The headline for the letter in the Aug. 21 Peninsula News Review, Pedestrian safety in Sidney is a two-way street, was 100% correct.
It has been known for many years that two-way streets are safer than one-way streets. One-way streets were first introduced in dense urban cities to speed commuter traffic through a downtown core. Whereas two-way streets are slower and thus ideal for shopping streets like Beacon Avenue.
Sadly, in the 1990s, municipalities started turning their two-way shopping streets into one-way 'race tracks', thus destroying their shopping districts. A perfect example was Victoria in 1972, and the long-term results can be clearly seen today. Unfortunately, one-way became a municipal fad and was introduced across North America. Eventually, it came to Sidney and the Amos council, unilaterally without any rationale or consultation, turned Beacon into a one-way street.
It is now well known that one-way streets are the kiss of death for shopping districts. As a result, most of the municipalities that converted to one-way have realized their historic mistake and hundreds of downtowns have now returned to two-way. When will Sidney wake up?
Richard Talbot
Sidney
