Taking away the rights and…

Taking away the rights and responsibilities of our local ELECTED representatives and giving them to unelected bureaucracy is totally against my wishes. I want someone who drives the LOCAL roads to be involved in the long term planning and execution of that plan. Yes, have the ministry of transportation do things like researching and publishing best practices to provide guidance. That is, help develop the best ways to improve traffic flow through things like turning lanes, timing of lights, pedestrian flow etc. But let the municipality choose the methods that are best suited for the local situation. Having a long term plan and gradually executing it is a good thing. Having an unelected office in a city far, far away making piecemeal decisions is a bad thing.

Second, I'm tired of cyclists and pedestrians being killed by inattentive and aggressive driving. We need to make it easier for non-car drivers to get around. Four lanes on city streets don't increase traffic flow that much compared to 2 lanes with appropriate turning lanes and well-planned intersections. They aren't worth making it harder for the rest of the people to get around.

I say these things as a driver of more than 40 years. I appreciate the changes I've seen in Waterloo region on the road system for cars. I appreciate the changes I'm seeing in urban and rural areas for bikes and pedestrians. I don't want someone in Toronto making decisions that prevent those good things for cars, bikes and walkers.