Accountability, Semantics & Transparency

Files 1.055 and 1.072 mentioned in a recent Environment & Transportation Committee agenda use such terminology as "northern freeway corridor" and "peripheral freeway." A May 7th e-mail to the Mayor and to Environment & Transportation Committee pointed out:

• Freeways: divided roadways carrying traffic at high speed under free-flow conditions with access at interchanges only, typically connecting larger cities.
• Arterials: roadways where movement of through traffic is the primary consideration with land access a secondary function.
• Expressways: generally divided arterial roads with at-grade intersections.

Elected representatives are left with these questions: What city are they connecting to in Middlesex? If a freeway is preferred, why not engage all affected counties and the Province?

Buried in the January 04 State of City Address, "...we have continued our discussions with the County of Middlesex and the Province regarding the ongoing issue of a ring road." In the January 05 address neither a ring nor a peripheral expresssway is on the radar.

Back in 1972, Queens Park committed to helping with construction of Airport Rd. Thirty-three years later it's not a four-laner. Yet, some members of council would kid taxpayers that London can go it alone on a northern corridor (twice the length of initial Airport Rd) ...and in another municipality, without financial and planning assist from the province. For the sake of accountability, the January 06 State of the Capital address should reveal the amount spent on ring/peripheral road studies over the last 10 years.

Montreal, in its fight to retain the Shriner's Hospital, plays the "poor transportation access" card. Local support for a northern trade corridor provides broad regional access ...and 403 interchanges at major arterials takes pressure off an already jammed Wellington Rd.

Now, this blog encourages comment; pro, con or straddling the median. Perhaps a few brave council members will lend some transparency by accepting the challenge to sell voters on their doable 33-yr peripheral vision?