mike-cluett-005.jpg

Just the mere mention of that intersection causes many residents in the area to roll their eyes.

Why? We have seen many near misses of vehicles driving down Yates from Thompson Road with cars coming out of March Crossing. This weekend was no different.

Lets go back in time to this past summer around the dinner hour. Local residents were brought out of their homes with the sounds of screeching tires, loud thumps and a big bang. What had happened was a car traveling north on Yates Drive towards Bennett Blvd. at what witnesses describe as “over the speed limit”, narrowly missing a vehicle coming out on March Crossing into the intersection. This car swerved to miss that car, lost control and jumped the curb on the opposite side of the road and smash into a house. Luckily there was no one hurt, the car sustained some damage and the bay window of the home was damaged.

For those of us who live in the area know, kids are walking up and down the sidewalk heading to their friends homes or to the local parks and thank God no one was there was this happened.

Now, we go back to this past Saturday and the almost exact situation happened again. A car traveling up Yates Drive from Thompson Road heading towards Bennett Blvd. driving up the street, narrowly misses a car coming out from March Crossing, loses control and jumps the curb on the opposite side and hits the same house in almost the identical spot.

Enough is enough. Im not one person who favours putting stop signs at every intersection or reducing speed when there is no justification. Something has to change before any other home or God forbid, someone is injured or killed.

The speed limit on Yates Drive is 50km/hr. During last falls election campaign, I spoke with many people about community safety and what we as citizens can do to make our streets safer. Many of you favoured reducing the speed limit on streets. Is that enough?

Would a 40km/hr speed limit saved this home owner from yet another insurance claim and time away from their lives to repair the damage to their home that someone else caused? Maybe.

If the speed limit was reduced it might be cause for the driver to make sure they slow down. Who really knows.

Would a stop sign have done the trick? Again, who knows. If drivers know there is a stop sign approaching at that intersection, would they reduce their speed before they come to March Crossing?

Possibly. Only if people open their eyes and realize our residential and town roads are not speedways.

It’s frustrating to live in an area such as this with such amazing neighbours and people living in the subdivision to have to deal with this. The only thing we have left is to turn to the town of Milton and see what can be done.

For years now, residents have complained about speeding on our streets. To the town’s credit they have done some studies about excess speed on Yates Drive and have concluded it doesnt warrant a stop sign at this particular intersection.

My message, that I plan on delivering with the help of the local residents, is simply this.

Reduce the speed to 40km/h and / or put a 4 way stop at this intersection. By doing nothing, is simply condoning this behaviour and endorsing what has already happened.

The safety of the people in the area, their homes and our children are more important than worrying about if people will be inconvenienced by an additional stop sign.

Whats more important to you?

4 thought on “Yates Drive and March Crossing”
  1. Great post Mike.

    One of the ideas discussed that I know some of the other people who live in the area brought up is speed bumps. Not the ones you have at shopping malls that bring your cars suspension to its limits, but slight bumps that will slow you down just enough. I don’t know if the town has tried this idea anywhere else, but if stop signs aren’t the answer to road safety, than maybe this one is.

    Keep up the posting Mike. You seem to be doing a lot more for us in the area than other elected officials do. You have my support!

    Thanks Bryan for your kind words. As for speed bumps, it should be looked at as an option for the town. We have been told by the engineering department of the town that stop signs are NOT for speed control, only for traffic control. To me there’s no difference. If you mean by traffic control, making an intersection safer for pedestrians and vehicles, thats ok by me. We shouldn’t forget here in both these situations, there COULD HAVE been someone walking along that sidewalk and hit by this car. Luckily it was just a vehicle smashed and damage to the house. I say that with all respect of the homeowner who’s home was damaged TWICE in the same spot in less than 6 months.

    All options should be on the table. And not just here on Yates Drive but everywhere in our new subdivisions and older ones as well. With Milton’s population exploding, a regular review of our roads should be something thats automatically done. What seems in a lot of cases, traffic counts are different with more people traveling our roads.

    The most important thing to keep in mind is ourselves. We shouldn’t be driving like Nascar drivers. Drive Safely!

    Thanks again for your comments, and keep reading! – Mike

  2. Great post, Mike.

    I think the answer for now is for people just to slow down, which may not be a realistic expectation…. Everyone is in a hurry and I’m as guilty as anyone sometimes, but obviously our safety is being compromised. These incidents are also happening in other areas of Milton as people rush either to or home from work.

    I live in Timberlea, so not exactly in your area, but I have driven through the Yates/March intersection. What seems to be the problem with visibility there? Is it because the houses are pretty close to the road, combined with possibly cars parked on the side of the road also which makes it hard to see further up the road you are approaching? Or is it a sheer speed issue with people driving too fast along Yates? Or maybe both. Ultimately, I think the solution will probably need to be some sort of speed bumps, as I don’t think a lower speed limit will be observed.

    As always, thanks for bringing these issues to light, Mike.

    Thanks for your input Dave and your support on http://www.miltonsearch.com as well. Its a variety of reasons that these issues are coming up and I would be wrong in saying its just this area. There are many areas in Milton, not just in ward one or the “new area” that are feeling the same pain as we are. This issue has really come to the forefront recently given the fact that 2 accidents, almost carbon copied have happened in less than 6 months from each other at the same house. The town is looking into it and more updates are to come on this blog in the next little while. Thanks again for your support. – Mike

  3. I saw the news story in the Champion today and Googled Mike’s name to find his blog. We have recently moved to Milton on the other side of Yates and find we are running into the same problems as well.

    I wish I was living here last year when Mike was running for council as he wouldve had my vote for sure! I hope we can fix this problem as soon as possible before anyone gets hurt.

    Mike, you BETTER be running next time. You have my vote!

    Marianne
    Yates Drive (East of Thompson)

    Thanks Marianne! Its important we work on getting all of our streets a bit safer. The Champion did a great job telling the story…NOW we need feedback and comments from you. Call or email our town councillors and let them know whats going on. – Mike

Leave a Reply