jkc

I do not know at this point what Burlington agency is in charge of patrroling traffic and speeding, but if something is not done about the excessive speeding and massive trucks on Home Ave. between Shelburne Rd. and Pine St. the citizenry whose quality of life and safety is impacted in a negative way, are going to have to take it upon thermselves to do something about it.

If another speeding car almost hits my kids, if another tractor trailer almost runs down someone trying to cross the street in a wheelchair, if another huge truck almost slams into the back of our car when pulling into our driveway it will be the last straw. We realize that no one will do anything about it until someone is badly injured, but WE CARE about the safety of our neighbors and families. At some point it becomes an issue of self preservation.

The Champlain Parkway seems to be a mythological promise that is never going to happen, yet is continuously held up as the solution to this long known and worsening problem. Something has to be done in the "interim." We are exhausted by fantastical promises. Please protect our neighborhood streets. Home Ave. should not be used as an extension of I-89.

As always a steady stream of speeding cars, trucks, massive tractor trailers and gravel slinging dump trucks from Dirt Tech and others make Home Ave a treacherous place to walk, bike and live.

Just this morning I witnessed a woman in a wheelchair almost get run over trying to cross Home Ave from the Market 32 side of the street to Wells Street.

I just witnessed (which prompted me to write this) a mostly blind woman with a marked walking stick get run off of the street and somehow avoid getting killed by a speeding truck. Traffic did not stop roaring by her (despite her holding out her cane) until I literally ran out of my house into the street and forced traffic to stop to let her cross. She said that people are supposed to stop when they see the cane.

Does this city not understand the amount of people who walk, take their wheelchair and ride their bike down and across Home Ave. It is a neighborhood street and yet it is used as a freeway to downtown and as a trucking route into town off of I-89. All day, constantly, city buses and Mountain transit buses from UVM Medical center roar down Home Ave, rarely with anyone in them. None of them are ever going 25 mph or below.

Huge dump trucks speed up and down Home Ave all day long slinging dust and pollution. Commuters and others line up in hour long traffic jams during the morning and evening commute.

If something is not done to calm, lessen and slow traffic on Home Ave someone will be run over. It is just a matter of time. There needs to be a sign showing how fast cars are going, a speed bump or something because forcing people to use a neighborhood street as a highway is not adequate city planning.

Crab apple tree touching, pulling on electrical lines.

Two or three times a week a GAUTHIER trash truck emptying bins behind Dress Barn and TJ Maxx at the Shelburne Road Shopping Plaza between 3am and 3:30am makes such an amazing amount of noise slamming bins and revving his lift that he wakes up my entire family including kids.

I see neighbor lights come on, sleepy heads peering out windows amazed that a person can have so little regard for our neighborhood.

It is my understanding that special "quiet hours" when machinery, power equipment, and construction noise are prohibited is between 9:00 pm and 7:00 am. This noise is unreasonably loud given the time, place, and nature of it.

pic is from 3:15am this morning.

A Burlington snow plow driver pushed the ice from the sides of Home Ave onto the sidewalk blocking it with mounds of ice. It is impassable for walkers and people in wheelchairs.