Thirty container trucks thundered down Nanaimo Street when the city counted traffic on a single day last October. Less than a year later, on June 22, a total of 217 trucks roared by.
Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Coun. Kerry Jang, who provided the Courier with these numbers, expects the city to test measures to reduce the volume of large trucks before neighbourhood children head back to school in September.
Jang said deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston, the citys liaison to Port Metro Vancouver, expects to receive recommendations from city engineers working with the port.
[Frustrated residents] want us to do it tomorrow or today or yesterday, but we have to make sure it also doesnt cause trouble somewhere else and we do have to ensure goods movement in and out of the city because the port is one of our biggest things, he said.
Residents adjacent to Nanaimo noticed an increase in large container trucks on what is a city-designated truck route earlier this year. They ramped up complaints to Port Metro Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»and the city in the last couple of months.
Dave Pasin, who lives just three houses in west of Nanaimo and is running with the NPA for a park board commissioner position in November, said trucks shake nearby homes starting at 5 a.m. and that mirrors and windows have broken because of the vibrations. He said residents suffer the noise of air brakes and see trucks speeding and running pedestrian lights. Somebodys going to get killed, he said.
Once residents learned the port had closed its Clark Drive entrance to large commercial and container trucks, they figured theyd found the source of the escalation. Instead of using perimeter roads around residential areas, including Marine Drive and Boundary Road to enter the port off McGill Street, which the port recommended, truck drivers cut down Nanaimo.
The Grandview-Woodland Area Council hosted representatives from the port and the city July 4. Residents held a press conference July 12 and created a Facebook page.
Residents want the Clark Drive entrance reopened or, failing that, for the city to use its bylaws to force truck drivers onto less residential routes.
Jang said the port is unwilling to reopen Clark to inbound container trucks, so its representatives and city engineers are exploring other fixes.
[Nanaimo has] been a [designated] truck route for 35 years, and so were looking at whether or not we can change it, Jang said.
The port closed the Clark entrance to ease congestion at the Hastings and Clark intersection last year.
Residents wonder why they werent informed of the change by the port or the city. Jang said the port didnt inform anyone but city engineers, who didnt pass that information on until councillors turned to staff with residents complaints.
Police officers have been targeting speeding drivers along Nanaimo for the last two weeks, Jang said, and their enforcement continues.
He added ICBC is setting up speed readers to remind drivers along Nanaimo to slow down.
Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi
