Thomas Hasek appreciates that the City of Burnaby is adding traffic-calming measures in his South Burnaby neighbourhood.
He just thinks they’re in the wrong place and aren’t enough to deal with what Hasek calls a “notorious ratrunner” route.
The problem area is Victory Street between Patterson Avenue and Nelson Avenue. Victory is one-block south of the busy east-west route Imperial Street. Hasek says ratrunners race along Victory at dangerous speeds to avoid slower traffic on Imperial, especially during rush-hour periods.
“This area needs changes to slow drivers done,” Hasek told the NOW. “But what they city is doing is flawed.”
The city has already marked up the intersections along Victory at Frederick and Waverley, which both currently have four-way stop signs.
A May 2019 City of Burnaby report noted that “field observations indicated some problems with the observance of the four-way stop controls at the intersection of Victory/Frederick and at Victory/Waverley. Traffic circles at both intersections are recommended to replace the existing four-way stop sign to enhance safety and improve the route for cyclists.”
The two traffic circles will be added at a cost of about $110,000, according to the report.
But Hasek said the four-way stop signs actually do their job. He says the traffic circles are actually needed along Victory at the intersections of Jubilee and Gray, which do not have four-way stop signs.
Hasek also says the street needs speed humps and more signage, a suggestion he included in a presentation he made in 2019 to the city’s traffic safety committee. The speed humps were rejected.
“This area needs more done than traffic circles put in the wrong places,” Hasek said.
Hasek isn’t the only one requesting changes. The 2019 report says the city was contacted by two other people in 2018 looking for safety measures in consideration of the cyclists who use the route, including restricting access to Victory from some north-south streets. Victory was made the Victory Bikeway in 2005, said the report.
The city report said staff test traffic volumes and speed along Victory. The report found traffic volumes to be on the “lower” range of its road classification and that speeds were reasonable.
“Therefore, speed mitigation measures along Victory appear to be unnecessary at this time,” the report said, although it did recommend the two traffic circles.
Hasek disagrees with the volume and speed assessments, based on many years of watching traffic increase, he said.
“Basically, the engineering department knows best and the residents who actually live there know nothing,” Hasek said. “It’s pretty arrogant.”
