Letter of the Month?

Tuesday, December, 04, 2012 - 3:03:23 PM, Dundas Star News

Bone-headed design reduces safety

Robert Pinder, Dundas

Re: Tragedy on Governor’s Road

I don’t know any of the details of this tragedy, but I do know this area of Governor’s Road is a very densely populated residential one with hundreds of condos, apartments, a busy grocery store and even a retirement and long-term care facility. Add in a large church not too many metres from the intersection, the fact that this is a main route to two schools, and the picture is complete.

I also know that there is not one crosswalk along the 1.1-kilometre section of Governor’s Road between Ogilvie and Creighton. I will add further there are no left-turn lanes. However, absurdly, there is a third driving lane located on the westbound side of Governor’s, which allows for drivers, for some unfathomable reason, to greatly exceed the speed limit for 1.1 kilometres and pass those on the right lane, which they unquestionably do on a residential road in the town of Dundas.

This makes me very angry, not just for the poor casualty of this bone-headed road design, but for the safety of the thousands who use this daily. This is a terrible and deplorable “All Hail the Automobile” situation.

City roads designers, please get some crosswalks on that road — and other desolate lengths of city streets — today. Convert that preposterous middle lane into cycling lanes in either direction and left-turn lanes as needed.

Governor’s Road traffic a complex issue

Kitty MacLeod died for lack of a crosswalk (Opinion, Dec. 10)

Letters, Hamilton Spectator, December 15, 2012

To suppose that Kitty MacLeod died for lack of a crosswalk on Governor’s Road opposite St. Joseph’s Villa is to hold a misguided view of public policy. Any public policy based on one death or the possibility of “someone getting killed” cannot be reasonable. If it were, in the absurd extreme, we would have a crosswalk at every point where a pedestrian chose to cross a road, an all-way stop or signal at every intersection.

The contributing factors in MacLeod’s death are many. Those within the purview of municipal policy extend back in time at least to the approval of Governor’s Estates with no provision for adequate vehicle access. Simply painting a new lane line on a roadway without widening it in anticipation of greatly increased volume does not create a new lane. Moreover, the pedestrian-operated signals at Creekside-Hatt and Creekside-Ogilvie are, for most who encounter them, more of a problem than a solution.

“Everybody knows” (with a nod to Leonard Cohen) that the Ogilvie-Governor’s intersection has been dysfunctional from a traffic perspective for years. Its geometrics, lane markings, permitted moves, lane widths and approaches are all in need of a rigorous rethink given the volumes of vehicles, pedestrians, transit riders, cyclists, and scooters who take their chances every day.

Before Councillor Russ Powers acts to bring forward a crosswalk planned for 2017, with its guarantee of serious collateral discontent, I’d like to propose a community user-driven review of traffic policy and operations for the area centred on the Governor’s-Ogilvie intersection.

George Vance, Dundas

Kitty MacLeod

Woman, 87, killed while walking to Dundas seniors’ home for visit

Hamilton Spectator, Dec. 3, 2012

When Cynthia Thomas heard the accident outside her Governors Road apartment building, she looked at her watch and she knew.

“Instantly I thought ‘Oh no, Kitty,’” she said Sunday night.

“I ran out in my pyjamas.”

Kitty MacLeod, 87, crossed the street at that very spot — twice a day, every day — to visit her brother at St. Joseph’s Villa across the street, despite crippling arthritis that forced her to walk with a hunch.

Everyone in the building knew her, Eleanor Andrews said.

“She was a wonderful lady.

Cynthia’s daughter Jahvon Thomas, 13, remembers her sitting on the benches out front in the nice weather, watching the people go by.

“She was really nice,” she said.

MacLeod had two children, Jay MacLeod and Jill MacLeod Jonkman, neither of whom live locally, said neighbour Anne Foley.

“She was in the armed forces as a young woman with her husband,” Foley said. Together, they’d travelled the world.

MacLeod had recently cared for her brother in her apartment before he moved into the facility across the road.

“She was very independent and an incredibly sociable lady. She was always on the go,” Foley said.

In addition to her twice-daily visits with her brother, she was known to shuffle down to the grocery store every day.

Residents gathered in the lobby Sunday night, sharing stories of the woman as news of her death travelled.

“We all said Kitty’s going to be killed one day crossing there,” Judy Walker said. “Some of us are very angry … that road is like a highway.”

Many residents in the building said they’ve complained for years that a crosswalk is needed on that stretch of road.

“They go 100 (kilometres an hour), some of them,” Cynthia Thomas said. “It’s so dangerous.”

Police have not released the cause of the accident.

Hamilton Staff Sergeant Bryan Grigsby said Sunday afternoon that the accident reconstruction unit is continuing its investigation.

Fatal on Governor's

Another pedestrian fatality on Governor's Road in Dundas, near the location of previous fatalities at Ogilvie/Governor's, according to a CBC news report.

If the city has their way, they would widen Governor's, making the crossing for the large population of seniors in the area all the more dangerous by allowing room for increasing traffic speed, passing, and an extra lane to cross.

For TLC's response to the Dundas Transportation Master Plan, follow this link.

The victim was an 87-year-old woman crossing Governor's at Overfield around 10am on Sunday.




View Larger Map

Governors and Ogilvie, again

[If the city gets their way, this already dangerous intersection will be made more so for pedestrians, given the City's plan to widen the crossing by adding through lanes, as presented in the final draft of the Downtown Dundas Transportation Master Plan...]

Dundas woman struck crossing road TheSpec.com - Local - Dundas woman struck crossing road

Paul Morse, Hamilton Spectator

A 51-year-old Dundas woman is in hospital with non-life threatening injuries after she was struck by a car while crossing Governor’s Road in Dundas this afternoon.

Police say the pedestrian was in the crosswalk heading south at Ogilvie when she was struck by a car turning right onto Governor's around 1 p.m. Monday.

Charges against a 71-year-old female driver from Woodham, Ont. are pending, said Hamilton police media officer Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings.

http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/694664

cars over pedestrians...

[How do pedestrian safety concerns get translated by the city into widening the road? - ed]
Loss of family pet renews calls for Governor’s Rd. improvements
Craig Campbell, Dundas Star News Staff
Published on Sep 18, 2009

A new Dundas resident has joined his Governor’s Road neighbours in demanding improvements to the thoroughfare after his dog was killed by a speeding car.

Gary Mckeown said he was walking his four-year-old Sheltie, Dawson, on a leash, when it stepped into the curbside lane and was struck by a red SUV or van. The dog died instantly.

Mr. Mckeown estimated the female driver was travelling more than 30 km-h over the speed limit when she moved into the curb lane to pass another vehicle, hitting Dawson.

“She didn’t even stop,” Mr. Mckeown said. “She had to know she hit a dog. Is she so heartless she couldn’t stop to say sorry?”

The incident raised his concern for pedestrian safety. He questioned why there is no crosswalk or traffic light at the corner of Overfield and Governor’s, where St. Joseph’s Villa long-term care facility is located. He also said the 50 km-h speed limit is not clearly marked in the area.

Within two weeks of moving to his Governor’s Road townhouse, Mr. Mckeown began raising the same concerns other area residents have had for years.

Hamilton Police Services Division Three Sergeant Mike Senchyshak said he heard about the dog’s death after Mr. Mckeown called police to complain about speeding on Governor’s Road.

“We’ve since made it a special attention,” Sgt. Senchyshak said. “We have had previous complaints about Governor’s Road, mostly in the area of the schools.”

Vehicles not stopping for school buses and illegally passing on the unpaved shoulder are among the complaints received by police.

Despite previous accidents in the area, including a collision that killed an elderly woman, proposed improvements along Governor’s Road have been delayed for four years.

Preliminary recommendations

The Downtown Dundas Transportation Master Plan preliminary recommendations included several changes to the Governor’s Road-Ogilvie Street intersection and a roundabout at Governor’s Road and Davidson Boulevard.

But staffing changes at the City of Hamilton delayed both projects. Diana Morreale recently took over as project manager, and is the third project manager of the master plan process since it began in May 2008.

Ms. Morreale said recommendations to widen Governor’s Road to four lanes between Creighton and Osler by adding additional westbound and eastbound lanes will be included in the final staff report. Other final recommendations for the Governor’s- Ogilvie intersection from the draft report include: adding a northbound left turn phase; changing the lane configuration of the southbound approach to feature an exclusive left turn lane with 15 metres of storage plus a shared through-right turn lane.

These changes are anticipated between 2012 and 2021 and are intended to alleviate traffic congestion. It’s not clear how the changes will address speeding or pedestrian safety, but Ms. Morreale said adjusting pedestrian signal timings will be recommended.

The proposed roundabout has completed a 30-day review period without opposition and apparently awaits approval in the 2010 budget process. It was originally supported by traffic staff in 2005.

pedestrian struck crossing Governor's at Ogilvie

Woman, 89, hit by truck while crossing street TheSpec.com - Local - Woman, 89, hit by truck while crossing street

Paul Morse, The Hamilton Spectator,
DUNDAS (Aug 15, 2008)
An elderly woman is in critical condition after she was hit by a utility company pickup truck while crossing a street.
Hamilton police say the 89-year-old woman was crossing Governor's Road at Ogilvie Street just before noon yesterday when she was struck by the Union Gas vehicle.
Staff Sergeant Dominic Palmieri says the northbound pickup turned left onto Governor's Road and collided with the woman who was crossing Governor's on the green light.
Police say they believe the woman was returning to her nearby apartment building after shopping for groceries.
"The pedestrian had stepped off the curb and had taken a couple of steps when she was struck," Palmieri said.
She was taken to Hamilton General Hospital with head and chest injuries where she underwent an emergency CT scan of her head.
Police were forced to close the intersection for most of yesterday afternoon while Hamilton police collision reconstruction unit experts investigated.
pmorse@thespec.com 905-526-3434