Getting through Sapperton can be a nightmare some days but the city hopes a new plan will lead to improvements in the coming years.
New Westminster city council recently endorsed the 322-page Sapperton/Massey-Victory Heights transportation plan, which aims to enhance different modes of transportation throughout the area and provide better travel choices and improvements in the years ahead. Now that the plan has been endorsed by council, the city plans to get to work on a number of short-term improvement such as traffic calming measures like speed humps in lower, central and upper Sapperton and signage and line-marking modifications throughout the study area
“I do appreciate how the plan is laid out,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “It is upfront that there is no magic bullet solution that is going to eliminate traffic congestion in different areas and that there are going to be challenges, but there are pragmatic and methodical steps that the city can take to manage it and make sure we are continuing to improve neighbourhood livability in the Sapperton neighbourhood but still making a transportation system that works. I think that’s the balance that has attempted to be found through this plan and through the discussions with the community.”
The plan, which has attempted to focus on neighbourhood safety and livability, considers the impact of developments such as Sapperton Green, 100 Braid St., the Royal Columbian Hospital expansion, the new aquatics and community centre project, the Pattullo Bridge replacement project and other development and road projects in the city.
“The Sapperton/Massey Victory Heights Transportation Plan aims to enhance the multimodal transportation system to provide mode choices, while enhancing the safety and livability of the neighbourhoods by managing the volume and speed of traffic using the local roads,” said a staff report. “The plan identifies measures that improve existing transit, walking and cycling routes, and identifies new routes to better connect across the community. Improvements to key intersections are identified, along with traffic-calming measures to limit short-cutting through the residential neighbourhoods and keep the right traffic on the right roads.”
The plan tackles a number of themes: traffic volumes, speeds and cut-through traffic; transit scheduling and accessibility; walking and cycling safety and connectivity; on-street parking management; and enforcement. Recommendations in the plan will be implemented in the short-term (one to two years), medium-term (three to five years) and long-term (more than five years from now).
“It is a living document,” said Coun. Jaimie McEvoy. “Things will be tweaked and figured out as we go along.”
Staff will be requesting funding for implementation of components of the plan in the city’s 2019 to 2023 financial plan. Implementation of some recommendations in the plan may not occur for a few years, unless triggered by a specific development, but the plan will provide staff with strategic direction for all future neighbourhood improvements.
Coun. Patrick Johnstone supported the plan as it provides a lot of things for the city to tackle in the short-term that can’t wait, but thinks some aspects of the document will evolve over time. He feels that providing an access to Royal Columbian Hospital via Brunette Avenue is “fundamental” to the livability of East Columbia Street and believes that Fraser Health has “a lot of work to do” on moving its employees and patients away from relying on single-occupancy vehicles, not only because it’s good for New Westminster’s roads but because it’s a smart public-health move.
Johnstone said plan’s estimates of trip reduction are based on current travel patterns, rather than on trends in use of transit, vehicles or alternative modes of transportation.
“I think that if in the year 2042 we have the same reliance on single-occupancy vehicles think we do today then we will have completely failed as a region,” he said.
To view the transportation plan, go to www.newwestcity.ca and search for Sapperton Massey-Victory Heights transportation plan.
