Quote:
Originally Posted by CoryB
The voters spoke pretty clearly on this and to go against the public opinion in the referendum is career suicide for anyone on city council
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Change happens.
The non-binding plebiscite, like all opinion sampling, reflected how people felt at one point in time. Public opinion can change, and with it the willingness of some city councillors to continue to oppose opening P & M.
I certainly can't speak for the inner thoughts of the "keep it closed" side but I SUSPECT many people who voted to keep P & M closed to pedestrian traffic did so under the assumption that doing so would mean NO money would end up being spent at the intersection and that automobile travel through the area would carry on unchanged.
Now that it seems lots of money needs to be spent and there will be disruptions to automobile traffic anyway, some drivers will probably try to find alternative routes and others will simply tough it out and endure the traffic delays.
Will the traffic delays due to construction be as long as they
would have experienced with pedestrians crossing at P & M? Who can tell? I am guessing, however, that many drivers will adjust their expectations on the time they will need to get through the intersection. Some may even change their driving habits and start their journey 4 minutes early (though for many people that is just wishful thinking). For some of these people I suspect it will be less threatening to them to again suggest opening P & M to pedestrian crossing when they have already gotten used to the "delay". Add to this the now-extra cost of re-building the concrete barriers once they have been removed and voila!
I repeat: change happens.