As the commercial tenant in the unit closest to the intersection of Lorimer and Northlands for the last six years, we have been reluctant witnesses to repeated accidents and near-misses at this poorly designed intersection.
This week we saw a teen getting her head smashed into a windshield hard enough to shatter the safety glass, and just moments ago an irate driver almost ran over a pre-teen girl walking her bike through the crosswalk. Screeching tires and blaring horns are daily, sometimes hourly events (there have been two near-misses while writing this letter). While the drivers are ultimately responsible, pedestrians and cyclists also seem to not understand how a crosswalk works.
Enough is enough. This intersection needs some sort of traffic control. A four-way crosswalk on a divided four-lane road is simply unacceptable. At the very least, speed must be controlled by large speed bumps on Lorimer, but preferably the entire intersection would be controlled by traffic lights.
Will this disrupt the traffic flow? Yes, but as the alternative is someone being killed, this is a cost the public must bear. It's going to happen, and if council refuses to act they will be partially responsible as this has been a known issue for years.
