A downtown resident is calling on the City of New Westminster to make the neighbourhood safer and more livable – particularly when it comes to traffic.
Patrick Parkes, appearing as a delegate at the Nov. 4 city council meeting, said he’s noticed a change in the “tone” of the city since moving to New West in 2016. He voiced concerns about traffic and maintenance issues near the 300 block of Royal Avenue.
“We were quite grateful to find a place we can afford here. We noticed that, at the time, New Westminster was quite a friendly place. There was a lot of community spirit. I feel that has diminished,” he said. “I've noticed an increase in antisocial behavior and obliviousness to the way one's actions impact others.”
Saying it would take a long time to get into the details about those concerns, Parkes focused on traffic issues around his home on Royal Avenue.
“We live on a busy street, and things I notice with traffic are an almost universal ignorance of the speed limit. So that's one thing,” he said. “Cars are travelling extremely fast. It's dangerous.”
Noting that many of the cars on the road these days are quite heavy and large, Parkes recommended council members read an article in The Economist called America’s Killer Cars, as he thinks the issues raised in the article apply in New Westminster as well.
“It’s quite scary. “I think a lot of traffic is travelling at 70, sometimes 80 kilometres per hour,” he said. “And then we have other rules not being obeyed.”
Parkes said the no-right-turn sign at Fourth Street and Royal Avenue is “almost universally ignored” by motorists.
“One time our son was crossing at that intersection and a truck almost hit him, as it ignored that rule,” he said.
Parkes also cited concerns about noisy vehicles racing on Royal Avenue and cars running red lights.
“It's dangerous. It's a populated area. There are families. There are children. I want my children to be able to cross the street safely. I want to be able to cross the street safely, because my primary mode of transportation is bicycle,” he said. “I'm basically what I would call a left libertarian. I don't like the imposition of authority, but I think things have really gotten out of control, and it's time for some enforcement. I would like to see more police presence. I would like to see cameras installed. I'd like to see some enforcement.”
In addition to traffic issues, Parkes said there are parts of the neighbourhood that “have been left to decay,” including an area in front of Irving House.
“I have confidence that you can work on behalf of the people who live in our area to make some improvements, to make our neighbourhood safer,” he told council. “I know in the past, when there was an issue of train noise, that council advocated strongly and that resulted in an improvement. And so, I look forward to you stepping up on behalf of the people in our neighbourhood and making it safer and more livable.”
Coun. Tasha Henderson said New Westminster city council previously supported her motion to ask the province to allow municipalities to set up additional speed cameras in the city, as that isn’t currently the jurisdiction of local government. She said several other municipalities brought forward that motion at the Union of BC Municipalities’ recent convention, where delegates supported the motion.
“I was elected one of the two Metro Vancouver representatives on the Union of BC Municipalities executive committee, and we're a group that comes together to do coordinated advocacy to the provincial government,” she said. “So, based on that being a resolution that was passed at the recent convention, we'll be taking that forward and continuing our advocacy around allowing cities to be able to put up additional speed cameras, to your point about increasing that kind of measure.”
Henderson, who is chair of the New Westminster police board, said she will flag the issue of traffic enforcement with the New Westminster Police Department. She said the city will also be working on initiatives aimed at improving pedestrian and cyclist safety.
“Driver behavior is hard to control,” she said, “but I hope through some of these measures, we'll have a little bit more progress on it.”
Mayor Patrick Johnstone said road safety is one of the reasons he ran for city council and is something he has been advocating for. He said road traffic is an area of council’s strategic plan that may be lagging a little bit behind some of the other things the city has been doing.
“I have already telegraphed to my council that I'm going to be bringing a motion around Vision Zero to council in order to get us sort of moving that stuff forward,” he said. “Traffic is the biggest issue in the city right now, according to the surveys we've had; traffic safety.”
Johnstone said people are of two opinions on the issue of traffic – some want cars to go faster and move quicker through the city and the others want the cars to slow down. He agreed with Parkes that driver behaviour is a concern.
“There has been a definite shift in driver behavior seen in the region, and this is the national trend that we're seeing since COVID,” he said. “The danger for pedestrians, for active road users, has gone up, while the danger for people inside of vehicles has gone down. And that's a scary statistic for a lot of us. That's something we need to address through the Vision Zero approach. So, I just asked you to stay tuned. Work is coming very quickly to sort of launch a new Vision Zero approach here.”
Johnstone said that work is going to require input from multiple agencies in order for it to be done properly, including the city’s police and engineering departments as well as external agencies like ICBC and Fraser Health.
“We all have to come together and work together on this. … We do intend to see some action on this very soon,” he said.
