‘Puddingheaded’ traffic schemes
I am negatively energized by your recent report that we are about to experience an intensification of that scheme of sanctioned civic vandalism that goes under the name of “traffic calming.”
Traffic calming is the most idiotic, insane, dysfunctional, puddingheaded, asinine, cockamamie, goofy idea of the century.
Putting asphalt mounds in the middle of streets, and narrowing intersections to transform arterial city roads into village laneways, signals a community in mental decline.
That being said, here is my question: As we have now experienced the miracle of traffic calming for more than a year, should we not now assess the promised benefits accrued to date, before we continue dancing to the pacific tune of those angelic anti-car Pan flutists who have hijacked our roads?
Specifically, for those downtown streets which have suffered calming, how many pedestrians were injured by cars exceeding the speed limit in the year prior to being calmed, compared to how many similar pedestrian accidents have happened since?
I’ll bet the correct answers are either a) “zero” and “still zero”, or, at worst, b) “very few” and “still very few.”
Despite the fears promoted by traffic calmers, the fact is that Ottawa’s streets aren’t unduly hazardous now, nor were they before they forced their personal anti-car agenda on us.
As for those parents who want their toddlers to be able to wander about with their puppies in safety, I think they should supervise their children, or teach them to play away from traffic, or choose to live other than downtown.
Did I mention that I think traffic calming is stupid?
Really, really stupid?
Peter O’Malley
Percy Street
Service is not a right, it’s for sale
Customer service and respect are two very different things. It costs nothing for people to be courteous and respectful to each other, regardless of the nature of their interaction.
However, service is not a right. It is for sale. Service has a cost, which is incorporated into the prices that a business applies to the products it offers; or is charged separately and identified as such. The peas that Ms. Lewrey could gather at a pick-your-own farm 20 km from her home would be priced rather differently from the same peas harvested by moonlight on the summer solstice, packaged in hand-woven willow baskets lined with organic four-leaf clovers and delivered before dawn to her doorstep charged to her American Express card. The difference? Service. I wonder how much more she would have been willing to pay for her peas in order not to have to wait in line at the grocery store.
Judy Hird
Cartier Street
Student journalists doing ‘just great’
I am writing in reference to “Jealous” John Bridle’s decomposing accounts on how publisher Klaus Pohle writes his articles. I’ve been reading this so-called “wonderful rag” for many years now, the paper is informative and yes, critical at times, but for good reasons. Mr Bridle cannot perceive or understand. Have you ever read some of the articles they put in the Ottawa Sun rag? Centretown News keeps us, the residents of this community, informed and updated.
The students of this newspaper are just that, students. They are our next newspaper reporters of the future. And they are going to do just great!
Wendy O’Callaghan
Wellington Street