Posted on May 20th, 2010 by Zeeshan Hamid
The City of Portland optimized traffic signal timing at 135 intersections on 16 streets in Portland. This optimization work has resulted in saving motorists over 1,750,000 gallons of gas each year. This reduction in gasoline consumption is equivalent to 15,460 tons of CO2 each year.
I wonder how much gasoline we waste idling at horribly timed traffic lights and Milton’s aversion to right-turn-lanes (seriously, why do we not have dedicated right-turn lanes?)
As if it wasn’t bad enough to have major arterial roads where traffic doesn’t flow, neighbourhood roads like Scott Blvd have no traffic calming devices whatsoever. When taking a neighbourhood road, like Scott Blvd, from Derry to Main is faster than traveling on major arterial roads then we know that planners messed up. After two close calls on Scott Blvd I now drive my children to village square, which kills the purpose of having village squares that people can walk to.
I have been asking for traffic calming devices and signalled crosswalks near schools and parks. Recently a 7 year old boy was hit by a vehicle while he rode his bike (and the vehicle promptly fled the scene, shame on the driver). Fortunately the boy’s injury was not major but Scott Blvd is a disaster waiting to happen.
I went up to the council on May 10th asking for different things. One of them were traffic calming devices. We must figure out how to make traffic flow on major roads (by synchronizing traffic lights and putting dedicated right-turn-lanes) and we must figure out how to make neighbourhood roads pedestrian friendly (by adding traffic calming devices and signalled crosswalks). It is borderline criminal to build high-density neighbourhood with busy roads and put parks and schools next to those roads without doing anything to make them safe for pedestrians.
Driving on Scott Blvd, with no traffic calming, is noticeably faster than driving on major arterial roads. People should leave Scott Blvd to drive on Derry and Bronte, not the other way around. I truly believe that we’ll have a pedestrian death on Scott Blvd unless something is done to control traffic.
One of the first things I intend to do if I am elected is to make neighbourhood roads like Scott Blvd safe for pedestrians and to make arterial roads (like Derry) better for traffic flow.
Posted on March 8th, 2010 by Zeeshan Hamid
People speed on Scott and Savoline, that’s no news to residents living on these streets. What we, residents, cannot figure out is why traffic calming devices were not built on these roads. Afterall, if you design a wide road like Scott (or Savoline) then (some) people will drive on them like they’re on Autobahn.
These ideas are strictly for residential streets (like Scott and Savoline). I don’t know which ones of these I support, but here are some ideas I have seen in cities I’ve lived in (I lived in 8 different cities in a 7 year period after my wife & I first got married):
- Bends that are safe at speed limit (image from Seattle)
- Median with trees. Southern MD and Washington, DC (affluent areas) does this really well. I lived in a community of small townhomes in Gaithersburg, MD and even there the median had three rows of trees. This also prevents people from passing from beyond the solid yellow line.
This shot is from Maryland (this was done on an old road, so the trees in the median aren’t grown yet):
- Create a physical barrier after a few parking spots. For Scott & Savoline that means people won’t be able to pass from the right. Yet another from MD:
- Traffic circle (again, I am told by people that it works. I hated them in DC and Maryland and VA did not have them. Seattle neighbourhoods do have these though and there they were okay. This picture is from Seattle:
- Lonnnngg speed bumps (not conventional ones). Here’s a picture from Bellevue, WA of a speed bump that does nothing at reasonable speed but does hurt at a higher speed:
- Raised intersection that work as the bullet above. This is a raised intersection from Gaithersburg, MD. It also works fine at normal speed (costs < $15K to build):
- Finally, do not create long parallel neighbourhood roads that become bypasses for real streets (eg. people taking Scott Blvd to avoid driving on Bronte / Tremaine and Derry). These streets should be for people living in the community, not for people going from one major street to another.
These are some ideas. Not all will work here. But they should be considered and implemented so builders like Mattamy or Fieldgate builds them when they first construct residential roads (so the Town doesn’t have to build them later).
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Posted on October 15th, 2009 by Zeeshan Hamid
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So I am driving down on Scott Blvd at 50km/hr from the Main Street towards HVE with my family last week after thanksgiving dinner when I noticed a black Acura TL tailgating me.
The driver then went to the right and started to pass me. I noticed cars were parked on the right, but that didn’t stop the driver. He got very close to hitting parked cars and suddenly moved right in front of me, cutting me off (fortunately I knew he was going to do that, so I slowed down pre-emptively).
Honestly, what the heck is wrong with people? First, I was driving a minivan full of kids. Second, it’s a single lane road. Third, if you must pass anyway, pass on the left, not right. Fourth, it was a residential neighbourhood. What if a kid came from behind a car, not expecting an idiot to be flying down the street so close to the curb.
When a lady zoomed passed me (a couple of months ago, on Scott) crossing the street with my 5 and 2 year olds, I thought I had seen it all. Unfortunately, I hadn’t. I am tempted to just publish the license plate number.
Slow down people, seriously, it’s not worth killing someone over.
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Posted on September 1st, 2009 by Zeeshan Hamid
So I am walking with my boys, aged 5 and 2 (pretty young). We get to Scott. I am teaching my 5 year old how to cross the road. We look right, no car. We look left, a car. We wait. Fortunately the driver on the left sees children and stopped and waives us to go.
We start walking. We are perhaps a quarter way through when an SUV turns into Scott and decides to fly through it. We are about half-way through when I realize that the driver perhaps does not intend to stop. I keep trying to make eye contact with the driver to determine her intentions but she ignores me. Eventually she maintains her speed and drives around us (and “us” includes a 5 year old and a 2 year old).
What’s with people? Are we really in such a hurry that we won’t even stop for children who are already half-way through crossing a road? Another Milton Blogger, Mike Cluett, just complained about aggressive driving. Just last month someone wrote a letter in Milton Canadian Champion urging drivers to slow down when they drive through her community. Would the extra 15 seconds it would have taken for my kids and I to cross the street really so valuable that you figured it was better to risk their lives instead?
