Traffic congestion biting into lunch time

CHARLOTTE PETRIE

Iqaluit Mayor John Matthews has asked Ian Fremantle, the city’s chief administrative officer, to meet with the bylaw department and try to bring back traffic control officers at the hospital intersection during peak periods.

Bylaw once conducted an experiment to see if an officer at that particular intersection would help improve the flow of traffic.

“When it was done two years ago there was great public response. People were saying ‘Thank God the city is doing something about that,’ councillor Keith Irving said.

Discussion on the issue was reignited when council received a letter from Nick Newberry, a teacher at Inuksuk High School, requesting an officer be posted at the intersection during the lunch hour.

“As a teacher, we don’t get out until after 12 p.m. and we’re expected to be back in before 1 p.m. So, you’re really looking at a 50-minute window, and if you come down onto that road you can expect a lineup to the college at least until 10-after, sometime even a quarter after 12,” Newberry said.

If you live up in Tundra Valley or Apex, he continued, you only have about 20 minutes for lunch by the time you get home. Having a traffic control officer in place could cut the time in half, he added.

Matthews’ initial response to Newberry’s request was a letter basically dismissing the suggestion, according to Newberry.

“[The mayor] basically said bylaw doesn’t have to do it. Well, I feel they should. One comment [in Matthews’ letter] was ‘Well it’s cold,’ and I thought ‘Well grow up.’

“It’s cold eight months of the year. People are outside doing all sorts of things in the cold. Put a pair of wind pants on – that’s the end of it.”

In a little town where there is only the one road, Newberry feels it should and can be addressed.

“I would suggest they have somebody on at 12 p.m. for about 10 or 15 minutes, and maybe somebody at 10 to one for about 10 minutes. That would, I think, alleviate it a lot.”