OK, we admit it.
When we first heard about lights being installed in downtown Truro which would allow traffic exiting Young Street to turn left onto Prince Street, we figured someone at town hall was having a bad day.
A left turn onto Prince Street? In the downtown core? Where the traffic all runs one way? That's crazy.
But then we took the time to look at the problem and the potential solution in a little more detail.
Currently a south-north drive through Truro can be an exercise in frustration, particularly for those driving from the densely populated streets west and east of Victoria Park to Cobequid Educational Centre, Colchester Legion Stadium, the stadium ball fields, the Tim Hortons soccer fields or the local school board offices.
In the absence of a direct route, these motorists are forced to cut through various side streets (most of them residential) in order to reach their destination, hardly the mark of a well-planned community.
As a result, some deep-thinkers came up with the idea of allowing for left-hand turns from Young into the righthand lane on Prince, followed by a quick right turn onto Lorne.
In addition, traffic in the lefthand lane on Prince must now exit onto Lorne. All the better to avoid those nasty head-on collisions, no doubt, but we do anticipate plenty of close shaves when drivers in the lefthand lane who don't want to exit cut over into the righthand lane.
Anyhow, the wheels of change are in motion, so to speak, and the lights will be installed and operational later this month or in October.
Not surprisingly, it is generating a lot of discussion and the early results from our online reader poll indicated 45 per cent of respondents thought the idea ‘totally ridiculous, compared to just 15 per cent who rated the solution as being ‘very creative.'
We say it's human nature to grumble about change and that the idea is worth a try.
