Halifax Struggles To Service Sprawl

CBC News

People living along one of the Halifax Regional Municipality’s busiest roads say it’s also one of the city’s most dangerous and could prove deadly if action is not taken.

Residents near Hammonds Plains Road say the thoroughfare’s fast-moving traffic and lack of streetlights and sidewalks makes it extremely dangerous.

The road in Hammonds Plains, a suburban community located a few kilometres west of Bedford, connects to Highway 102 and Highway 103.

A public meeting in the HRM suburb addressing those concerns Monday evening also heard that vehicles travel too quickly along the road and that some intersection lights are faulty.

“We’re going to build more subdivisions out here. You’ll be back here three years from now (with a) bigger meeting, more people saying we’ve got a dangerous road and our transit sucks,” resident Larry Wark said at the meeting.

He was one of more than 100 Hammonds Plains residents who filled a gym at the St Margaret’s Centre Monday.

A panel with representatives from the city, the RCMP and Metro Transit acknowledged that the road was never built for the amount of traffic it now deals with.

Many residents think that improving Metro Transit service to the area could help reduce traffic congestion and would improve safety along the road.

Resident Christina Parker says taking the bus is currently too dangerous.

“I stopped taking it because I’m within three feet of trucks and cars whizzing by me at 90 kilometres an hour. Then I have to cross that road at night in pitch black, no streetlights? No – I stopped taking the bus,” she said.

Metro Transit said it’s looking at improving service to the area and creating a bus terminal to help with some of the issues.