All but one of the candidates for North Saanich Council have now responded to our questionnaire on making Dean Park a safer and more enjoyable neighbourhood for walking.
(Bob Williamson is the only candidate to NOT reply at all. Peter Chandler chose not to answer specific questions but to give a general answer instead.)
Overall, the response has been gratifying: most candidates (10 out of 14) say they support sidewalks, speed bumps and narrowing of some roads in Dean Park to discourage speeding and increase pedestrian safety.
Some candidates have suggested other ways to discourage speeding, increase safety and make our neighbhourhood more inviting to walk in. All who replied agree that Council has a responsibility to work with residents on this issue.
Before you vote on November 15th, please carefully consider each candidate’s response (or lack thereof). Answers are posted under individual candidates’ names on the left hand side of this website.
3 comments
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November 9, 2008 at 5:48 am
Tracy Lawrence
I support the idea of a side walk on the major roads in Dean Park. I frequently walk Dean Park Road with my two young children and two dogs and I must say I am tense, always on edge and forever hustling the kids and dogs along. It does not become a leisurely, relaxed walk until I reach the sidewalk on East Saanich.
The problem as I see it is drivers racing to get momentum to get up the hill and others going with the momentum on the way down. Either way it results in speeding. Something needs to be done around the area where the hill starts to rise to cause drivers to slow down. I heard there use to be a kink in the road somewhere around Chinook that was removed for some reason. A bend in the road to obscure the site of the big hill for drivers going up would really help to reduce the speed drivers feel they need to get up the hill (becasue they won’t be able to see the hill) as well as force drivers coming down to reduce speed to get around the obstacle.
Perhaps a round-about with a single beautiful specimen tree (don’t want to encourage children to play on it) would be a cost effective solution.
Another major problem is the corner of Dean Park and East Saanich. The way the corner is curved it is more like an off ramp for drivers coming southbound on East Saanich and turning onto Dean Park Road. A simple and cheap fix would be to sharpen that corner, make it more of a 90 degree thereby forcing drivers to slow down as they round the corner.
There are my comments. I would love to discuss further with other concerned citzens.
November 9, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Dan Ogle
Yes/no questions don’t tell us much because all candidates answer ‘yes’.
But can you recall the once beautiful entrance to Dean Park, in front of the Panorama? Remember the peaceful feeling created by the magnificent trees? The picture was used on the North Saanich website. Remember how the trees were cut down, and the peace destroyed, while the current council slept at the switch?
What candidates do, or fail to do, tells us something.
November 13, 2008 at 10:18 pm
brenda taylor
I completely agree with Tracy about the dangerous corner on the northwest side of the Dean Park Rd/East Saanich Rd intersection. The white line delineating the walkway simply ends – in the road- rather than guiding people left onto the raised sidewalk. There is a “no-mans’ land” where cars and pedestrians share the same space. Cars turning onto Dean Park frequently cut that corner, ending up on the “sidewalk”.