The Editor, Sir:

This weekend (December 7-9), the news media carried reports of the closure of Toronto Avenue which joins Molynes Road almost opposite to the Seaward Drive intersection. This is the first junction below the Sandy Gully Bridge on the way from Washington Boulevard to Half-Way Tree. This road is part of the Tamarind Grove community which has another entrance/exit on to Molynes Road at Greenvale Road, near the Moreton Park community.

This closure, according to Mr. Stephen Shaw of the National Works Agency (NWA), is their solution to a long-standing problem of 'indiscipline' on the part of motorists who use the community as a 'short cut' when Molynes Road is congested and who then aggravate the congestion problem by driving across the low median strip in front of the Toronto Avenue entrance or even use the right lane to make their passage toward Washington Boulevard. Many exasperated citizens of the community will welcome this move because they have long sought relief from the dangerous driving of route taxis, 15- and 30-seater buses and even commercially laden trucks!

My submission, however, is that the NWA is NOT doing the proper service to this community at all. At a 'consultation meeting' held with citizens on May 10, it was pointed out that the better solution would be to create three lanes of traffic from Washington Boulevard to Half-Way Tree, using two lanes in the direction of heavy flow, since the road was wide enough (or if not, widen the few sections that were bottlenecks).

This blocking of the intersections and 'No Right Turn' signs even at traffic lights seem to be the standard solution of the NWA to traffic congestion problems in Kingston. The lights mentioned here prohibit right turn from Seaward Drive on to Molynes Road, and I now understand that the same is true of the Constant Spring Road/Dunrobin Avenue intersection where right turn on to Dunrobin Avenue is not signalled! A question asked of the NWA at the above-mentioned 'consultation', but which went unanswered was: 'When will it be before all the intersections in the whole city become No Right Turn ones?'

I am, etc.,

CLEVELAND GUSTARD

Kingston

cgustard@gmail.com

Tamarind Avenue

Kingston 10