$40,000 is too much to pay
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Re: Traffic Calming Moving In (PNR Sept. 11).
I have been following this issue in your paper for some time now and felt it was time to weigh in with some comments. I think there is general agreement that the issue primarily affects two residences only.
I travel this road at least six times daily on week days and have done so for at least 20 years. I do my best to comply with the speed limit, and have about a 90 per cent success rate as I believe most people do. As everyone knows habits take some time to change no matter how good our intentions are, and I constantly see improvement in the number of people slowing in this area.
That said, the two affected residences could be doing a lot more to improve their situation. As was previously reported, the sight lines from the two driveways are not good at all and some selective pruning would go a long way to alleviate this situation. As to backing out of the driveway, I believe Wain Road used to be considered a highway (at least it was under Highways jurisdiction), and I understand that it is illegal to back into a highway. Of the two residences, one driveway is basically a roadway, and the other is what appears to be a commercial parking lot, neither of which should require backing out.
The biggest issue though seems to me to be cost. Forty thousand dollars of our tax money is way too much to spend on two residences, when we have so many other projects of municipal-wide benefit requiring funding and perhaps going without due to the expenditures required here, particularly in our current economic climate. If these residents feel they need to improve their situation they should undertake to do it at their own cost as we did with the recent sewer connections. The improvement of the sight lines would be a good place to start.
Dan Smith,
North Saanich
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