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Letter: City's design made my Burnaby street narrow and dangerous

Editor: Re: This Burnaby street should absolutely be closed to traffic , NOW blogs Not quite sure why Audrey Flagel is complaining after living there for only six or so years.
ridge drive Burnaby
The letter writer says the right-hand lane is too narrow to accommodate parked vehicles and traffic, although the last vehicle in the photo is parked illegally. Contributed photo

Editor:

Re: This Burnaby street should absolutely be closed to traffic, NOW blogs

Not quite sure why Audrey Flagel is complaining after living there for only six or so years. It was a busy street way before then, when commuters would come down Duthie and scoot down Barnet Road to access Inlet to head to Port Moody. We had traffic running directly in front of our houses until Barnet Road had to be closed off for safety issues.

Unfortunately, she, like many others, live on Duthie, which is a main corridor leading to other residential areas, up Ridge and beyond.

Then came the roundabout. We weren't too happy about that, but it has certainly helped with the traffic control - if people knew how to navigate around it.

What's worse, in my opinion, is the recent reconfiguration of Ridge at Inlet. Where before, one could only turn right to head east, now the city has made that junction narrower and added a left-turn lane at the now regular traffic light (before it was a pedestrian-controlled crossing) and eliminating the gradual right lane on Inlet to allow people making a right on to Ridge more difficult to navigate.

Now it's a sharp right turn into a narrower Ridge Drive, with cars parked at the curb. Might work if you're driving a small car, but anything larger is dangerous if a car coming down Ridge and waiting to make a (new) left onto Ridge to head west. I wondered who came up with that idea.

I can appreciate “traffic calming,” but I think they missed on this one. Has anyone from engineering tried to navigate this intersection? Unlikely.

So, it is not all about Duthie, which in itself has not changed since the 40-plus years some of us have lived in this neighbourhood. 

Look around, a lot has changed over the years. A tough nut to swallow sometimes. Some have moved, others still like it here, regardless of some illogical implementations by the city. I would like to see a review of the recent changes at Ridge/Inlet to allow better and safer traffic flow through that junction.

Thomas Tricarico, Burnaby