To the editor:
Thank you Mr. Friesen for offering those words of comfort to the Gordon Drive area residents (Stats Show Truck Traffic on Ellis is Decreasing, Nov 30 Capital News).
Let me understand this “logic”: Ellis Street is closed to truck traffic and the trucks disappear on Ellis taking trucks from Gordon with them. It’s a miracle!
Gordon Drive area residents can’t possibly accept this generous offer. Instead let us return the kindness by suggesting the city close the Gordon Drive truck route to lessen the truck traffic on Ellis.
While, after an exhaustive search, I could not find the complete “study” on line, if there is one, what I see from the limited data (not ‘stats’) you have provided indicates it is flawed and the data does not support the conclusions you and the city have reached.
A credible analysis would have excluded variables in its collection of data. It would not show traffic figures from May in one year and June in another and who knows when in 2007? And data is not provided for five years from 2007 to 2012. It is only provided for 2007 and for May 2010 and June 2012.
Further, you seem to be saying the figures for 2007 were for a 24-hour period, but the ones during the Ellis Street closures were “daily volumes” 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., so of course, they would be lower.
What area of Gordon was involved? The whole length? Was it consistent for each time period? Where are the figures showing daily volumes on Ellis? Did it also decrease during these times?
If the impact on Gordon would be negligible, why would city staff recommend that city council adopt a resolution (which they did on Nov. 19) to, in part, direct “staff to continue discussions with BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) staff regarding potential upgrades to the intersection of Harvey Avenue and Gordon Drive to accommodate a potential truck route closure of Ellis Street to heavy truck traffic effective fall 2013.”?
And here’s a different story (sorry, ‘report’) from the city’s Jerry Behl in Sept. 13, 2010: “Currently Gordon Drive carries slightly more truck traffic (than Ellis) but both are in the range of 300-500 trucks per day in each direction.”
So Gordon Drive will be picking up 600-1,000 trucks in total from Ellis Street.
Bottom line, Mr. Friesen, is that I doubt the city, you, or your Chamber buddies on Ellis have the Gordon Drive area residents’ comfort in mind.
Lynda Zorn
Kelowna
