Slots don't ring up traffic in Ajax neighbourhood

AJAX -- About 4,000 people visit the Slots at Ajax Downs each day and the vast majority do not travel through neighbouring subdivisions to get there.

That's the finding of a study conducted for the Town about traffic infiltration into the subdivisions.

Less than 10 per cent of patrons travel through the neighbouring subdivisions to get to or from the slots, Angela Gibson, the Town's senior transportation planner, said to council's community affairs and planning committee on Monday.

Conducting the study was one of the requirements imposed by the Town when it approved the slots. The study was to be done after the first year, but Ms. Gibson said it was delayed a year until a subdivision was completed.

As roads around the slots are improved in the coming years, there will be less traffic going through the subdivision, Ms. Gibson said in her report.

About 18.5 per cent of slots patrons are from Ajax, while 27 per cent come from Toronto. Most of the others come from other communities in Durham Region.

Questionnaires about traffic were delivered to 450 homes in the neighbouring subdivisions, with only 53 returned, Ms. Gibson said, adding most who responded stated they didn't see any change in the amount of traffic in the subdivision after the slots opened in March of 2006.

Also, residents approved of traffic-calming measures already installed, such as a roundabout and raised intersections, and would be open to more such measures.

A public meeting on Oct. 15 about the traffic study only attracted two residents.

"Prior to the slots, there was a lot of anxiety about crime and infiltration," Ward 2 local Councillor Renrick Ashby said.

During public consultations about the traffic, "not a lot of people showed up. It shows either they don't care or they are satisfied," Coun. Ashby said.