Dear Editor,
On Friday, March 11, my husband and I witnessed a rather distressing incident at Pier Park. A young mother with a toddler came down the elevator to enjoy Pier Park. When she was ready to leave, the elevator door on the park level would not open. After many tries, she decided to carry a very squirmy toddler up the stairs.
Halfway up the stairs, she cried out: “Help!” We ran up the stairs immediately and found her holding on to her toddler for dear life because she was having a seizure. We helped her secure the toddler and calmed her until her seizure passed.
This incident revealed a very sobering weakness in utilizing elevators to access a pedestrian bridge.
The City of New Westminster is currently considering building a pedestrian crossing linking Quayside to Queensborough (Q2Q), with elevators on both sides.
Imagine a person with a disability (using a mobility vehicle, walker or cane) or people with little ones or strollers who have travelled across a pedestrian bridge and accessed the ground with the elevator. If the elevator breaks down, like the above mentioned incident, they will be stranded with very few options to return to the other side. A worse scenario is if both elevators fail while someone with a disability is on the bridge, now what do they do? Whereas, if the bridge is built with a good old-fashioned ramp, they will have the security that they can rely on the ramp to return the same way they have come from.
The city needs to reconsider the less glamorous option of building a low walkway alongside the existing rail bridge. It may not be perfect and pedestrians may have to wait for the bridge to open and close from time to time. However, we should be able to tolerate waiting a few minutes as opposed to having no crossing at all. Consider the many challenges and escalating costs, maybe a “no frills” option with some compromises will help us achieve a pedestrian crossing.
Sue Allan, New Westminster
