The acting mayor of New Westminster says concerns are rising as traffic floods across the Pattullo Bridge and into his city.
Councillor Jamie McEvoy say since the new tolled Port Mann Bridge opened the traffic flow has drastically increased.
”You can just see the change with your own eyes when you live in the city or when you drive through the city there is no doubt that the traffic is much slower especially around the evening rush hour there is no doubt there is a lot more cars out there. You know we are getting a lot more complaints to from people who are just trying to trasnport good through the city and that sort of thing that it has become that much more difficult now.”
McEvoy says the city is now looking at its options to try and stem the tide of cars and trucks.
“We have also looked at whether or not we should have tolls on the Pattullo bridge right now under provincial legislation it is not allowed but legislation can always be changed but there is some thinking in the city that if we had tolls on the Pattullo bridge it might even the field some what.”
McEvoy says he is really worried about what the increase in traffic means for safety on the road and for pedestrians.
He says New West already has a higher the provincial average rate of pedestrian related car accidents.
We have got a number of bad intersections that have regular problems so what is happening is you have a small city picking up a big cities traffic problems and you know from our police department to our fire department to our road service it has a big affect on New Westminster.”
McEvoy says New West is in talks with Surrey and Translink to find a solution to the traffic problem.
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