Alberta Street diverter was (and is) needed

Dear Editor,

Re: With more cars come more speeders in city, Inbox, New Westminster Record, Oct. 29.

I live on the 300 block of Alberta Street, and I wanted to write regarding the traffic diverter installed at the base of our street in early May of this year. 

When we first moved to this block in 2009, there was some traffic, but it was neither excessive in volume nor in speed. Once the traffic light was installed Alberta Street and East Columbia, we did notice an increase, but it didn’t seen unreasonable. Once the light’s road traffic sensors and timing were changed to allow for a quick left turn onto East Columbia, the traffic volume and (more worrisome) its speed dramatically increased. As parents of two children, that was a concern for us and for many of our neighbours on the street.  Add in TransLink employees. Add in HSA employees. Add in folks just trying to get to Highway 1 by avoiding Brunette. It was quite unlivable. Knowing full well that we were looking at up to four condo towers being added -–with no clear entry/exit from Brunette in the plans – we knew we had to approach the city to see what could be done.

Let me be clear: I am in no way shape or form trying to counter, disclaim or disagree with your comments that the traffic situation on Keary has changed for the worse since the diverter was installed, and I have absolutely no doubts that it is affecting the quality of life for the residents on Keary for the negative. But there are some factors that differentiate Keary from Alberta, which I’m certain makes the situation challenging for the city.

1: Keary is a key access point for Royal Columbian Hospital – and that is not going to change until/unless RCH is rebuilt with the ER/ambulance access at a different point on the site. Alberta is not and will never be that access point.

2: The Brewery District’s plans have almost 100 per cent of resident traffic entering or exiting the site via Alberta or Simpson. There are restrictions on Simpson on the Nelson’s Court side of the road, but as the commercial/truck delivery access is via Alberta/Nelson’s, such restrictions just aren’t possible. So without any traffic restrictions at that entry/exit point, and most employee, residential and commercial traffic entering and exiting at that point, it stands to reason that some portion of that residential traffic would flow up and down Alberta Street. Now we are talking about thousands of people moving into the Brewery District within five to seven years. 

I grew up in New West, and we have always had traffic problems in this city. The amount of vehicle traffic we deal with is huge, and the entire city struggles with it (I’m not even going to get started on parking!). Sapperton is changing, and I would suggest that we residents would be better served by working together to address the challenges that come with change, instead of pitting one street against another.

Do I think you should continue to approach the city for other options and solutions? Absolutely. Do I think the diverter should be removed from Alberta? Absolutely not. Not until we have some better solutions for the Brewery District traffic, heck for Sapperton traffic in general. I’m happy to be part of the discussion, but it has to be a constructive one.

Andrea MacIntosh, New Westminster