The yards and the fences of Academy Road have always taken a beating between Wilton and Guelph. It seems a fence is always being run down by a single car that loses control.
On Tuesday there was fog. Thick fog after days of rain. The streets were very wet, filled with leaves, puddles and the painted lines, when they are painted, were invisible dividers on the street.
It is a misconception thinking of Academy Road has completely straight, It isn't. It curves off the bridges from Sherbrook and Maryland past St. Mary's Academy and Kelvin High School and it takes a more another curve after the school that is a bit of a blind spot.
You cannot see traffic coming from the other way.
The speed limit is 50 kilometers and the city had banned left turns on many of the streets into River Heights for westbound traffic. This is done during rush hour times to stop the commuters who use side streets in the neighourhood to race to destinations beyond.
Police radar often sets up shop at Academy Road and Oak Street and there is a red light camera at Academy and Stafford.
The traffic often speeds up between those known radar sites. By the time cars hit Guelph, it is too fast to make the curve under adverse conditions. Fog and rain would be such conditions.
On Tuesday, a young life was lost. Another hangs in the balance. A head on collision between an SUV and a van ended up costing a family dearly.
This wasn't the first accident nor will it be the last on that turn in the road.
The basic lay out of the street can't really be changed. Some people insist that the road is easy to navigate. And yet collisions continue to happen there.
The traffic regulation and calming in River Heights has been an issue for a long time. There are no easy solutions and the roads just get busier and busier.
1 comment:
Some thoughts:
-Years ago, in that very place, a westbound car that I was a passenger in, skidded across and into the curb. Luckily no car coming the other way.
-Radar is often present at Guelph and quite successful.
-Oak has a redlight camera as well.
I moved back to Winnipeg in 2008 after living elsewhere for 15 years. Grew up in River Heights and bought a house on Montrose between Kingsway and Grosvenor. Lived there for 2 years and then moved out to Charleswood because the traffic was so bad.
River Heights has changed traffic wise, there is so much more than there used to be. Now I am one of the cars that speed through River Heights on my way to work. There needs to be a way to route traffic through RH. Waverley was supposed to be the route but the residents have successfully routed traffic away to other streets. If only we could go back twenty years and reinforce that Waverley, and to a lesser extent Lanark, are the north south routes things would be a lot better.
After work, it is almost impossible for pedestrians to cross Grosvenor or Academy. There should be a crosswalk across Academy at Oxford or Cambridge as there are no lights between Harrow and Oak. There used to be one but it was taken out years ago.
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