Dear editor:

I have been reading with interest the various articles regarding a potential vehicle roundabout for the village of St. Davids.

I am a longtime resident in the area and am very familiar with the traffic flow in and about St. Davids. 

The village does not need, nor does it have the room for a roundabout in its midst.

However, I will direct your attention to the intersection of York and Concession 6 roads and suggest this is the place for a roundabout due to the full reopening of Concession 6 in the next couple of months.  

The current experiment that saw the installation of four-way stop signs at the intersection of York and Concession 6  has worked well and it has been even more successful with no vehicular access up or down the escarpment due to the Concession 6 closure.

In effect, this has made the intersection basically a three-way stop for most of the time the four-way stop signs have been erected.

During the period Concession 6 has been under construction, many vehicles going to and from Niagara Falls to Niagara-on-the-Lake and vice versa have had no real choice but to traverse through the village of St. Davids while Concession 6 has been closed.

Having said that, when Concession 6 reopens I would not be surprised to see a decrease in the amount of traffic going through St. Davids and an increase in traffic on Concession 6.    

When I stand back and look at the “big picture,” I see a north/south vehicular corridor connecting Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake that does not involve the village of St. Davids proper.

This corridor is already in place and almost ready to go. With the prior improvements to the Canadian National Railway bridge and now with the road upgrades at the lip of the escarpment, Concession 6 stands ready to become a busy conduit once more for north/south traffic.

When this happens, the four-way stop at the intersection of York and Concession 6 roads has the potential to become a bottleneck for drivers on both roads.

To assist with the flow of traffic in this north/south corridor, a roundabout at York and Concession 6 roads makes sense.

It would facilitate the traffic flow through this intersection and it would serve to tie in with the roundabout to the south (Mountain and Concession 6 roads), the roundabout to the north (Highway 55 and Concession 6) and the roundabout to the west (Glendale Avenue and York Road) that currently service traffic flow toward this intersection.

The only other thing that is needed to complete this “big picture” is the installation of traffic ramps on Highway 405 for entry onto and exit from Concession 6. Maybe that is a project for future consideration.  

I don’t dispute there is a flow of traffic through St. Davids, however, there are only slowdowns at the village’s four-way stop for short, intermittent periods.       

If the elected representatives from our local and regional governments continue to insist on spending my tax dollars for a vehicle roundabout, my vote goes for installing one at York and Concession 6 roads.

Bill Morrison Sr.
St. Davids