I was pretty excited to see students returning to the UniverCity development on Burnaby Mountain – my neighbourhood.
The end of August saw a crush of students come back as SFU returns to in-class instruction. The streets are full of people.
But there’s one group I wish had stayed home – the maniac ‘N’ drivers in luxury cars who have returned to my area to put lives as risk.
I could barely afford gas in my car when I was a college student, but SFU has some pretty wealthy students attending. The past few weeks have seen these students driving Teslas, BMWs, Range Rovers, Ferraris – all with ‘N’ magnets on the back of them.
These new drivers have made our local streets noticeably more dangerous because of how fast they drive and how little they pay attention to pedestrians and cyclists, especially at crosswalks.
I’ve witnessed a few near-misses on my street, which recently had speed humps added by the City of Burnaby.
Sadly, these speed humps are no match for these drivers. They race over them without slowing down one bit. I’ve seen several back-ends get airtime as they speed down the hill.
UniverCity resident Stephanie Klatt started a petition in 2019 through the City of Burnaby to have the speed humps installed on the 9100-9300 blocks of University Crescent on Burnaby Mountain. Copies of the petition were sent to residents in the area. I know because I’m one of them, although I wouldn’t have had to pay a share of the $18,000 cost that would have been shared by the residents.
Later, I received a letter saying the petition failed, meaning not enough people supported it.
I thought the issue had died.
UniverCity has a lot of kids living there attending an elementary school and Klatt was trying to protect them with a proposal to add several speed humps.
But, as I said, I thought the petition had failed. I don’t know how this got done, but I’m thankful it did because people are definitely slowing down.
The road crew also fixed the curb cuts at one crosswalk to make it easier for parents pushing strollers and people using mobility devices.
So full credit to the city for taking action. I just wish these drivers would use caution when going over the humps. Instead, they are still as reckless as they have ever been.
Maybe I need to put up my own traffic light at one of the crosswalks? Kidding (sort of).
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
