As I write this column, it’s been about six days since a 14-year-old Burnaby resident died after being hit by a dump truck on 11th Avenue – a stretch of road with no sidewalks.
So it seems like a good time to discuss the problem of Burnaby drivers mowing down pedestrians all across our city. Since taking over as editor, I’ve had to write or edit stories about multiple pedestrians killed by drivers in our city.
One thing seems to be common in these stories and that’s the dangerous behaviour exhibited by drivers who are lead foots.
The deadliest intersection in Burnaby is located at Boundary Road and Kingsway. That’s according to UBC Road Safety and Public Health Research, a team led by Dr. Jeff Brubacher. This team tweeted out a map that included this notorious intersection, saying that 12 people had been killed there between 2016 and 2020. (Scroll through the photos above to see the map of Metro Vancouver intersections.)
“The most dangerous pedestrian intersections have: 4-6 lanes of traffic, dedicated right turn lanes & large volume of traffic,” tweeted the account.
Now you might be reading this and saying that government should be doing more at this intersection, but the fact is that government has stepped up.
A couple of years ago, the Province of B.C. added new safety cameras at Boundary and Kingsway that catch drivers who run red lights and speed.
It’s one of three such cameras that do both in Burnaby, along with Kingsway and Royal Oak, and Willingdon and Deer Lake Parkway.
The sad fact is that this intersection isn’t actually inherently dangerous. It’s a pretty straightforward intersection, although drivers heading south on Boundary do have to come up a hill and then hit the flat of the intersection.
The problem isn’t how the intersection is designed, it’s the people who use it.
You know, idiots.
Drivers are impatient because traffic moves too slow during rush hour, and so they make dangerous decisions that get people killed.
Driving isn’t really all that hard. The biggest factors are slowing down and actually paying attention to the road. When you do that, your odds of mowing down a pedestrian go down dramatically.
So stop making excuses, drive cautiously and you’ll save some lives in the process.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
