In response to the Nov. 10 article about the closure of Coal Mine Road, I’m (no offence) continually surprised by the Gazette coverage. The expectations are a mildly dramatized (for good reading) council summary with a few cavils tossed in. To your credit, there’s reasonable coverage of other angles and opinions that add meaningful perspective. Thanks.
Now if only council (or city planners) had the collective wherewithal to look at the long-term implications of most of their actions. For very minimal cost, traffic counters could have been installed at key points before and during the recent closure of Coal Mine Road a few months back. That would have easily provided a suitable estimate of how a permanent closure would affect traffic patterns. Then, for once, council could make a reasonably informed decision.
Instead , those who created the current Erin Ridge traffic debacle (which includes council) have made another predictably myopic decision so lacking in statistical rationale that it may have just as easily been based on Ouija board science.
We still haven’t recovered from the ingenious “traffic calming” initiatives that the committee (of course it would be a committee) “hope” will work. Once more, rather than using the temporary curbs in strategic locations and evaluating their effectiveness before committing to permanent structures … they’ve jettisoned taxpayers’ money based on the ever so omnipotent Ouija board logic.
Traffic modelling and patterning are far from mathematically irreducible and in fact have long been successfully employed by the vast majority of cities in … the world. The long running sea of red (lights) that has frustrated St. Albert commuters and suppressed businesses investment is resolvable. The investment in proven traffic optimization processes and staff can bring exceptional value to our city. Basing even a single traffic decision on “hope,” “it should” or “in my experience” is like betting your life on a coin flip. It’s patently ridiculous.
For sure, no one expects our (or any) elected officials to be rocket scientists and it’s accepted their primary focus is short-term re-election, not long-term value.
If they diligently researched all aspects of each major decision or applied Bayesian formulation to evaluate possible outcomes, I for one would be wearing a hat, because sharknadoes would probably be a daily occurrence.
Their role is not to dictate or even influence traffic decisions (ever) except at the 30,000 foot level. That places the full responsibility for sound design on city staff. Where it should be. They’re paid to be experts, although clearly not filling those boots.
And while everyone makes mistakes, our traffic quagmire is not a “mistake”. It’s the product of chronically, intrinsically flawed planning with no self-correcting mechanism. Worse, the current flurry of one-off decisions, statistically, has a much higher probability of compounding problems than resolving them.
Since coups d’etat are largely frowned upon, maybe it’s time for a thorough housecleaning in the planning and traffic departments to get Erin Ridge and this city back on course.
Allen Iverson, St. Albert
