Burnaby city council recently passed a motion to spend millions of dollars on new sidewalks – a good thing to be sure.
Council voted to increase spending on sidewalks by $10 million per year to cover the 40 per cent of local roads – 275 kilometres – without a sidewalk on one or both sides.
Following that decision, I wrote on July 1 about how money also needed to be spent to fix old sidewalks that had power poles installed right in the middle of them – meaning people with mobility issues either can’t pass by or can but with great difficulty. You can read that story here.
But there are other areas that seem to fall through the cracks of what qualifies for a city sidewalk.
One of them I wrote about in May because of warnings from pedestrians and cyclists. I got sent a photo showing just how dangerous this spot is.
It’s located on Lougheed Highway, just east of Gilmore, and based on the photo attached to this story you can easily see the problem. People are being forced to use the road – in an oncoming merge lane – because there isn’t anywhere else to walk.
The problem, according to the City of Burnaby, is that the property next to the highway is owned by the development company Onni, which is working on a multi-tower project on the site.
Developers have to provide a “traffic management plan as part of the development process,” according to the city. “This includes pedestrian circulation. The intention is to ensure pedestrian access is maintained throughout construction. When access issues are brought to our attention, we follow up with the developer to ensure compliance.”
However, in this case, since this isn’t an official, paved sidewalk next to Lougheed, the city can’t do anything about the grassy section being blocked off.
What cyclist Richard Campbell (no relation) would like to see is the city create its own walking/cycling lane during the construction process for people to use.
“Hey @MayorofBurnaby@CityofBurnabyYou really need to jersey barrier off the little used 3 lane of traffic east of Gilmore so it is safe for people walking, rolling, and cycling. NOW! Before someone is killed,” Campbell tweeted on Sunday.
Just looking at the photo is scary because you can see how oncoming drivers, if they aren’t paying attention, could easily hit a pedestrian.
Perhaps the developer could just move the fencing back a little for now to allow pedestrians to walk on the grass – at least until another plan can be implemented. I really hope something can be done. This situation doesn't seem sustainable.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
