{"id":37221,"date":"2025-11-20T13:39:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37221"},"modified":"2025-11-20T13:39:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:39:46","slug":"williams-student-says-new-school-location-presents-pedestrian-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/williams-student-says-new-school-location-presents-pedestrian-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams student says new school location presents pedestrian challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The new location of Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School on Bayview Avenue at Spring Farm was chosen to bring the school into the heart of the community it serves \u2013 but, for some students, getting there is proving something of a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was highlighted to local lawmakers last week by Matthew Romeo, a Grade 12 student at Williams, who walks to the school from his home near Bayview and St. John\u2019s Sideroad, observing some roadblocks along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first challenge, he said, is encountered on Earl Stewart Drive near the Shopper\u2019s Drug Mart Plaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this point, Earl Stewart curves west, at which the sidewalk ends and forces pedestrians to cross,\u201d Romeo told Council. \u201cThere are many visibility issues when crossing into the plaza from this point. Without any clear rules in place, there\u2019s confusion for the drivers trying to enter and exit. Better control of traffic is required in that area for it to be more safe for all the pedestrians and to organize the road traffic entering and exiting the plaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA possible solution to eliminate the issue in the long term is continuing the sidewalk on the east side of Earl Stewart \u2013 the McDonald\u2019s Plaza all the way to Superstore \u2013 extend that one; there\u2019s an intersection, but it ends, so [it] forces them to go on this side of Earl Stewart and if we just extend that sidewalk there\u2019d be no need to cross again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second shortcoming identified by Romeo is near that McDonald\u2019s plaza at Bayview and Pedersen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe majority of pedestrian traffic actually comes from the corner of Bayview and Pedersen, which has no proper access point other than a steep and dangerous hill,\u201d he continued. \u201cThis, unfortunately, seems to be the current preferred entry point for pedestrians, especially the students of G.W. Williams. I understand that the property is not owned by the Town and may be more of a challenge to solve; however, I feel it’s important to recognize this problem, especially with how many William students are actively entering and exiting the plaza because of the school’s relocation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A set of stairs, similar to the one that connects the local Shopper\u2019s Drug Mart plaza to the Bayview sidewalk could be a \u201csolution worth considering,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth of these concerns have a common theme of safety and accessibility and design phase. As we promote walking as a form of active transportation, we have to understand that these properties must have safe entrances and exits to begin with, since public safety is one of the most important factors of design. Tonight, we’re talking about eliminating risks that are already present. However, I believe we can do better to avoid those risks in the first place. If we can be more proactive about pedestrian accessibility in the design phase, we can build a safer community one step at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romeo\u2019s concerns were addressed, in part, by staff and Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo thanked the student for personally walking him through some of his concerns and Director of Planning Marco Ramunno stressed that they would be looked into as part of Aurora\u2019s ongoing Town-wide Pedestrian Crosswalk Study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A staircase at the McDonalds plaza, however, might not be feasible, he cautioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen that was constructed\u2026 probably 10 years ago, we looked at the possibility of having a staircase up to Bayview, similar to the, as a delegate mentioned, the staircase at Shoppers or up the road at [Superstore]. The problem there in that location at the McDonald’s Plaza\u2026there’s a huge grade difference. It’s probably close to 20 feet between the plaza parking area and the top of Bayview,\u201d said Ramunno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can certainly reach out to the property owner to see if they’d consider installing a staircase, but again, we did have that discussion about 10 years ago when the application first came in, and it would be a significant size staircase down to that plaza. It’s something I can certainly have a discussion with the property owner about and report back to Council.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The new location of Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School on Bayview Avenue at Spring Farm was chosen to bring the school into the heart of the community it serves \u2013 but, for some students, getting there is proving something of a challenge. This was highlighted to local lawmakers last week by Matthew Romeo, a Grade […]<\/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-37221","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\/p3D2k4-9Gl","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 13:18:18","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\/37221","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=37221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37222,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37221\/revisions\/37222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}