The City of Burnaby now says it will make safety changes at the site where two people died in July – with a promise to study the area with an eye to making more changes.
This comes after months – even years – of pleading from Duthie Avenue residents warning about the dangers of this stretch of Burnaby road.
An Aug. 31 letter by the City of Burnaby to a resident says the city’s engineering department has reviewed the intersection of Duthie and Montecito and “traffic calming measures including a raised crosswalk will be implemented in September.”
The letter also says a traffic study will be conducted for Duthie and Sperling Avenue to look for more safety changes for pedestrians and cyclists.
One driver and one pedestrian were killed in July in front of Montecito school on Duthie.
The letter was posted by @MsYouDoYou, who has been critical of the city for its lack of action to deal with Duthie traffic. She tweeted that she is encouraged by the letter.
“Thanks to @CityofBurnaby for taking our concerns seriously after the tragic loss of life our community experienced in (July). Traffic measures have actually already been implemented – the raised (crosswalk) and additional signage, and we’ve been told more things are coming.”
The optics look bad on this one, but changes are still changes so at least that’s something positive. It looks suspiciously like the city only acted after there was a tragedy. It’s the same criticism lobbed at the city when it made changes, like a traffic light, at the scene where Brazilian exchange student Fernanda Girotto died in 2018 after being hit by two different vehicles. This was the same crossing that residents begged the city to upgrade with safety features like a traffic light.
“How many more tragic accidents will it take before the city does something? I live on Duthie, but am now planning on avoiding walking on the sidewalk with my kids.”
That was the start of an email I received after the July crash.
It was from a man named Wylie, who lives very close to the scene of the crash.
Weeks earlier, Wylie had poured out his thoughts to me about the problems on Duthie, which is known as a ratrunner route that sees drivers speeding between Broadway all the way to Burnaby Mountain Parkway and beyond to the entrance of the Barnet.
Wylie and others contacted me in June to say how they have begged the City of Burnaby to find ways to slow down drivers on this stretch of road. They told me about wanting speed humps, more signage, impediments to narrow the road in order to slow people down, plus the need for an additional stop sign.
Now at least some changes are coming in the hopes of slowing down speeding drivers who treat Duthie like the Daytona 500. Hopefully more fixes will be on their way.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
