Upon reading the letter from C. White, my first reaction was that the comments were a total exaggeration. I am sure Cardiff Road is the most police patrolled road in the universe, especially on holidays or weekends when unsuspecting visitors might be travelling to Cardiff or the golf course or park (i.e. photo radar at the South Glens entrance at 8 a.m.) Easter Sunday morning or on the days of the Cardiff Garage Sale.
It is not uncommon to pass four sets of police cars or radar while traveling from Cardiff to Morinville. They like to travel in tandem, and when I golf at Cardiff, it is not unusual to see them cruise by four times in the time it takes me to golf 18 holes.
If I am guilty of one infraction, it is distracted driving because I am constantly catching myself looking at my speedometer for fear that I will be speeding over those ridiculous speed limits.
I deal with five speeds zone changes every time I go to the grocery store, so it is only a matter of time before I slip up. Thank God it hasn’t happened yet.
Without exception each time we have visitors from out of Sturgeon County the first words we hear after they step in the door is “man do you ever have ridiculous speed limits on Cardiff Road.” In the 15 years I have lived near Cardiff Road I have never seen anyone drive “20 to 30 kilometers over the speed limit,” and I drive that road at four to six times a day. I encounter far more vehicles driving 10 to 20 kilometers under the speed limit.
To have a speed limit of 80 kilometers [an hour] east of Cardiff is totally ridiculous. A highway two miles north and running parallel to Cardiff Road has a speed limit of 100. Each road has the same number of crossroads; the lower limit is clearly a cash cow for the County. The same goes for 40-km through Cardiff. I have seen very few people walk on this road. I rarely have to wait before entering this road so why the low limit? Is it yet another cash cow or did our elected leaders base their decisions on comments from people like this author?
Even the road going through Alexander has a limit of 50 km/h and I do see people walking there almost every time I pass through. Having a 50-km limit past South Glens only means that people leaving this district never have to stop or can cut in front of me anytime I am more than 20 meters from the corner.
I have never seen an accident on this road in 15 years so wonder why it is considered such a high-risk zone.
Our elected leaders show no common sense when it comes to Cardiff road and we must and will show our displeasure the next election.
H. Reinbold
Further to Mr. White’s concern about speed on Cardiff Road, I think we should reduce the speed down to 5 kmph and to ensure that speed is maintained law enforcement should monitor the speed limit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays. The county can also use traffic calming devices like speed bumps and barriers. Think of the possibilities here…we could create bike lanes, and walk ways that would make it safe for the multitudes of people that use Cardiff Road for this purpose. To reduce the heavy truck traffic we could ban all the waste disposal vehicles that travel this road from other communities from using the Rosehill dump or at least reroute the traffic through Morinville and let them gather revenue from their photo radar system. I think we should press forward to the council this idea…let’s make the Cardiff Road safe again. Your thoughts.