Dear City of Prince George,
Thank you for your plans to resurface Dawson Road from Austin Road to Thee Crescent during the 2016 paving season.
Now could you please go pave someone else's road this summer, instead?
If Dawson were a normal residential neighbourhood street, it would have been due for paving years ago. It is filled with dips, cracks and heaves. It is an obstacle course for neighbourhood drivers. It is an embarrassment.
Which means it's perfect and should be left just the way it is.
After the S-curve near Austin, Dawson runs straight all the way to the end at Thee and Greenforest Crescents, about half a kilometre. Even with the rough road there now, many drivers still bomb down the straightaway, swerving constantly from one side to the other to avoid the bumps and holes. The only thing that slows them down is traffic coming from the other direction and the kids.
Glenview elementary school is on Dawson, about two-thirds of the way down the street from Austin to Thee. There is no sidewalk and there are no plans to build one for the children walking to school on Dawson, many of them coming from the Driftwood/Dawson residential area on the other side of Austin or from Valleyview. Even in the fall and spring, children walking to school have to be wary of speeding vehicles on Dawson. During the winter, the narrowing of the road due to snow makes coming and going to school even more precarious for the kids.
Compared to other parts of Prince George, the average age of residents of the Glenview neighbourhood seems younger. Many young families are drawn to the nearby elementary school, the numerous mobile and modular homes that can be bought for much cheaper than most houses, the low city taxes that come with those homes and the quick and easy access to forest space and trails.
This means that even when school is not in session, children can be found constantly on area streets, riding their bikes and working the jumps they've carefully constructed in some of the ditches and walking in small groups to visit friends. These streets, including Dawson Road, will be even busier with children once the new Hart Skateboard Park is built in the nearby Darren Fitzpatrick Bravery Park.
Young families also have pets. Most residents in the neighbourhood have dogs, often more than one, and they often walk down Dawson and the other streets with their pets, winter or summer. Young families also have all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and snowmobiles, both for the adults and for the kids. Dawson Road is the link to excellent off-road fun just off Greenforest.
Drivers share Dawson with all of these people and machines for all four seasons.
Resurfacing Dawson will be great for these drivers. They will be able to go faster to and from work on a smooth, new street, without having to worry about causing damage to their vehicle by hitting a hole or bump too hard.
For pedestrians, however, resurfacing Dawson without building a sidewalk is an invitation to disaster. It will significantly increase the likelihood of a pedestrian - more than likely a child - being struck and either seriously injured or killed, probably by a full-size truck or SUV, the most popular automobiles in the Hart.
Speeding is common practice as soon as vehicles cross the Nechako River. Both the Hart Highway and Foothills Boulevard are speedways, where the average vehicle drives at 15 kilometres over the speed limit. To pass other drivers on either of these routes requires driving 20 kilometres or more above the posted speed limit.
The last person spotted on the Hart Highway driving only 70 kilometres per hour, the maximum speed limit from Northwood Pulpmill Road to past North Kelly, had a good excuse. The windshield was smashed so bad that the only way he could see was to hang his head outside of his driver's side window.
So, City of Prince George, until you're prepared to build a sidewalk along Dawson, from Austin to the school, then just leave the road in its current state of disrepair. Those natural speed bumps makes the neighbourhood safer for everyone.
Signed, a concerned area resident.
