Letter: City imposed four-way stop’s removal

Re: Brigitte Michel’s letter “Bouchard speed bumps unnecessary,” published Sept. 16.

Brigitte made some very strong arguments for keeping the four-way stop sign at the intersection of Marcel and Bouchard. I am in agreement with her on this point for the reasons she listed.

I do want to clear up a couple of statements she made, however.

The first clarification is that the residents did not vote that they preferred to see speed bumps instead of the four-way stop. Residents were asked to vote on three options.

I want to stress that in all three options, the city stated that the four-way intersection at Marcel-Bouchard would be removed.

The three options given to residents were as follows:

1. Maintain the implemented traffic calming measures (i.e. leave in the medians and traffic circle, which created hazard to cyclists and had only a minor effect on slowing traffic on Southview Drive), but remove the four-way intersection.

2. Go back to no traffic calming at all (including removal of the four-way stop at Marcel-Bouchard). Remember that the whole point of this mess is because traffic is too fast/aggressive on these streets, so we would be going back to Southview being a drag strip.

3. On a trial basis, install speed bumps on Southview and a raised intersection at Marcel-Bouchard (again, four-way stop is removed). This was supposed to be implemented this summer (I guess technically it’s still summer) and removed before winter snow clearing starts. The city would then poll residents again to see if permanent speed bumps would be installed.

The second issue with Brigitte’s letter is that while the four-way stop helped slow traffic on Bouchard, it has not slowed traffic on Southview. Thus far, the speed bumps are accomplishing that, which the previous traffic calming methods have not. They bring other issues such as increase vehicle noise and aggravated motorists.

I won’t comment on whether the city is spending taxpayers’ money efficiently on traffic calming measures. I will say that speed and aggressive driving is a major issue on Sudbury’s residential streets and I applaud the city for attempting to rectify the issue.

It’ll be interesting to see the results of the poll this winter (if and/when the city conducts the poll of course).

Shawn Wells
Sudbury