Dear Editor,
Re: “City seeks solution for bus loop fears,” News May 20.
The city suggested in a recent Richmond News article that the number and scheduling of transit busses and where they park along Chatham Street are the major traffic problems.
This is not entirely the case.
The traffic problems along Chatham Street are not exclusive to transit busses. The problem is, in fact, the speed a lot of drivers exhibit along the Chatham Street straightaway from No. 1 Road to Seventh Avenue.
Having lived at the corner of Chatham Street and Fourth Avenue since 1976, I have seen a significant increase in the number of cars, busses and commercial vehicles passing through this intersection at excessive speed.
At the Chatham Street and Fourth Avenue corner, the white pickets installed for the protection of pedestrians using the Chatham Street crosswalk are, in fact, part of the traffic problem.
I have seen large vehicles, everything from school and charter busses visiting the Gulf of Georgia Cannery site, to movie industry trucks and trailers, making very wide turns, putting themselves into the oncoming traffic lane, because they can’t negotiate the turn around these pickets.
The removal of the pickets would make this corner safer for vehicle traffic.
To improve pedestrian safety at this corner, install a demand light, similar to the ones on Chatham Street at First and Second Avenues. Currently, pedestrians at Chatham Street and Fourth Avenue step off the curb into the roadway as far as the line of pickets so they can see and be seen past parked vehicles.
This dangerous practice could be eliminated with a proper demand light, which would keep pedestrians on the sidewalk until it was safe to cross.
As well as a pedestrian demand light, a four-way stop for vehicles at Chatham Street and Fourth Avenue would address the issues of both pedestrian safety and vehicle speed along Chatham Street.
I would also recommend an enforced 30 kph speed limit for the entire length of Chatham Street.
Will it take another tragic accident to convince the city to immediately address Chatham Street traffic problems?
Taking busses off this route is not the solution. Some rather simple safety measures, namely a 30 kph speed limit, a four-way traffic stop and a pedestrian demand light at Chatham Street and Fourth Avenue, would go a long way to improving safety for all.
Ralph Turner
Richmond
