MikeCohen.ca

The Hampstead Traffic Soap Opera

As a Côte Saint-Luc city councillor and a motorist who drives down Fleet Road  frequently (who doesn't?) I think I speak for most people that the new left turn rules implemented by Hampstead Mayor William Steinberg and Councillor Harvey (Safer With) Shaffer are quite difficult to digest.

I drove down Fleet today, passing the master sign which highlights all of the changes. It is not humanly possible to read those advisories within the few seconds it is in view.  At most stops towards the Montreal section of Fleet, there are of course further instructions as to which 15 minute interval  during weekdays you can turn. Perhaps ever  motorist should enrol in a course taught by Mr. Steinberg and Mr. Shaffer. They can subsequently test us to see if we remember all of these variations.

You can see the CTV report here.

Here is the transcript  of the CTV Montreal News report. Check out the viewer contents at the end.

Left-hand turns for motorists heading east on Fleet St. are restricted in a cascading series of 30 and 15-minute intervals.

Starting at 7 a.m., drivers can turn from eastbound Fleet St. onto the western entrance to Netherwood Crescent.

At 7:30 a.m. the western entrance to Netherwood Cres. is off-limits, and drivers can turn left onto the eastern entrance for 15 minutes.

At 7:45 the only place to make left-hand turns is on Harland St., followed 15 minutes later by Finchley St.

After 8:15 a.m. and for the rest of the morning rush hour drivers can turn left onto Dufferin St.

Drivers are always permitted to turn left from eastbound Fleet St. onto Queen Mary St.

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Viewer Comments (I have left the spelling the way it was submitted by the viewers)

charlie
I'm a 30 y.o and the posted time-slots on those signs are TOO SMALL!!! How is one suppose to read those signs when one is driving 30-40 even 50km/h

Best of all, poor visibility (heavy rain/snow) will make it virtually impossible to read. Did the monkeys of a council forget our winter climate. Snow occasionally sticks to signs, i.e. covering the allowed time slots.

I predict many fender benders and some serious accidents. Monkeys!!!

 

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S
Enough with the ridiculous regulations, Hampstead residents need a way to leave the town, forcing everyone onto one street wont solve any problems. Cote-St Luc needs to figure things out and open Cavendish, Hampstead suffers because Cote St Luc city council past and present can't figure it out.

 

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clifford hecht
Again, another reason to open up Cavendish Boul. Unbelievable, how what is a half a kilometer straight road is imposable to construct! It's been April Fools for over 30 years! I'm sure all the people who had stores in the Cavendish Mall aren't laughing, as half of it is now torn down for a new development. I hope all these new people moving in don't mind not making left hand turns on Fleet!

 

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meanne
must be april fool's day!!! gosh 15mins? ahahahaha what is your counselor/mayor thinking?? oh wait, he must be thinking left! hahah

 

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Vagan
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do....

 

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Eric in Montreal (Not Hampstead)
How many people live in Hampstead again? (And how big(or small if you're a half empty kindda person) is that Burroughs?)

For a community that even likes to restrict "Public" Transit on its streets I don't see how this comes as a big surprise(or better yet why we should even give a ...)

Seriously Tom; I think it must be April 1st there on a regular basis!

My 2 cents...

 

 

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tom91
Is it April 1st?

 

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Hampstead must step up as good neighbours

For many years the relationship between the city council of Côte Saint-Luc and the town council of Hampstead was pretty awful. Mayors Bernard Lang and Irving Adessky were not on speaking terms. When the Partii Québecois undertook the forced mergers and created the borough of Côte Saint-Luc-Hampstead-Montreal West the one good thing that came of this action was the wonderful way the three (then) former municipalities worked together and got to know each other.

We demerged officially on January 1, 2006 and as Mayors Anthony Housefather and William Steinberg assumed office it appeared that a new era had begun. A deal was struck for Hampsteaders to use our library. Hampstead invited us to their events and we did the same to ours. Now this relationship is in jeopardy due to what some are calling "the nightmare on Fleet Road" which has inconvenienced thousands of people in both communities.

We have placed a lot of effort to synchronize traffic lights on Fleet Road. More recently we implemented a double left turn at Cavendish and Fleet, something that sped up traffic significantly. Then, without consultation, Hampstead turned back the clock on good relations by implementing new traffic configurations on Fleet during the morning rush hour. This is nothing short of a disaster for motorists and not just those from Côte Saint-Luc. Parents from Hampstead who drop their children off a schools such as  Bialik, Hebrew Academy and the JPPS CPE cannot even turn left  on Fleet to return to their own street. Cars are honking! It is a bad scene.

We have come such a long way in inter-municipal relations. I call upon Hampstead Council to cancel these new restrictions immediately.

Please also see my colleague Glenn J. Nashen's comprehensive commentary on this issue at: http://gjnashen.wordpress.com