Wayne Wright: no easy answers to solve traffic congestion

The Record asked readers what they think the top election issues are in the city. Top pick: Truck traffic. Reporter Theresa McManus asks the mayoral candidates what can, or cannot, be done about truck traffic in the city. Here’s what they said:

Some critics have accused the City of New Westminster from wanting to put barricades up around the city to stop commuters from passing through, but Wayne Wright says that’s not the case.

“It’s really the opposite,” he said. “All we are trying to do is keep care of the city and the community that’s here and put the trucks where the trucks should be.”

In March, the city asked TransLink to remove Royal Avenue, East Eighth Avenue and portions of East Columbia Street and Ewen Avenue from the city’s truck route network. TransLink rejected the request to take trucks off Royal, East Eighth and East Columbia and has deferred a decision about Ewen Avenue.

In response to New Westminster’s request, some neighbouring cities expressed concern the plan would offload more trucks onto their roads.

“You can’t give up your ‘sovereignty’ for you own city, yet you have to work with those that are around you,” Wright said. “If you’ve got 450,000 cars and trucks coming through on a daily basis, it’s impossible for us to take any more. We are not going to throw up any walls.”

The goal, said Wright, is to ensure local residents aren’t inundated with traffic and to move commuters and trucks through the city as efficiently as possible. Although TransLink rejected the city’s request to eliminate trucks on certain routes, Wright believes discussions about the concept must continue with TransLink and neighbouring cities.

“We are actually following the sustainability program for the Lower Mainland,” he said. “We are not trying to pawn any traffic onto anybody – what we are trying to do is work together with them to get less traffic.”

With the help of the provincial and federal governments, Wright said the city should seek to have a bypass tunnel built that moves traffic from the Queensborough Bridge/Marine Way to Highway 1.

“We have been talking about it for a couple of years now,” he said of the tunnel included in the recently completed master transportation plan. “We are trying to say what are some of the solutions? It is one of the plans that came through. Could we tunnel under Royal? Could a new tunnel under any other places go to where it is needed? The reality is at some point they may have to.”

The concept, which emerged from the city’s update to its master transportation plan, is more than a pipeline, said Wright. He pointed to the billions of dollars being contemplated to build a  new bridge to replace the Massey Tunnel and a replacement for the Pattullo Bridge.

“If they get a beautiful bridge and they can’t get anywhere, then they are going to have to spend the money,” Wright said. “That is the only way they are going to move this traffic off the bridges they are putting in.”

Having served as mayor for the past 12 year, Wright has seen the challenges of addressing truck traffic in New Westminster. He’s is currently one of two mayors elected to serve on TransLink’s board of directors and the vice chair of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation.