It beggars belief that the federal government actually involves itself in determining the correct number of lanes for city streets, but that’s the state in which we now find ourselves. I’m reminded of an episode of The Simpsons where Homer becomes the Springfield Safety Czar and pegs the downtown speed limit at 5 miles per hour.
Federal transportation officials once heralded road diets for cutting crashes by 19% to 47%, but criteria for an upcoming round of road safety grants say projects aimed at “reducing lane capacity” should be considered “less favorably,” the administration said.
How many bureaucrats can dance on the head of a pin?
Great idea for a new government study!
Too many.
There is a city near me where the citizenry hates bicycle lanes with a passion. It was an election issue, and the municipal government is acutely aware of it. Yet every new project has bicycles lanes. Why? One of the municipal employees let slip that reason is there are federal funds they can access, but only if the projects include bicycle lanes. It’s a significant part of the budget too, ergo this place will continue to get more bicycle lanes.
That’s probably all part of the Socialist’s ultimate goal of limiting the citizenry’s mobility. An immobile populace is easier to control. This practice also applies to information, abeit more tricky to accomplish.
Anything that reduces the support for the Vision Zero lunatics is a good thing. They do all these studies about how reducing lanes is good, but never bother to study where the traffic goes.
That is because they intend that traffic won’t go.
Want to know the silver lining?
The US does something similar. The Dept. of Transportation gets heavily involved in the State’s business and creates a uniform safety manual outlining in detail the proper way to mark roadways etc. It’s called “The Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices and Street Signs”. I’m going to assume that Canada has a similar lexicon and manual.
Here’s your benefit. If you ever get a speeding ticket or a traffic violation, there is likely a 90%+ chance that the roadway of the “offense” is not marked or designed according to Federal Law. Such traffic violations are null and void should you be able to show that to the Magistrate/Judge. It’s a “no fail” defense, and I can attest from personal experience that it drives the cops nuts when they have to show up in court and you shoot down their case in about 5 minutes.
Just to give you an example, I did a slow roll through a Stop Sign once and got a “not coming to a complete stop” violation for my troubles. It turns out the Stop Sign was on a poll measuring 6’8″…which is a crying shame since Federal Law requires it to be 7′ tall for visibility purposes. You get the idea. I’m just playing by their rules.
That’s nice, but judges in Canada are here to confirm the oppression of citizens, not right wrongs. The government can do no wrong, and the judges do not see themselves as a separate branch, but rather guardians of the state.
Like parasites they live off of our taxes, and then they use their power to waste our time.
There is no aspect of life the Nanny Staters don’t try to control, with their ultimate goal of your miserable life ending ASAP.
How has my one little CA town slowed traffic to a congested crawl on our one mile long Main Street? Traffic signals on EVERY SINGLE INTERSECTION. In one mile … we have 15 traffic lights. On every single side street. It can take me 20 minutes to traverse the downtown.
How that is helping the environment… saving the air … or saving fossil fuels beggars belief.
Isn’t it amazing that stretches of busy major commercial streets here have short blocks but lights at almost every intersection for miles, yet many pedestrians still cross at the very few uncontrolled intersections where there are one or two fatalities a year. Solution…reduce posted speed to 40 KMH. Stupid, lazy people will always find a way to get hit and if they are not lucky, there’s always MAID. No worry, the Liberals will ban cars in 25 years
Here is what this is:
Stupid people thinking they are “saving the planet” reduce the number of lanes people payed for, often to make bike lands, sometimes simply shutting down whole streets.
The same amount of people have to get from here to there.
Result, now they go much slower, and put out more smog.
If it was a bike lane, not only do the bikers have to drive through that smog, but it is much harder to park and get to businesses.
This is why the federal government must intervene, so that people get the roads they payed for.