I grew up in Glace Bay and Sydney in the 50’s and 60's and even after living in Lower Sackville for more than 40 years, my wife, also from Sydney, and I make summer trips to Cape Breton to reconnect with family and friends. The drive to Cape Breton has been made much faster and safer over the years by the construction of divided highways that have traffic travelling “one way” separated from the other “one way” flow by medians and concrete barriers.
By “staying in our lane” our concern about oncoming traffic causing an accident or delay is reduced to a miniscule level. We realize the need to be vigilant when we pass from divided highway to two way traffic on the portion of the trip between just past Antigonish to the outskirts of Sydney.
In South End Halifax we are witnessing an increasing population in newly constructed buildings and HRM Staff have wisely proposed establishing “one way” streets to increase efficiency and safety for vehicles moving in the busy hospital, tour bus, and shipping activities.
“OK Boomer”! Perhaps I have mistakenly concluded that traffic being able to move east and west on the same street is safer and more efficient than not having to be too concerned about oncoming vehicles. I do think that every motorized vehicle we can remove from our city streets will reduce the maintenance cost of our streets that we pay through our taxes. An incentive for some of the population to abandon motorized vehicles in the downtown is creating bike lanes that not only provide safety and efficiency to cyclists but reduce motorized vehicle wear and tear expenses for our streets.
I appreciate the Premier's concern for visitors to Halifax having to rethink familiar routes to get to their south end destinations but “Goggle” directions and a safer trip can help compensate for the change. If there is only one lane it is much easier to “Stay in Our Lane”.
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