The Editor,
One afternoon, a friend and I had occasion to visit Steveston and enjoy a chai and a coffee at Rocanini Coffee Roasters at the corner of No. 1 Road and Moncton Avenue. Our seat location offered us a place to observe the new pedestrian scramble in operation. What we witnessed was a steady series of pedestrians who each, one at a time or in small groups of two to three, pressed the scramble button and crossed the diagonal crosswalk.
In every case, they would have been quicker to cross one road, in whichever direction was available, then turn 90 degrees and cross the other. It is ironic that to wait for the scramble signal to activate is just not efficient for small groups.
What struck us both, was the reality that taxpayers, through our council, spent over $600,000 so that people can cross this intersection quickly for only 10-12 weekends during the summer.
Adding to the backups, vehicles can no longer turn right while their traffic light is red. It became obvious that during busy weekends, it will be practically impossible for any vehicles to make any turns in that intersection, which will contribute to greater driver frustration.
During busy times the congestion will be transferred from foot traffic to vehicle traffic. An unintended consequence is all the excess gasoline burned by cars idling. The final insult will occur when our by-law enforcement officers start writing tickets to drivers because Richmond is an Idle-Free zone.
Reinhard Pekarek
Richmond
