Editor:
Re: Burnaby is fixing the Marine Drive walking fiasco. But it won’t be quick, Now & Then blog, May 14
Thank you for your column. I’m glad the city is planning to move on this sidewalk project and, hopefully at the same time, do all the improvements that are needed like more street lights, and more safe bus stops, bus shelters and benches.
Now, the big question is why Burnaby is so far behind Vancouver in sidewalks, street lights and urban trails/greenways.
In Vancouver, every street has proper street lighting - 99.9 per cent, according to the electrical department.
In Burnaby, many street lights are missing and many are just temporary lights on top of BC Hydro power lines.
Look on the Burnaby side of Boundary Road (22nd to 29th Avenues), Vancouver has proper street lighting, but Burnaby has half as many lights.
The email you should send to Burnaby City Hall should request the following statistics:
1. How many kilometres of all major streets and how many kilometres of minor.
2. How many of those kilometres have sidewalks on both sides and how many on one side and how many have no sidewalks.
3. How many streets lights on major and minor streets and how many are permanent and how many are temporary.
The Ministry of Transportation is installing more lights on many highways, but many cities are not doing too much.
Nathan Davidowicz, Burnaby
Editor’s note: According to this NOW story from April 18, the city finished converting all of its streetlights to use LED bulbs earlier this month. Burnaby began converting its 11,600 streetlights in 2015 at a cost of $4.8 million.
