Sep 13/10 -- Letter to the Town about the STOP at Wellington & Rosevear

Peter Angelo, P. Eng.
Director of Engineering Services
Municipality of Port Hope

At the suggestion of Mayor Thompson, I am writing to you expressing my concern with the removal of a STOP and its replacement with a COURTESY X-WALK on Wellington Street at the Rosevear intersection.
 
Recently, as reported in one of the local newspapers, you remarked on the importance of maintaining a balance throughout the roadside environment. Your remarks were part of a discussion about the COURTESY X-WALK on Walton Street in downtown Port Hope. I understand the point of your remarks, I appreciate the complexity of decisions relating to crosswalks, and I applaud the efforts that you are making to achieve the balance of which you spoke.
 
Here, in a nutshell, is my concern: the balance for a crosswalk on Walton Street must be struck in a very different place from the balance for a crosswalk on Wellington Street. Consider the nature of Walton Street:

• Walton Street is the Main Street of Port Hope and the centre of the downtown area
• Walton Street has shops and curbs and parking and sidewalks on both sides
• Walton Street is a thoroughfare for people moving east/west within the Town
• Walton Street is a County highway for vehicular traffic moving through the Town

Wellington Street, on the other hand, is none of the above:

• Wellington is a quiet neighbourhood street  
• Wellington has one small plaza at the north end to which many, many people walk every day
• Wellington is a route for many students walking to Beatrice Strong School
• Wellington has no curbs and has sidewalks and parking on one side only

Wellington Street must, I feel, be preserved as a street for use by cars and pedestrians moving within the neighbourhood. It must not be transformed into a thoroughfare for vehicles moving north/south through the neighbourhood. Yet, I fear, that such a transformation is a potential outcome of the replacement of a STOP with a COURTESY X-WALK at Wellington and Rosevear.

Further, the Wellington/Rosevear intersection is critical because, as you know, the sidewalk changes at Rosevear from the one side of Wellington to the other. A STOP at that intersection provides a means to cross Wellington with security and safety. The removal of the STOP encourages pedestrians to walk in the road on the west side of Wellington north of Rosevear and in the road on the east side of Wellington south of Rosevear. This is not behaviour that we want to encourage.

Please, Mr. Angelo, in the interests both of preserving Wellington as a neighbourhood street and also of ensuring safety for the many pedestrians who daily walk up and down Wellington, consider returning the STOP on Wellington at the Rosevear intersection. Retaining the current STOP on Rosevear would, in effect, make the intersection an ALL-WAY STOP, which is, I feel, the appropriate balance that you spoke of in your remarks and that our neighbourhood needs for pedestrians and vehicles.