Editor:
I would like to respond to the letter from Jan Tache regarding the study, New Westminster Uptown Streetscape Vision Report, proposing changes to the uptown area of New Westminster.
I have scanned the report, which contains a lot of information to process. Tache suggested closing Sixth Avenue to traffic between Fifth Street and Eighth Street, and closing the Save-On-Foods entrance to the Royal City parkade at Sixth Avenue, suggesting traffic could use the Princess Street entrance instead.
I don't know where Tache lives but I live on Princess Street. Princess Street is a very narrow street of three short blocks directly behind Royal City Centre. The only access to the parkades for five highrise residential buildings is from Princess Street. Most of the delivery trucks and service vehicles for Royal City Mall, including all deliveries for Walmart, Save-On-Foods and Winners, must use the loading docks off Princess Street. Many delivery trucks for the Moody Mall on the corner of Eighth Street also use Princess Street. Parking for the retail strip on the 600 block of Sixth Street uses Princess Street for access. Many drivers cut through Princess Street to avoid the lights on Sixth Avenue. The "no left turn" signs at each end of Princess Street are frequently ignored, as are the 30 km/h speed signs, the “no stopping” and “no parking” signs, and the marked crosswalk in the middle of the street.
The city recently approved a new residential highrise on Sixth Street and Seventh Avenue with over 200 units. The only access to the parking for this new building will be from Princess Street. And now Tache is recommending dumping more traffic onto Princess Street, which is already highly stressed by the amount of traffic on the street.
Maybe when we are looking at making changes to traffic patterns we need to consider where that traffic will go. Sixth Street is a main thoroughfare through New West. Closing it will simply divert the traffic to the residential streets on either side - streets like Princess Street that were not designed to handle heavy traffic. My experience talking to friends and neighbours is that closing streets and putting in traffic-calming measures do not get people out of their cars.
It just makes them angry and frustrated. Witness the changes to Sixth Street and Eighth Avenue where you can no longer make a right turn off of Eighth Street onto Eighth Avenue on the red light. A bump-out has been installed so you can no longer use the parking lane to make a right turn. You must wait behind the through-vehicles before you can make a right turn.
I am a senior. I walk and drive in uptown all the time and don't have much of a problem. If you want to make the sidewalks more user-friendly, perhaps removing all the retail sandwich boards from the sidewalk would be a start.
Let's consider the negative effect on the neighbours before suggesting changes.
S. Mansfield, New Westminster
