Living on a busy road is a tough task.
You move there knowing there is lots of traffic, but there’s an expectation that as long as people follow the rules of the road, you can live with it.
Finding a home in Burnaby is hard when the vacancy rate is so low and so people make compromises.
Stephan K made that compromise by moving to Burnaby’s busy Sixth Street near Edmonds. This is a popular street because it connects people to Canada Way and Edmonds.
Stephan says it’s life at night that things really get bad, starting at 4 p.m.
“Every night it’s a racetrack,” he said. “At 16th, it’s terrifying to cross the road as no right-turn traffic stops for the red lights. We have an infant. Now we walk to 4th Street to cross at that crosswalk.”
Stephan has tried calling the police about it, but that isn’t working.
“We’ve called the RCMP regarding this and were told by the person answering the phone that they’re aware of it; get a licence plate and call back with it when it happens. Obviously, it’s difficult to get the plate number of someone racing down the street in excess of 80 km/h. All we want is regular presence of police in our neighbourhood. I know that they’re understaffed, underfunded and that the opinion of the dispatcher isn’t necessarily that of the front-line officers … but they could literally be impounding 2-5 cars a night starting at 4 p.m. It would be nice to see some interest in policing our neighbourhood again.”
Police are always stretched thin, especially when it comes to enforcing traffic issues in a city as big as Burnaby.
I’ve driven this stretch of road many times and it’s not fun, especially the vehicles that try and swing onto Sixth from the side streets.
And peak times? Forget about it. Just a mess.
Hopefully, Burnaby RCMP can free up some officers to check this area out more often.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
