麻豆传媒映画

You鈥檒l notice that I鈥檓 using past-tense to description this intersection. That鈥檚 because the City of Burnaby recently made significant changes by installing a cement barrier.

The criss-cross pattern has been erased 鈥� not that many drivers paid attention to it. Vehicles can no longer cross Willingdon going east or west and vehicles heading south on Willingdon can no longer turn left onto Beresford. There is, however, a lane so drivers heading north can turn left onto Beresford.

I visited the site on Friday to see how it鈥檚 working. The situation for drivers is better because they aren鈥檛 trying to inch across the intersection along Beresford, creating angry conflicts with drivers on Willingdon.

But there is still some evident mayhem with drivers trying to turn right onto Willingdon from Beresford during peak times.

That鈥檚 just drivers, though. The reaction from cyclists has been swiftly negative.

鈥淪eriously, Burnaby?鈥� tweeted Coun. Patrick Johnstone, a City of New Westminster politician and avid cyclist. 鈥淭his was already one of the least safe intersections for cyclists on the BC Parkway, and now you made it worse? No regard for the inter-regional bikeway at all. No wonder cyclists risk (their) lives on Kingsway.鈥�

https://twitter.com/PJNewWest/status/1154420477126819840

The BC Parkway is an east-west path used by pedestrians and cyclists underneath the SkyTrain line. It comes to abrupt halt now at Willingdon, with no room for cyclists to get across. They have to go to Central Boulevard now.

For Johnstone, according to his tweet, the City of Burnaby has its emphasis wrong when it comes to cycling infrastructure.

鈥淭hey do some things well, but there appears to be a bias towards 鈥榖icycles for fun鈥� as opposed to 鈥榖icycles for transport鈥� in their infrastructure designs,鈥� Johnstone tweeted. 鈥淧arks and meandering trails they have some great work, urban intersections are a disaster.鈥�

Johnstone 鈥� who did tweet that his own city has 鈥渁 lot of work to do on this front as well鈥� 鈥� said too often cyclists in the Central Boulevard area are 鈥渇orced to sidewalks, conflict at every intersection. It is horrible.鈥�

Many people reacted and commented to Johnstone鈥檚 tweets, with @Berril_Perks tweeting: 鈥淭he entire section of the B.C. Parkway from imperial to Willingdon is poor due to forced mixing of pedestrians and cyclists. At this point I always cross at the lights just to the right of this crossing. You have to almost walk through due to the shared pathway.鈥�

Richard Campbell (no relation) tweeted that this intersection would be good for an underpass to people can cross under Willingdon.

I received an email this morning from a City of Burnaby engineering staff member 鈥� who didn鈥檛 want their name used 鈥� who said that cyclists should know that the city is working with TransLink on the BC Parkway pathway. The plan is to eventually create an 鈥渆nhanced crossing at the adjacent Central Blvd/Willingdon Ave intersection,鈥� with a goal of eventually separating 鈥減edestrians from cyclists on the BC Parkway starting with the higher activity areas.鈥�

Knowing the glacial pace these projects move at, who knows when this will happen but at least it鈥檚 on the radar of the city and TransLink.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

The changes at Beresford and Willingdon are also having unintended consequences, according to area resident Sanjeet Shivkar.

Drivers who can鈥檛 turn left to go east on Beresford, said Shivkar, are now pulling dangerous U-turns after the cement barricade stops.

鈥淒rivers have now started going further down the road towards Mayberry Street and taking risky and sudden U-turns, putting both the oncoming traffic on the opposite lane in danger, as well as the risk of a pile up,鈥� he said.

Shivkar called the intersection changes 鈥済ood鈥� overall, but he wants the city to look at enforcement due to drivers now pulling U-turns.

According to the email from the city engineering department, for drivers on Beresford 鈥渋nconvenienced by the safety measures, additional measures are planned. Number one, a left-turn signal arrow for southbound to eastbound left turn from Willingdon onto Maywood (this year), and the southerly extension of McKay Ave from Central Blvd to Beresford St (future). This will provide safer and alternative routes to travel.鈥�

That might stop some of the U-turns, but I still think drivers will pull these dangerous moves because many people make short-sighted decisions in the moment. But that鈥檚 not the city鈥檚 fault.

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.