A few months ago, we moved to the neighbourhood of Kingswood, just a few blocks away from my children’s school. Great, we would save on gas, time and money and the children would get a few minutes of exercise walking to and from school. Great, until it was actually time to get to school. You see, every time we cross the intersection at Poirier Ave. and Sir Winston Churchill Ave., I feel like the likelihood of us getting hit is pretty good, despite our visibility (we wear flashing LED armbands), abundance of prudence and profound desire of not wanting to get hit by a car.
The first day the children walked to school, I walked with them, thinking it would be a great time to walk the dog. We would have a nice walk together, I believed. Then, despite our flashing red LED armbands and prudence, a speeding car going northbound on Sir Winston Churchill Ave. almost hit us as he turned right onto Poirier Ave. Okay. We took a deep breath and thought it was an isolated incident. The next day, however, I decided to walk with the kids, just to make sure. This time, a car headed southbound on the same road “drove” around us as we were crossing. Okay. Not funny. Not cool.
Now, we live much too close to my children’s school and they are much too old for me to be walking with them – after all, we live four blocks away and they’re in junior high. However, I have lost count of the times drivers have failed to stop at this intersection and how many times we’ve had to jump out of the way or wait while a car “drives” around us. I informed the city and the RCMP of my concerns but this issue is larger than them. After the latest close call, I’ve decided to drive my children the four blocks to school until it gets light out again in the mornings, perhaps the extra sunshine will do us all some good. I can’t help but feel I’ve been bullied into this decision and I can’t help but wonder how many of my neighbours have done the same.
Michelle Baril-Price, St. Albert
