Editor:
Shutting down one lane of Marine Drive is not a very good plan to promote a dozen or more Marine Drive restaurant. It will result in the misery of about 200 tax-paying residences on Victoria Avenue.
Was this the best plan that White Rock council could come up with (in a rush, of course) to try to solve the awful problem that the coronavirus has laid on our doorstep? One-way traffic on Marine Drive is perhaps not such a bad idea, but more thought should have gone into it. The BIA may have done a good job for a small number of restaurants on the beach, but it is presenting a misery of noise, fumes and danger to the residents of Victoria Avenue.
Columbia Avenue already hosts high traffic with buses, fire trucks, police, and ambulances using this main street. Residents who bought here knew this from the start. Not so on Victoria Avenue.
City-produced maps show the new route that cars and trucks will be directed to Victoria. At least 250 cars per hour will pass the doorsteps of this once-quiet residential street. That is about 42 cars per minute.
Some of those vehicles will be hot-rod motorcycles and others might be careless and impatient drivers.
I spoke to city engineer Jim Gordon and asked if they were going to be putting up a traffic light on Columbia and Maple in order to ease some of the congestion. There is “no time” to do that, he said. The planning required to put in a traffic light takes about six months.
Please, White Rock councillors, take another look at this very destructive plan and reconsider. Especially since the signs are showing COVID-19 is on the downswing.
I am certain the residents of Victoria Avenue will be grateful. And many grandmas like me will be, too.
Susan Potzold, White Rock
