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Speak Up

To The Editor:

Community involvement is something you often hear from our municipal governments, so in this spirit, I wanted to make the City of Moncton aware of a dangerous traffic issue in my neighbourhood.

I started by calling my Councillor, Steven Boyce, and explaining to him about the multiple drivers going through the intersection of Lady Guinevere and Camelot without heed to the stop signs on Lady Guinevere. In the previous years, I've personally witnessed a minimum of 10 drivers a year going through without even noticing the stop sign.

My initial contact with Councillor Boyce was probably in late May (I don't remember the exact date as I didn't write it down). My primary concern was for the children in the neighbourhood, including my own, since school soon would be out, not to mention trying to avoid potential vehicle accidents. Councillor Boyce, he said that he would have a City representative contact me to discuss the issue, which happened a week later. The representative said that he would visit the area, assess my comments and call me back. After approximately three to four weeks, he did call me back to say that he did see the area and viewed it as a local traffic issue.

I contested his assessment, stating that it was more due to outside neighbourhood traffic than from residents in the subdivision. We agreed to disagree. I asked him if he noticed that the stop signs at the opposite corners were of different height and distance from the curb; could that be the problem?

He said that municipal bylaws regulate the placement of stop signs to ensure consistency. Well I'm curious to know how quickly he visited the site since he didn't notice the difference between the stop signs (one is 99 inches in height and 33 inches from the curb whereas the other is 118 inches in height and 82 inches from the curb).

And the stop sign furthest from the curb and the highest is the one that people are not seeing. Could it be that it's placed too far and too high?

His solution? Paint a white line on the road to highlight the stop sign. I think adjusting the stop signs so they are consistent might have been more helpful (not to mention that it's mandatory as per the City's bylaws) since people aren't blowing past the one that's lower and nearest to the curb. But, at this point, something is better than nothing. However, this would only be true if there was something that was actually done.

With less than two weeks before school starts, the situation remains the same and I've had the chance to witness another 10 or so cars go through the stop sign this summer.

Through sheer luck we have not had an accident at that corner or, God forbid, a child struck by a car. No thanks to the City.

And you wonder why voter turnout is low: could it be related to the fact that citizens don't feel like they are being heard anymore?

I thought about calling back my councillor or the city representative, but honestly, why should I waste my time? So with plan A (and the most logical) not working, I believe that plan B is to contact our RCMP and ask them to monitor the intersection so we can educate drivers. I'm not looking for them to issue tickets but only to "educate." After all, how could you issue tickets on a stop sign that's not to municipal standards?

Can we give the City a ticket instead?

Mike Leger,

Moncton