At the worst of times, the area around Grand River Hospital can seem like the most congested in Waterloo Region.

While traffic can pass in front of the hospital in both directions, partial and full closures of King Street nearby have led to a surge in traffic on Park Street – and on side streets connecting the two.

“It’s crazy,” said pedestrian Michael Drick, who estimates that he sees about 40 cars per day use his nearby driveway to turn around.

“It’s so busy. You have to constantly watch where you are going. People do not slow down.”

Local transportation officials say they knew closing lanes on King would result in some unexpected traffic patterns elsewhere in the neighbourhood – including on streets that might not be ready for it.

 “It wasn’t uncommon for traffic to ignore the road closed sign we had at Union, come down to Green and be forced to go down Green toward Park Street,” said Ken Carmichael, the city’s manager of transportation planning.

Once that happened, some drivers would turn left on Park in an attempt to get back in the right direction – often bottling up traffic as they waited for a break in congestion along Park.

In April, Kitchener city councillors voted to ban left turns from Green Street onto Park, between the hours of 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays.

Despite a posted sign alerting drivers to the ban, CTV News cameras caught a number of drivers making the left turn.

In one case, a driver sat at the intersection for one minute and 42 seconds before making the turn.