20 semis, 1 city street ... I'll bypass that thanks

MICHAEL Moore admits it's pretty scary to count 20 semi-trailers on James St travelling together at one time. That's why he thinks the bypass is a must.

HAVING grown up in Toowoomba and then moved away for some years, Malcolm Moore appreciates the changes in the Garden City.

And not all of those changes were possibly for the better.

"My father was in the timber industry so we moved about a bit," Mr Moore recalls.

"And then I worked as an estimator in Brisbane for 12 years before the GFC (global financial crisis) hit and a lot of people lost their jobs.

"I went into the security industry and moved back here to Toowoomba in 2009.

"I'm in the security industry here too, and I quite like it."

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A couple of aspects in particular had changed in the years he had lived away from Toowoomba.

"I've always thought of Toowoomba as home and my mother lives here," Mr Moore said.

"I like Toowoomba, it's a big, friendly place.

"But the one thing I noticed when I came back here was the increase in traffic and I felt the streets really aren't coping with it.

"I've been on James St and counted 20 semi-trailers moving along there and that is pretty scary."

Mr Moore saw the new Range crossing as a must to help get trucks out of the city.

"I really think we need that bypass and thankfully it looks like it's going ahead.

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"I just hope they do it properly.

"The new airport is one really great thing to have happened since I came back here too.

"I think that will really open up Toowoomba."

However, on the downside, Mr Moore was sad to see the city centre a lot quieter than he remembered it in his younger days.

"The city centre seems to be dying and I don't think that's a good thing," he said.

"They need a plan to rejuvenate the city centre...I wouldn't like to see the heart of the city die.

"When I was a kid here, the city centre was alive and bustling every day."

While he likes the climate up on the Range, like a lot of locals, Mr Moore believes the winters now are nowhere near as cold as in days gone by.

"The winters here seemed to have warmed up a bit from when I was a kid here," he said. "We get the odd cold day here and there but, back then, it seemed to be cold for weeks on end."

Originally published as 20 semis, 1 city street ... I'll bypass that thanks