Letter dated March 2015 from P. K. Preston, 285 Rudyard Road, Re: Left Turns onto Rudyard Road

Mayor and Council

March 2015

In a focused effort to protect the "bedroom communities" of Esquimalt and View Royal, and to encourage walking and cycling to work, the former Old Island Highway/ Craigflower and Helmcken have been "calmed". The reality is hundreds of frustrated drivers spending an extra half hour in idling five days a week. Aggressive Trans Canada Highway commuters heading south now take the Helmcken overpass to try and gain a few spots. A straight through lane with a signal actually encourages this! Even more aggressive commuters now exit onto Helmcken, circle the roundabout to avoid the light and re-enter the highway. These impatient, not calm, drivers substantially reduce the ability of View Royal and Saanich commuters from entering the highway.

Now, every working day, hundreds of west bound Helmcken commuters, refusing to be calm, make an illegal left turn onto Rudyard Rd., travel well over the posted 30 KPH, and slip around the corner at Stormont without stopping. These drivers are simply disregarding multiple laws, circumventing a number of previous attempts designed to discourage them, destroying the peaceful nature of the community they invade from shortly after 6:00AM through 8:30AM when the school drop off show begins. On the return after work the same drivers take the now legal right turn on to Stormont, then left onto Rudyard Rd. to get to Helmcken. This "short-cut" is further used all day long by hundreds more inconsiderate drivers including View Royal municipal vehicles. I have called the Police, as others have, and after a week of leaving messages and finally getting a file number assigned, (20134750) I was told by Cst. Julian that he simply doesn't have the manpower, or strategic ability, that it is not a police priority, and suggested lobbying City Hall to request enforcement. Cst. Seutter has taken interest but has precious little time for enforcement. This is simply not a policing priority, thus the same commuters take this short cut hundreds of times a year.

Over the years, multiple efforts have been made to discourage speeders and outside traffic on Rudyard and Stormont. The recent attack on parents trying to drop kids off for the Elementary School is another example of short sighted and costly solutions that don't work. Parents simply ignore signs about parking and we know that no vehicle would ever get towed. The lesson learned by the children- Signs are for others- not them. Not incorporating a drop off loop for View Royal Elementary was at the very least short sighted. The Parent traffic between 8:30AM and 9:00 AM on Rudyard is sheer pandemonium - Rudyard Rd. has no sidewalks- Parents disregard the 2 minute drop off sign completely as they escort their children along the road and right to the classroom door- This process repeats from 2:30 PM to 3:00 PM. 50 cars a day use my driveway to turn around - my and my neighbor's driveways are being damaged. I have spoken with View Royal Engineering who have suggested that a longer wait at the light might eliminate the "advantage". Currently the light is co-ordinated with the light at Helmcken thus making the wait the same by either route. Perhaps reducing the green duration to only allow a few cars might be discouraging and less disruptive to Island Highway flow. Ultimately either Rudyard will have to close at Stormont or Stormont will close at Rudyard. Engineering has suggested that Rudyard could end at Stormont with an emergency vehicle drive over style barrier, No changes can be made without Council approval. I am happy to have my neighbors from the Stormont and Glenairlie area pass by. I can live with the school not having a driveway but the hundreds of repeat offenders and literally hundreds of other short cutters are not welcome. Recent traffic counter evidence will verify the hundreds of short cutters per day- that works out annually to over 50,000 unwanted vehicles using the side streets as a regular route. Police enforcement has failed.- This and other "short cuts" need to be physically altered to eliminate the gains.

Counsel has a duty to protect the quite neighborhood philosophy through enforcement directive or physical change or both to stop this increasing and apparently unstoppable civil disobedience.

P.K. Preston