Re: Why a One-Way Street in Sharbot Lake?

Derek Redmond, Chair, Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society | Sep 07, 2022

Last week’s editorial was a pretty good recounting of the Mathew Street controversy. However, it summarized the traffic flow issue as a choice between the existing two-way street, and the Township’s one-way-downhill plan with a lane for pedestrians. It failed to mention the solution which the Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society has been proposing for two months, and was included in the letter "Traffic Chaos at the Beach" in your issue of July 14. That solution would be making Mathew Street one-way uphill, to allow both a way for cars to exit the beach area, and room for pedestrians and cyclists. 

The only objection the Railway Society has heard to this option is the Public Works Manager's assertion that the intersection at the top of the hill is dangerous. All the villagers we have spoken to, however, agree that this intersection is not a problem in summer or winter, and there has never been an accident there. A one-way-uphill street would even allow having separate turn lanes at the top.

The Railway Society sent the Public Works Manager a letter on July 7 detailing our concerns about the traffic congestion a one-way-downhill street would cause along the historic waterfront and the K&P Trail.  This was five days before the July Council meeting at which he told Council he had received no negative feedback regarding the plan. We then sent the same letter to the Mayor and all members of Council, and after receiving no response, followed it up with another letter explicitly signed by all members of our Board, just in case it wasn't clear how bad we thought the idea was. 

It's unfortunate that our letters could only be sent after Council had already made the one-way-downhill decision, since that decision had been taken on June 28 with no prior notice to the community. Still, we were disappointed that our well-reasoned argument was met with silence from Council.  We then accepted that social media posts, petitions, and letters to the editor must be the proper ways to lobby our politicians.  

We hope that Councillors and staff have been looking for a reason to reverse the decision, but the lack of transparency apparently means we will have to wait and see whether a one-way-uphill Mathew Street is one option on the table.   

Derek Redmond
Chair, Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society