Re: Traffic on Prospect Place (News, April 27)
All residents of Oak Bay should be concerned by council’s refusal to abide by its own bylaws.
The Community Plan bylaw and common sense dictate that traffic should flow from small residential streets to major roads and not the opposite. Other streets may have more or less traffic, but Prospect Place is unique in that it can be used as a link between two of the busiest streets in Oak Bay.
Traffic going between Oak Bay Avenue and Beach Drive has a choice of either using Newport Avenue, which is a wide, straight road with two pedestrian crossings and sidewalks, or using Prospect, a narrow, winding residential street without sidewalks.
Unfortunately much of this traffic, including commercial and construction vehicles, chooses to use Prospect Place, thus jeopardizing the safety of the many pedestrians who walk it going to and from Oak Bay Village and the nearby school.
Other municipalities do not allow through traffic to use residential streets as short cuts so why does Oak Bay allow this violation of its bylaw? Incidentally, the time saved by using Prospect as a short cut between Oak Bay Avenue and Beach Drive is about 20 seconds.
Our councillors talk about making Oak Bay more pedestrian friendly, but it would be nice to see some positive action to that end.
Derick Woods
Oak Bay
