You don't live on a residential street, OK?

Years ago I got into a tiff with a few vocal residents of Maitland Avenue who complained about traffic volumes that passed by their homes, day in and day out. They didn't like the number of cars or trucks that went by, they didn't like the speed at which they drove, they pretty much didn't like anything that went by on four (or more) wheels. Some suggested that the city should consider traffic calming measures... I'm sure some might even have wanted "local traffic only" designations at one point or another.

The big topic of the week is King Edward Avenue. I see it now has a 40 km/h speed limit, likely due to the city bowing to pressure from area residents being unhappy with the "typical" 50 or 60 km/h speed limit this sort of street should (and did once) have. Residents are unhappy with the trucks that drive down their street. They are unhappy with the volume of cars that drive past by their homes, some at somewhat higher than legal speeds. They want this to stop - and now.

A group has spent $250 on a radar to keep tabs on the speeds of passing vehicles. They hid behind poles and bushes because, according to today's Ottawa Citizen article, they don't want people to slow down while they measuring. I wish elected officials would have the intestinal fortitude to say that King Edward Avenue is NOT a residential side street.

If you do not like it, move to the suburbs and find a nice quiet cul-de-sac to live on. The fact of the matter is this: if you live on Pinecrest, Woodroffe, Maitland, Kirkwood or Bronson, you live on a major arterial road that leads directly to and from a 400 series highway designed to move people from one part of the region to the other. Quickly. Unless you built your house and/or moved into it back in the 1950's, you knew what kind of road you were moving to. When you decided to have kids while living on these major roadways, you must have known they would never play road hockey or hopscotch out front. If you didn't, you're an idiot, as House would say on a popular television show.

Yep, I'm telling it like it is - something many don't have the guts to do these days.

Is it right for someone to (allegedly) drive 103 km/h in a 4o zone, as a volunteer claims one recently did? Absolutely not. Is it right for someone to go 65, though? Probably - were it not for the artificially low politically correct speed limit. Does Carling Avenue have a 40 km/h speed limit? Nope. Isn't it a similar type road to King Edward? Yep. Carling probably has more residential properties on it than King Edward does, but you don't see its residents crying bloody murder.

Many major Ottawa roads have seen their share of tragic collisions. Some will argue there have been some bad "accidents" involving transport trucks on King Edward and any collision involving one of those monsters can't end well for the most part... but what was the truck driver supposed to do a couple years ago when a car ran a red light in front of him? Any answers, King Edward activists? I do not believe the truck was speeding... but because someone got seriously injured or killed in that collision, the design (since changed) of the roadway and its use was once again debated. No debating and discussion in the world will change anything if an idiot driver goes through a red light in front of a transport truck, I'm sorry.

My new councillor (who must be insane) wants to financially compensate people for walking and riding bikes to meetings. My past councillor worked so hard to make life miserable for drivers it nauseated me. It's time to be realists, folks - the City of Ottawa is massive. You cannot walk from the outskirts of Arnprior to Canaan Road on the 174. You can't bike from Britannia Beach to the 43rd kilometre of highway 416. OC Transpo can't help you with that either.

So until people get it through their thick skulls that public transportation, bikes and skateboards can't get us around all the time, and that cars are a fact of life (as are trucks on King Edward until another community out there joins reality and allows another bridge to be built), we have to learn to peacefully co-exist - humans and cars.

And if you don't like cars and trucks zooming past your house at the rate of hundreds if not thousands per hour, move to a REAL residential street. Don't try to drag us back to 1823 and hope that the major arterial road you live on will ever return to a peaceful greenspace where the antelope play with children from dawn until dusk.

For those who are still confused, call 311 and have someone explain the difference between residential, collector and arterial roads are for a start. Then re-evaluate your living arrangements. Things change - and they never go back back in time. If you choose to live on King Edward Avenue or any road that leads to or from the 417, you must learn to live with the consequences. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. That's why the trucks that provide us with the food we eat each day must use that road. You don't like it? Find another place to live.