EW08
T HE VA N C O U V E R C O U R I E R W E D N E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 1 7 , 2 0 1 0
opinion
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City plans to Deal with pedestrian safety
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WEB POLL NATION Go to www.vancourier.com to vote Are the separated bike lanes still a success now that fall weather has arrived? Last week’s poll question: Should Gordon Campbell stay on as MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey? Yes 22 per cent No 78 per cent This is not a scientific poll.
Mayor Gregor Robertson decided to throw Vision Vancouver Coun. Heather Deal a bone this week. And, to quote her, “It is a good one.” She will handle the pedestrian safety file. It’s part of the city’s new 10-year Transportation Plan. Deal’s role formally began when she seconded a “good news” motion put forward by Robertson at council yesterday after my deadline. Deal already started “doing the media,” as they say, before the motion was tabled. Now that we are in the homestretch, a short year before the next election, Deal needed a little profile boost. (In fact, everyone does, given the massive amount of provincial political clutter already upon us.) You may recall Deal’s effort last summer regarding the new street food vendors; it was disastrous. Even Deal didn’t like the lottery system used to select 17 vendors from among the 800 applicants. None of the carts was ready on time for the August long weekend. And there were stories about lottery winners trying to sell their licences to other vendors. Deal is also the lead on arts and culture, which includes the controversial issue of a new location for the art gallery. She’s had virtually no visibility on this in the past few months. In fact, it seems to have been swept back into the mayor’s office. But pedestrian safety—how can you miss? Never mind the fact that the number of traffic accidents involving pedestrians is on the decline. Pedestrians have been Vancouver’s top transportation priority forever it seems. According to the city, there are 318,000
allengarr walking trips every day in the city, which represent 17 per cent of total trips. Simon Fraser University Urban Studies Professor Anthony Perl has been quoted making the point that pedestrians are the fastest growing share of the transportation mode in the city. But what has city hall done about it lately? It seems the city is all about bicycles, including removing the east sidewalk on the Burrard Bridge from pedestrians and making it exclusively for bikes. Speaking of which, if the city really wants to help pedestrians, they can get the cops to nail those cyclists who insist on using sidewalks. That includes the likes of that unlucky fellow who, according to news reports this past weekend, cycled across a sidewalk and onto a roadway where he ran into an electric powered motorcycle.
Incidentally, I find the cyclists who use sidewalks are frequently likely to be the ones who don’t wear helmets or, a particular favourite of mine, have their helmets dangling from their handlebars. One other point: The city has a bicycle advisory committee but no pedestrian advisory committee. This is odd, given they claim it’s their top transportation priority. But I digress. The fact that pedestrian traffic-related accidents are on the decline is not because motorists or cyclists have become more attentive. Time was, in a previous century and before most of you started shaving, that a Vancouverite travelling on foot could simply think about crossing a street and traffic would come to a grinding halt. Not anymore. Now we have crosswalks that have signs and painted strips ($500 a pop) across the road that frequently are no deterrent to motorists or cyclists. We have crosswalks with flashing orange lights ($60,000 each), which seem to catch traffic’s attention a bit more. And, finally, we have pedestrian-activated stop lights, such as the half dozen or so mounted at almost every corner along Cambie from 12th Avenue to 21st Avenue. Each one of these costs $200,000. What’s interesting about the council motion is that improving the world for pedestrians will involve council, the school board and the cops. That, presumably, means there will be money, education and muscle. But we’ll have to wait until spring for a staff report and the details. agarr@vancourier.com
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