A tour of the local transportation network drove home the need for regional planning for Claire Trevena.
Trevena, the B.C. NDP transportation critic, recently visited New Westminster to get a first-hand look at the issues raised by the City of New Westminster and local residents.
“I am watching the steady truck flow on Front Street – and am pretty appalled by it,” she told The Record avia telephone as she toured the city. “It is so steady. It is an intense amount of traffic.”
Coun. Chuck Puchmayr played tour guide for Trevena, who toured the city Oct. 9.
“We did a loop around,” she said. “We started off in New West, went across the Pattullo, down along South Fraser Perimeter Road, under the Port Mann – because the two don’t meet. For me it’s such a really shortsighted piece of planning – you have a major road and a major bridge, both supposed to be improving the traffic flow, and they don’t link.”
New Westminster city council recently received a staff report suggesting that traffic, particularly truck traffic, has increased since tolls were introduced on the new Port Mann Bridge and motorists have opted for the free Pattullo Bridge.
During her tour, Trevena was struck by the fact that Front Street was filled with trucks – and the Port Mann Bridge was not.
Having acquired a firsthand account of the traffic issues in New Westminster, Trevena said she hopes to get a tour of the Port Mann Bridge from the Transportation Investment Corporation, the Crown corporation that runs the bridge.
When considering major infrastructure projects like the Port Mann Bridge or a replacement for the George Massey Tunnel, Trevena said it’s critical to look at the impacts on communities and do comprehensive infrastructure planning.
“For the health of all our communities, we need to be doing that,” she said.
The staff report considered by council Oct. 7 stated that the average daily traffic volume on Royal Avenue has increased by 1,300 vehicles per day (a five per cent increase), and the heavy truck volume has increased by 360 trucks per day (a 63 per cent increase), since tolls were introduced on the Port Mann Bridge.
On McBride Boulevard, the total daily traffic volume had increased by 3,400 vehicles per day (nine per cent) and the heavy truck traffic has risen by 45 trucks per day (10 per cent).
In response to the traffic findings, council agreed to ask the province to immediately lower tolls for heavy trucks on the Port Mann Bridge to discourage the use of the Pattullo Bridge as a free alternative, and to ask TransLink to ban heavy trucks on the Pattullo Bridge (if the bridge continues to experience increased traffic volumes due to the diversionary effects of the Port Mann Bridge).
It also wants the province to approve an extension of the current heavy truck prohibition on Royal Avenue to 24 hour hours (other than for local deliveries) and establish regional tolling as a travel demand management measure for the Metro Vancouver area as an immediate priority.
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