What I care about and what most people who live in the area care about is the traffic.  It’s horrible and that’s putting it mildly.  To get to work every morning it takes me about 6 minutes, getting home takes almost 25.  You cannot drive down lakeshore, it’s a stop and go trial of patience each and every single week day.  That’s not even factoring in Summer time traffic when there’s an event on, I don’t even have words to describe how awful that is.  Last summer I had to plan to be home the entire weekend so I didn’t have to spend 2 hours trying to exit or re enter the downtown area.  I had to go and get groceries and anything else I’d need just so I wouldn’t have to leave my house.  Does nobody else find that ridiculous?  Funny thing about that, my neighbours they did the same thing.

I have tried every single possible route to get home that will not take me nearly half an hour to drive what should be 6 minutes.  New street isn’t any better, Prospect is horrible, Maple and Brant…forget about it.  There is no option available where traffic is not an issue.

Have you ever been driving along and all you can see is a lineup of cars in front and behind you as far as the eyes can see?  No I don’t mean Toronto …this is Burlington I am referring to.  Even their new Mayor acknowledges traffic is horrible there.  I challenge you to take a nice drive through the area around 430 on a weekday.  You won’t get far quickly. 
Doesn’t anyone consider this an issue?  Most cities develop a strategy to deal with high traffic areas when it becomes congested.  Burlington seems to be in the business of creating its own traffic.  How many traffic lights does one street need?  In front of my apartment on Lakeshore there are two sets of lights literally 3 car lengths away from each other.  Is that really needed?  To make matters worse none of the lights are even synched up properly.  So when one light turns red it creates a massive line of traffic backing up for blocks and blocks down the road.
Why do we need so many of these lights?  Why are they not synched up properly? Is someone in city hall taking a nice kick back from the people who install these lights?  I’d like to know and I’m sure many other citizens would too.

The part of the city that bothers me most is our ward because its where I live and I can’t get home in a reasonable amount of time, but this issue exists city wide.  Take Harvester and Appleby for example.  We have lights at that intersection, then again 10 feet away from that…so now traffic is worse than it was before because once again the lights aren’t synched and traffic starts backing up.  WHY do we need so many lights?  Harvester isn’t an area where there are tons of pedestrians sauntering about.  I fail to see why the one occasional pedestrian cannot walk the extra 10 feet to the light that were already in place there. This isn’t just Lakeshore and Harvester, Everywhere I drive I see more and more lights going up.  With every light that goes up the traffic gets worse. 
There are even lights randomly placed in the middle of streets for no reason like on Appleby just past Fairview. WHY are those lights there? Because there is a pathway there?  How many people are using this path that it requires lights there?  I have yet to see one person use these lights and I drive past there several times a day.
There is no major street in this city which does not suffer from horrible traffic congestion, excessive traffic lights and poorly planned timing on the lights.  Bottom line you just can’t get anywhere in this city during busy times in a reasonable amount of time.

Another thing, why do all the manhole covers have to be sunken in on the roads?  Does anyone care that this is horrible for citizens cars?  They aren’t in the middle of the lane, always at the side so you need to try and consistently swerve to avoid them or hit them and risk damage to your vehicle. Is that a safe road to be driving on, where people are swerving all over the place?  Does anyone actual plan anything in this city or do we just wing it.  For that matter is there some kind of kickback to the mechanics for these because I don’t see any of them getting fixed.  I’d almost rather take Barton Street in Hamilton than drive down Fairview.  We have roads ripped up all over the city but there are no orange lines on the roads to warn you about the giant pot holes they just created, or for the pavement which is about to disappear out from under your car.  For that matter there are roads that have been ripped up then just left that way without being completed like South Service Rd.
The long and short of my complaint here is that these things effect everyone and they affect everyone on a daily basis.  So why are we wasting time and money bickering about the stupid peer or about waterfront development.  Aren’t these the type of topics that should be left for discussion after the major problems have been fixed.
Maybe if someone takes initiative to try and change these things I might just bother getting off my butt and voting next time.  Until then I hope none of you come to my door canvassing for my support next election…oh wait you can’t get there because the traffic on lakeshore is so bad you won’t be able to turn into the visitor parking of my building.

-Shannon
 

We shelter and protect the city employees, advisors and legal counsel regardless of their level of competence. large salaries, benefits, pensions are paid.
City employment is a cash for life employment scenario.
When will this ridiculaous rhetoric regarding the council stop and the blame be laid where it belongs, squarely with the City managers and executive.

I can only hope that business minded citizens step in and take charge and we see a turnover at city hall of the incompetent employees, consultants and lawyers who manage projects such as the pier.