Tweets from the Ottawa Police via @opswesttraffic often leave me flabbergasted, like this one on Wednesday… I guess the driver must have been on a really tight deadline?
https://twitter.com/OPSWestTraffic/status/743177529742135296
https://twitter.com/MarianneHoad/status/743611894276177920
SIGN’S UP AT PORTER PLACE
Signs went up recently for a new subdivision called Porter Place by Patten Homes. That’s the name for the controversial development at 6279 Fernbank that went in front of the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) last year.
Not sure the residents who opposed the development at City Hall and at the OMB would appreciate this description from the Patten Homes web site … emphasis is mine: “Closer to nature, closer to the right pace of life. Porter Place promises inspired family-friendly living in a new community knitted into an established neighbourhood you will be proud to call ‘home’.”
SUBTLE, EH?
This massive oil barrel was recently placed along the Trans Canada Trail, about a kilometre west of Stittsville just past the lookout.
Before this oil tank arrived, it was relatively easy to enjoy nature and scenery – forest, creek, swamp, birds, turtles, frogs, dragonflies – and ignore the auto scrap yard just beyond the trees.
No idea what precipitated this sign but what an eyesore and blight on an otherwise beautiful landscape.
CARP & HAZELDEAN INTERSECTION CONCERNS
Credit to Devyn Barrie for looking into safety concerns at the Carp and Hazeldean intersection:
Tanya Hein of the Stittsville Village Association told Stittsvegas her organization has serious concerns about the area.
“There’s the volume of traffic, there’s the speed of traffic… whether right or wrong, people are going faster than they should be,” she said. “And of course, the limited visibility at the intersection.”
She said the best solution would be an advance turn light for both eastbound traffic turning north onto Carp Road and for northbound traffic turning west onto Hazeldean Road.
“I’ll see a car waiting to turn left and they’re so focused on the traffic that they’re inching out and then they dart through and suddenly there’s a pedestrian there…”
“I think the city needs to look at how the intersections are being designed,” said Hein. “I think they need to get their eyes out there to actually see what’s happening in person.”
You can listen to the full interview with Hein on the Stittsvegas podcast…
Re: “Porter Place”
I expect many new developments overstate their own greatness, more often in the names, which is one thing this has avoided, though it started as Cypress Gardens 3. The new name makes it sound as if it’s going to be a gracious neighbourhood blending with existing housing, instead of an eyesore sticking up in the middle of mostly bungalows at a lower ground level (by over 3 meters), and overlooking their gardens.
When Carp Road & Hazeldean Road became a really major intersection when Hazeldean road was widened I wrote right away
to I think 311, to say that intersection was “an accident waiting to happen”…the cars are moving so fast, an advanced green needs to be at all four “left” turns. I had no reply.
Throughout Ottawa & surrounds, the number of cars who run the red light is very frightening……nothing is ever done to stop them. You have to be very aware all the time & not turn left too quickly.