Why Won't Council Commit to a Cross Walk Signal on Water Street?

With the Province promising to increase GO Train traffic to every 30 minutes and Council intending to almost double the amount of parking spots at Fairy Lake, pedestrians in the Fairy Lake area have every right to feel ignored in the hubbub.

For many years, people that walk between Riverwalk Commons and the Fairy Lake portion of the Tom Taylor trail, must carefully cross the very busy Water St without any crosswalk, lights, or other pedestrian aids.

A May 27th Information Report once again refuses to commit to installing a pedestrian crossing light to stop traffic on Water St.

Instead, this report is proposing to construct a "refuge island" to allow pedestrians who are unable to cross the street in one attempt, to at least make it halfway to wait for another possible opening in traffic. Frankly, its a very dumb but expensive idea.

It seems like a lot of construction work as opposed to the obvious solution.

Here is what the right solution should be:

1) Put in a cross walk signal for people who are crossing Water Street on weekdays and weekends between September and June.
2) On Saturday mornings during the summer months (for the period of time the Farmer's Market is open), close Water Street to vehicular traffic between Doug Duncan Dr. and Main St. This will allow free flow of pedestrians during this peak use time.
3) Close Water St between Doug Duncan and Main St. during periods when Fairy Lake is hosting popular events such as the upcoming Canada Day event.

Closing Water St. to cars and trucks for a few brief hours on a summer Saturday morning is hardly going to inconvenience anyone and will keep residents safe.

Its a very simple solution.

It's too bad that none of our highly paid town planners could have thought of it on their own.