Editor:
My previous letter to the editor published in the March 11 edition of the Coast Reporter outlined the history of traffic calming requests for Glassford Road spanning the past 25 years.
Glassford Road is a Type 1 Local Road, which by the town’s definition, is a through street and should already be a 30-km/h zone.
In a town survey, 76 per cent of the respondents were in favour of a 30-km/h speed limit and 57 per cent were against the closure of the road.
Three traffic surveys have been conducted. Traffic counters record speed. The 85th percentile average speed (the speed for which the road is designed) on Glassford, before and after the closure remains at 47 km/h. To decrease this figure, the road design requires changes such as narrowing, lower speed limit or speed humps etc…
The closure of Glassford Road turns Maplewood Lane into a 500 meter plus cul-de-sac and Glassford into a 300-metre plus cul-de-sac, which contravenes bylaw #1175, which states in part “cul-de-sacs shall not exceed 200 meters,” for obvious safety reasons.
The Transportation Association of Canada recommends a maximum of six residences on a cul-de-sac. Glassford Road and Maplewood Lane contain more than 50 residences.
Town of Gibsons bylaws are written to ensure safety of person, property and the environment, according to Canadian standards and the Town of Gibsons Bylaw 1175, these roads should never have been closed in the first place and yet staff continues to push for the illegal closure.
At the March 15 committee of the whole meeting, staff was instructed to provide costs associated with reasonable attainable, temporary and permanent, alternate traffic calming measures for Glassford Road to make Glassford safe for all residents and users, yet on the Town website staff is still pushing to keep this road closed.
Mark Evans, Gibsons
