Poor planning created danger

Torbay Road congested because city didn’t consider future, business manager says

The manager of an auto parts store says the dangerous congestion in the Torbay Road parking lot he shares with two other businesses is the result of poor city planning.

Andrew Coady, manager of a NAPA Auto Parts store, says peak traffic to a nearby Tim Hortons is blocking employees and customers from using parking spots, and damaging the parking lot the businesses share with a daycare centre.

“Our customers can’t get into our parking lot because it is so blocked off with Tim Hortons customers that are lined up,” he said. “The other issue that has been created over the years … is potholes. These holes keep coming up because in slower periods, cars come down Torbay Road at 50 to 60 to 70 kilometres per hour, and weave their way in, and what they’re doing is pushing pavement, and the holes continually, continually come back.”

The potholes are repaired with Tim Hortons and NAPA splitting the cost, but Coady said it needs to be ripped up and replaced with more solid paving, and that the City of St. John’s should be the one to do it.

“When the city does a lot of their planning, they always do it for today, and they don’t foresee the future, where it’s going,” he said. “It’s just lack of planning.”

Gary Bennett, co-owner of the daycare centre, said the problem has been building for years, and has been so bad he once threatened to put up a barricade be- tween the daycare and Tim Hortons, but was dissuaded by the city.

“Actually separating the parking lot is probably the only thing that’s going to alleviate that sort of line and the traffic speeding into the parking lot,” he said. “If (drivers) have no reason to go into our parking lot to get to Tim Hortons, then they’re not going to speed in there.”

Coady said NAPA and Tim Hortons have a good relationship, but an increase in the volume of traffic is simply making the problem worse. Following a complaint from the Kidcorp daycare, which is between the coffee shop and the auto parts store, the city will look at ways to ease the congestion, which sometimes snarls traffic on Torbay Road.

Coady said he’s not sure how the Tim Hortons was ever approved for the corner of the lot, which also runs along Major’s Path, since NAPA had originally looked to locate there.

“We couldn’t get the corner lot … because of the traffic we would generate,” he said. “And then several years later, you allow someone like a Tim Hortons, with their customer base, to go in there.”

The manager of the Tim Hortons said the owner wasn’t reachable, and forwarded inquiries to a regional manager.

Bennett said he’s hopeful now that the city is looking for a solution.

“I think this seems to be a problem with all drive-thrus, certainly the older ones, in the city,” he said. “They don’t seem to have the space they need for the volume of traffic they actually get in their drive-thrus.”

“It’s just lack of planning.” Andrew Coady