'Would drive anybody around the bend': Newmarket's Lundy's Lane residents face 'dangerous' traffic woes

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 10, 2023

For residents of Lundy’s Lane, living across the street from Southlake Regional Health Centre and steps from a medical building has created years of extreme traffic frustration.

Traffic headaches are a concern for residents across Newmarket and well beyond, but as Mayor John Taylor said, Lundy’s Lane is “a very challenged area” and the ongoing infractions of drivers “would drive anybody around the bend.”

The town has been working on finding solutions for years, Coun. Jane Twinney added.

Residents’ list of concerns are long, according to two residents of the street who don’t want to be publicly identified because they fear a backlash from drivers who could find out their addresses.

Drivers going to the medical building at Davis Drive and Lundy’s Lane cause long lineups blocking the road waiting to get into the parking lot.

People wanting to avoid paying for parking at the medical centre and the hospital park on the street, often haphazardly, making it difficult for residents and even first responder vehicles to drive down the road.

One resident described the situation as “dangerous.”

Drivers often park at the end of residents’ driveways, meaning homeowners can't get out of their driveways.

There have been many times drivers even park in residents’ driveways, or on their grass and head off to their appointments. They knock over residents’ blue boxes, garbage cans and green kitchen waste bins, and dump garbage from their cars on lawns.

Once, someone left a wheelchair from Southlake at the end of a homeowner’s driveway, which the resident returned to the hospital.

Asking drivers to be considerate is often met with verbal abuse. “They’re very grouchy. I think that’s the main thing. Several of us on the street have been called many, many names. We’ve been told to mind our own business,” one resident said.

“I have been asked not to cut my grass when they are parked there and this is when I’m already cutting it, or to blow it or to trim it. It’s incredible, really. You know the expression they know where you live? Well, some of them get really ugly and yes, you think, they know where you live and that really bothers me.”

Verbal abuse has also been hurled at bylaw officers.

Homeowners have been complaining to the town for years, dating back as long ago as 1986. That was the year the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown, the space shuttle Challenger exploded seconds after takeoff and the “Oprah Winfrey Show” debuted.

Residents credit the town and bylaw staff for implementing and considering a number of measures to solve the problems -- at one point, for example, the town contemplated deputizing homeowners to hand out tickets, but rejected the idea because they didn’t want to put residents at risk -- but the concerns persist.

Now, as part of initiatives to address larger traffic issues in the neighbourhood, council is investigating whether it can take stronger measures.

That could include working with York Regional Police regarding posting signs saying cars blocking driveways or parked on private property will be towed, hiring a private contract parking officer to patrol the street and issue tickets, and placing bollards close together to prevent cars from parking on the street, although there are worries that would cause even more drivers to block driveways or park on homeowners’ property.

A report looking at options will come to council in the future.