Council throwing caution to the wind
What is the measure of the neglect and negligence of St. John’s city council? The answer to that question depends on one’s neighbourhood.
If you live near Richmond Cottage, that is one measure. If you live near the former Baird property on Portugal Cove Road, that is a measure. If you live, as I do — and have done for more than 30 years — on Waterford Bridge Road, it is the stretch of road that goes from Commonwealth Avenue in Mount Pearl to Leslie Street in St. John’s. From the traffic lights on Commonwealth to the traffic lights at the foot of Leslie Street, there is absolutely no traffic control anywhere. None. Absolutely none.
And because there is no sign of traffic control, the users of this stretch of road have the reasonable notion that nobody cares what they do on it. In consequence, they do some remarkable things. Every resident of Waterford Bridge Road has an appalling anecdote, or more, about speeding and the careless attitude of drivers on the road. The city recently said they were going to do a traffic study but instead chose to accept the anecdotes of police and city employees and to ignore the more heartfelt stories of residents.
Residents of Waterford Bridge Road and various school councils have, for years, been politely pleading with the city for some relief. The only time that I am aware that they paid
the least bit of attention was when the St. Mary’s PTA asked the city about 40 years ago to put a traffic island at the foot of Road De Luxe so that children could walk across that intersection more safely. That was done and it remains virtually the only effort the city has made in all that time to address the issue of safety on the stretch of road, of which Waterford Bridge Road is the major residential part. As welcome as the island was,
it had nothing to do with traffic control.
Why is the city being so neglectful of this obvious problem? They say that the Brookfield Road/waterford Bridge Road combination is a feeder road. That is supposed to be the answer. What they do not say is that feeder roads ought to be subject to traffic control. If one looks at Carrick Drive, a broad feeder avenue with spacious sidewalks and ample driving
visibility, the same council deemed that there should be speed bumps on that street. Yet, Waterford Bridge Road, with its narrow passages and lack of sidewalks, is deemed safe.
Of course, the Brookfield Road/waterford Bridge Road combination is obviously much more than a feeder road. The negligent City of St. John’s has permitted it to become an untrammeled freeway, a throughway. In fact, to become an interurban highway.
It is my guess that the vast majority of the drivers on the stretch are commuters from Mount Pearl, Paradise, Conception Bay and the Southern Shore. It is galling that the City of St. John’s has much more respect for the needs of these non-residents and no respect at all for a neighbourhood to which they do have a legal duty of care.
Wednesday morning, a car driven by an Interurban commuter (who fortunately suffered no injuries) came to a crashing halt at a tree in our front yard, a tree on which I had nailed a “Please Slow Down” sign. The irony.
What is not funny is that the accident occurred in the speed zone by St. Mary’s School. This speed zone is actually a bigger joke because it is not enforced. Even police cars have been seen exceeding the limit. What if the wayward car had mounted the sidewalk on the other side of the street? What if a child or some other person had been on the sidewalk at the wrong time?
Unfortunately, the only people who seem to be paying attention to “Please Slow Down” signs are those on our city council, who continue to refuse to put any traffic controls on the Brookfield Road/ Waterford Bridge Road stretch of interurban highway.