Dear Editor:
Winston Churchill Boulevard residents in Erin don’t get any help from our mayor and/or the OPP to enforce traffic violations, speeding, heavy truck traffic exceeding posted weight restrictions, damaging roads that we, the residents, pay for as part of our taxes.
There is a 60km/h speed limit posted south of Bush Street, changing to 70km/h at my location, changing to 60km/h again south of Olde Baseline, changing to 50km/h and 40km/h at King Road.
OPP surveillance is often noticed at the 40km/h section, it’s downhill and easy money. After many emails with our mayor and the OPP, eventually a cruiser was send to my location to check out my complaint, parked at the bottom (out of sight/hidden) of my driveway. A truck was stopped for speeding. While ticketing the driver, another cruiser arrived and parked on the shoulder visible to traffic and traffic slowed down, noticing the cruiser.
After ticketing a waste truck driver for smoking, the officer of the cruiser explained an issue with his in-car internet reception and left my area to reestablish his post at 10th Sideroad. No OPP follow-up was offered and there’s been no change in traffic violations since.
Winston Churchill Boulevard was quietly redesignated a major thoroughfare – from a gravel, chip-and-stone surface with little traffic – without formal notification.
Now, between 6 and 9am and 4 and 7pm, it is a high-speed racetrack, mainly for commuters from Orangeville and other built-up neighbourhoods. This condition will only worsen, once the 1,000-plus new houses built in Erin are occupied.
My only choice is to move, reluctantly of course, unless something gets done about the speeding traffic here. Our mailbox is located on the opposite side of Winston Churchill Boulevard and I have instructed my family to no longer cross the road to retrieve the mail, which only I will do at night.
Mike Orlok,
Erin