A group of Vancouver neighbours is fighting for the city to install traffic calming measures to slow down speeding drivers along their residential street.
It comes after one family on 16th Avenue between Main Street and Kingsway in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood lost two family cars in 18 months due to crashes along the arterial.
“[It] hit our car so hard that it slammed into the car in front of it, and that driver had actually hit another car up the street, and when they hit our car, there was such force that a wheel popped off and flew through a neighbor’s fence and broke it,” resident Nadya Wilkinson told CityNews.
But it’s not just Wilkinson.
“A lot of folks in our townhouse complex, especially, have had [their] cars hit while they’re parked on the street,” she added, noting it’s a safety concern for young families in the neighbourhood.
“The idea that you can’t sit in your car because that’s too dangerous. Obviously, there’s so many young families in the neighborhood. It’s really stressful,” she said.
Wilkinson notes that the street is a patchwork of repairs and bitumen, making the road bumpy, and dangerous at high speed. She’s also calling on the city to repave the road.
Wilkinson’s neighbour Tyler Maxey says the street is so dangerous he’s considering moving if things don’t change.
Maxey tells CityNews it’s not safe for him to take his toddler outside along the street.
“Which is absurd, right? This is what we pay tax dollars for — to have our city manager our roads and the safety of the roads,” he said.
Maxey explains he and other neighbours have spoken about adding their own signs to the street to try to get drivers to slow down.
“We might go out there and find some signs, maybe that have LEDs around them that says, ‘Kids in the area, slow down,’” he shared.
“Which is again absurd, right? This is what we pay tax dollars for.
There have been more than two dozen crashes on East 16th Avenue between Prince Edward and Sophia streets in the last five years. Maxey says some have been minor, but at least 10 have caused significant damage.
“It feels like Russian roulette getting in your car. You’ve got large cars going 70 or 80 kilometres past you,” he explained.
“It’s a pretty extreme experience out there sometimes.”
In a statement to CityNews, the City of Vancouver explains it won’t be installing traffic calming measures to physically enforce lower speeds as 16th Avenue is a major thoroughfare.
“Arterial and collector streets – such as the case of 16th Avenue – are important for carrying higher traffic volumes … arterials have a critical function of supporting transit services, goods movement and emergency services,” the city explained.
However, it notes that after resident feedback, it did install a flashing beacon at Sophia Street and 16th Avenue “to improve that crosswalk.”
“We are also planning improvements to the Prince Edward bike lane, which will include changes at Prince Edward/16th Avenue, such as building a centre median,” the city said, adding that project should be completed in 2025.
“If dangerous driving or speeding is frequently observed, residents should call the Vancouver Police Department non-emergency number at 604-717-3321 to request traffic enforcement.”
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