Letter Re Traffic Counts Councils

Agriculture Business Community Chapters: Perth East, Perth South, Wilmot West.

Agricultural Business Community of Perth East, Perth South and Wilmot C/o 3649 Road 107 RR#2 Tavistock, Ontario N0B 2R0

February 3, 2009 To: The Warden and Council of Perth County Mayor and Council Perth East Mayor and Council Perth South From: The Agricultural Business Community of Perth East, Perth South , Wilmot RE: Regarding Traffic Counts for the Proposed Development of Highway 7 & 8 It has come to our attention that the MTO and consultants for the Highway 7&8 study are presently meeting with the Engineering staff of the Region of Waterloo to discuss and confirm the traffic volume numbers. Part of this discussion is to review and confirm variations in their different model calibrations so as to confirm the data to be used in the next stages of this work. Traffic volumes drive this project and it is projected traffic volumes that will trigger the type of highway design to be proposed and built. The highway design will determine the land requirements for

highway construction and in turn this will impact on the agricultural community. Traffic volumes and accident reporting will also be used as part of the argument for the timing for the provincial government to support funding for highway development and how long the community is held for ransom before any action is taken.

We understand that the existing numbers tracked by MTO in their Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) and similar methods of traffic volume tracking used by the Region are being discussed. On January 30 three of our members met with the Traffic Engineer for the Region of Waterloo who authored the Wilmot responses to MTO/consultants corridor plans dated November 18, 2008 and January 27, 2009. (Report P-08-110 and P-09-010) These reports were both endorsed by the Region of Waterloo and they both question the traffic volumes proposed by the consultant and they both proposed interim solutions to be examined. The interest of the Region of Waterloo stops at their boundaries and their modeling for future consideration will also understandably be focused on meeting the needs of their taxpayers. The fact that the major length of the proposed corridor is outside of their jurisdiction is not their concern. Presently the consulting team, MTO and the Regional Municipality professional engineering staff are developing and reviewing traffic volume estimates as the precursor to highway design. This C/O 3649 RO AD 107,R.R.# 2 • TAVISTO CK, ON • N0B 2R0 PHO NE: 519-655-2631 • EMAI L [email protected]

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February 3, 2009

work will confirm the traffic volume and population projection estimates to be used to develop the MTO required projection to the year 2031. These are internal working documents and not available to the public. Even if they were available, the Agricultural Business Community does not have the expertise to review and comment on this information. We understand that similar meetings are NOT being held with Perth County or the Townships of Perth East or Perth South. You are well aware, the lions portion of the proposed highway is in Perth County and yet the adequacy /validity of the data being used to determine the need for this project is being confirmed through traffic models developed by and for the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, models used by the MTO and the Consultant without adequate input from Perth County. The MTO data is quite clear that the AADT in the Region of Waterloo is almost double that in the highway stretches in Perth County and they are growing at a more significant rate as well. These figures show that the Average Annual Daily Traffic from Perth Road 107 (Shakespeare) and Waterloo RR1 has only increased 1.38% per year for the period 1988 to 2005 ( from 8,400 to 10,600). The stretch from Shakespeare to the Stratford City Limits have only increased 1.5% per year (from 7,900 to 10,200). This same data indicates the most significant increase within the length of the study area is within the Region of Waterloo where total AADT almost doubled during this same time period. We recommend that Perth County, the Municipality of Perth East and the Municipality of Perth South be pro-active when it comes to the development of engineering planning criteria that will lead to traffic design in our community. We recommend that the appropriate Local Government(s) request to be part of the discussions where decisions are being reached on the traffic volume data and population projections that will impact our community. If the County, the Municipalities of Perth East and Perth South do not have traffic models or staff with the specialized knowledge to contribute to this process then we recommend that professional services be contracted to provide the technical knowledge to play an active role in these discussions on behalf of the community. As the City of Stratford will benefit from these discussions, they should be approached and asked to contribute to this process in support of these professional services. The Agricultural community relies on Perth County, the Municipality of Perth East and the Municipality of Perth South to see that the interests of the community are served. They are not served unless our governments are proactive and contribute to the planning process in a timely manner. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sharon Weitzel, Linda Dietrich, Paula Neice

C/O 3649 ROA D 107,R.R.# 2 • TAV ISTOCK, ON • N0B 2R

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February 3, 2009

0PHO NE: 519-655-2631 • EMAIL HW Y7AND8 @GMA IL.CO M