Vancouver reprograms lights to ease traffic on Pt. Grey Road
Posted March 12, 2014 12:38 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – If you live along or near the part of Point Grey Road permanently closed for construction you may have been finding it a little tough to drive out of your own neighbourhood. Some help has arrived with the City of Vancouver’s move to change local traffic lights.
Councilor George Affleck says the city had to do something to help frustrated drivers. “This was precipitated by a lot of angry citizens with the closure of Point Grey Road, who felt like they had been locked in, not only by significant traffic increases, but getting out of their neighbourhood became impossible because of course they can’t use Point Grey Road anymore, and so they had to get onto 4th Avenue.”
Vancouver City Council passed a motion Tuesday afternoon to re-program pedestrian lights along 4th Avenue, which has seen a big increase in traffic diverted from Point Grey Road, once a main city route. Those former pedestrian lights will now change automatically on a timer, allowing drivers to turn right or left without having to get out and press a button, or wait for someone to cross the street.
“This will give them some help from getting out of the neighbourhood, but it’s not 100-percent. I’d like to see more work for those neighbours,” says Affleck, adding the change does address back-ups on side streets, but doesn’t solve larger traffic and access problems.
Point Grey Road was permanently closed in January between McDonald and Alma to make way for the city’s 6-million dollar Seaside Greenway bike lane. The new bike route, stretching from the Burrard Bridge all the way to Jericho Beach, is set to be completed by May.
