Coun. Mike Tobin said had he been at the council meeting where a vote on a 90-day trial to place ‘No Exit’ signs at the end of Empire Avenue he would have voted for the status quo.
“I’m adamantly opposed to any change at that intersection,” he said in an interview on Friday.
Council voted five in favour to one (Coun. Don Gibbon) opposed to the move at the regular general meeting of Nov. 30.
Gibbon had stated concerns about increasing the traffic on other streets in the area as a result of the move because of there being a number of children living in that area.
That’s a sentiment that Tobin shares but he also doesn’t think that creating a “no exit” at the intersection of Empire Avenue and West Street is going to improve the situation at that intersection.
He said when the issue came up last summer he went down with two residents of Empire Avenue to do an analysis of the intersection.
“We observed the traffic for a half an hour and what I seen was an intersection that is confusing and convoluted but my conclusion was that no change was necessary,” Tobin said. “To make that change would just add to the confusion.”
He said if the stop signs on Empire and Hansen Highway are obeyed, then there shouldn’t be a problem.
Tobin said a survey that was carried out was overwhelmingly in favour of the intersection remaining the same.
He said one thing that could help is if vehicles weren’t parked at a business in the line of traffic coming down West Street so that drivers coming to the intersection at the end of Hansen Highway wouldn’t have to move past a stop line at a crosswalk to see.
Tobin said he did send an email from Ottawa, where he was when the meeting took place, stating his opposition to it but even had he been at the meeting where his vote would count, it would have been five to two instead of five to one, not changing the outcome.
He said after the trial that runs from March to May, the issue should come back to council for a vote and without hard evidence to change his mind his vote will likely be against the move at that time.
