Spencer still taking the brunt
As the road construction on Wellington continues through a second summer, neighbourhood sidestreets continue to see a larger volume of traffic than they were designed to safely channel.
Spencer west of Holland is no longer actually a detour as Wellington has been restored to full traffic in that district, but the suspicion amongst area residents is that many drivers, having discovered Spencer’s long straightaway in last summer’s detour season, just can’t let it go.
The extra traffic can still surprise, and two drivers that may have thought they had the traditionally quiet intersection of Spencer and Huron to themselves got a nasty shock on the afternoon of July 3 when the collision pictured above took place at 2.30 in the afternoon, well before the rush-hour build up. Luckily, no serious injuries resulted.
Click on the image to see more photos from the aftermath of the accident.
Don’t blame this one on the Spencer through traffic: the problem is that drivers on Huron don’t always bother to read the signs.
Spencer does not have a stop sign, but the drivers on Huron often assume it’s a four-way stop and pull out suddenly in front of through traffic. I live in the neighbourhood, and have had to slam on my brakes many times going across Spencer towards Holland.
Another issue on the Spencer strip is the dense foliage such as rosebushes at some of the intersections along here. Coming down some of the perpendicular roads it’s almost impossible to see if cars are coming along Spencer until your are in the intersection.
Spencer-Armstrong is to be a permanent cycling route alternative to Wellington West, since they didn’t widen Wellington West enough to make it an attractive cycling route.
Presumably, along these lines, people taking the detour on Armstrong during the construction on this year’s segment of Wellington West are simply continuing on Spencer. I took Wellington eastbound on my bicycle and barely survived the giant gravel and water features.
Wait until the construction is all done and then see if traffic on Spencer dies down.