Saturday, March 30, 2013

Governors Getting A Road Diet


View Road Diet on Governor's Road in a larger map

The Dundas Star is reporting that changes to Governor's Road are coming soon, changes which will improve pedestrian safety by taking an extra lane away from through traffic and using it to create pedestrian "islands" and a left turning lane for cars. Currently the street has two westbound lanes and one eastbound lane for traffic. The extra westbound lane lends itself to speeding as cars pass on the hill before the road returns to a more sensible one lane in each direction at Creighton.

It is sad that this move was likely prompted by a recent traffic fatality (December 2012). 87-year-old Kathleen Macleod was killed crossing Governor’s Road from her home at Governor’s Green apartments to St. Joseph’s Villa. The 44-year-old driver Paulo Mateus was charged with careless driving. (There has been one pre-trial court event to date)

Also interesting that this is the exact opposite of what the city was planning to do to Governor's Road a few years ago when they recommended widening Governors to 4 lanes (2 in each direction) - happily that plan is out the window and this improvement should help calm traffic along that stretch of road.