned again by Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With so many of us working from home in the new normal, changes in traffic patterns have been noted. But these shifts may delay any firm decisions on future traffic calming measures on Centre Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centre Street, which lies just north of the busy Yonge and Wellington intersection, was, until the installation of one-way measures on the western section of the thoroughfare, often used as a traffic bypass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that some drivers flout the rules and ignore the measures have resulted in calls to either crack down further on violators or open the thoroughfare once again to two-way traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both perspectives were represented around the Council table last week when lawmakers considered staff recommendations to do a further study of traffic calming measures \u201conce normalized traffic patterns return.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will never suit regular warrant policies for traffic calming,\u201d said Councillor Sandra Humfryes, who has been a long-time advocate for further measures on Centre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Humfryes said drivers still want to use Centre as a \u201cquick\u201d bypass and has seen evidence of this first hand. \u201cI was taken aback and residents were saying, \u2018I\u2019m glad you witnessed it yourself.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Councillor pushed not only for additional signage in the area, but also speed humps to discourage drivers from ignoring the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat will bypass us waiting to come back and look at normal traffic patterns,\u201d she said. \u201cThe same thing is going to happen, to go back to the way it was will cause problems. We don\u2019t want people to make left turns to avoid Yonge and Wellington and it was causing a lot of problems. We did a lot of work\u2026to go this route. For us to do that I think would be going backwards and causing more problems instead of addressing this very tiny, very unique situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she said speed humps west of Spruce Street would be an \u201ceconomical\u201d solution that would \u201cdeter\u201d individuals in a rush, not all of Council agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Rachel Gilliland, for instance, said she was aware of the issue before being elected to Council in 2018 but said the problems being experienced now might be chalked up to past decisions made by Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am hearing this problem is because we created this little one-way street,\u201d she said. \u201cWe created this problem that keeps coming back to Council and coming back to Council. I am looking at the other side; maybe this wasn\u2019t the best decision. Maybe there shouldn\u2019t be a one-way street there. Maybe this whole street should be one way or maybe it should be two-way. Maybe that speed hump isn\u2019t the solution and it is this Band-Aid approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am sensing that this whole one-way street part might just be the problem here. Maybe we need to back up and figure out what is the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the solution, she said, is a three-cushion speed hump, the Councillor said people will likely just drive down the middle as she says they do on Kennedy Street West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEssentially what we\u2019re asking to do is slow down the speed for the people who are breaking the law,\u201d she concluded. \u201cIf they\u2019re going to break the law, let\u2019s anticipate some more safety measures so at least they\u2019re not speeding while they\u2019re breaking the law. I just don\u2019t think we\u2019re really solving the problem. People are still going to drive down the street. I think the psychological part of why people drive fast there is because they know they\u2019re breaking the law. So, they think, \u2018Okay, I am going to speed down this real fast and hope nobody notices me because I know I shouldn\u2019t be driving down that street.\u2019 Now there is going to be a speed hump [and] I think it will slow down some people from speeding down there, but it may not slow other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council will revisit the matter on April 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

With so many of us working from home in the new normal, changes in traffic patterns have been noted. But these shifts may delay any firm decisions on future traffic calming measures on Centre Street. Centre Street, which lies just north of the busy Yonge and Wellington intersection, was, until the installation of one-way measures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29151","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\/p3D2k4-7Ab","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 14:06:31","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\/29151","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=29151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}