Highway 97 Pedestrian Crossing at 8th Not on Provincial Radar

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 03:55 AM

Prince George, B.C. – It may be a while before there is any safe pedestrian crossing of highway 97 at 8^th Avenue.

( at right, the well trodden path from Central East to Highway 97- photo opinion250 archives)

The Mayor of Prince George has written a letter to the Provincial Minister of Transportation expressing concerns about pedestrian safety. 8^th Avenue stops at Central East, and continues on the west side of the highway to Ahbau. Pedestrians are crossing there because of the access to Spruceland Mall and the bus stop.

Minister Kevin Falcon has responded with “Safety is my ministry’s top priority, and I share your concern for the safety of pedestrians who attempt to cross the highway where it is unsafe to do so.” He advised the Mayor his staff would be pleased to meet with City staff to “discuss your ideas for a crossing at this location”.

The talks have started, but at this point it would appear it is not a priority for regional ministry staff. “It isn’t on their radar” says Bob Radloff, General Manager of Development Services and Operations for the City of Prince George, “They don’t have anything in their capital plan for 2008 to pay for a crossing.”

Radloff says the City believes that since it is a provincial highway, the cost for a safe crossing is a provincial expense.

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Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 03:55 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: acrider54 on March 19 2008 6:07 AM

Lets put another traffic light there! And another on 18th. Might be able to squeeze one in between 18th and 22nd too. An awesome BYPASS. And lets time all the lights so you stop at every one of them as you do the existing ones. Remember carbon tax?

You would think that if the government was serious about the carbon tax, they would have Ministry of Highways, towns and cities set their traffic lights up so that you don't have to stop at everyone of them. With the lights out of sync you burn up brakes (carbon) idle (carbon) accelerate (more carbon). Just more money for the Olypics.

Posted by: Foo738 on March 19 2008 7:07 AM

That highway should be moved further West behind the University. We should have a ring road outside of the bowl. It is no longer a "by-pass".

If we stop wasting money and concentrate on a ring road we could eliminate the Cameron Street bridge which keeps traffic on Carney and Fifth Avenue which is a residential area.

Don't know why they can't see it.

Posted by: Norm1 on March 19 2008 7:20 AM

foo738 beat me to the punch.

Highway 97, through a commercial /residential part of the city, is not a "bypass' and probably hasn't been such since it was built and nicknamed such in the late 60's. Old names appear to last forever.

It is a major street through the city of Prince George which is very unfriendly to pedestrians.......having no legal/safe crossings from 5th to 15th and from 15th to 22nd.

Posted by: Norm1 on March 19 2008 7:26 AM

edit....edit...edit....where is the edit? Of course there is a legal crossing at 10th between 5th and 15th but none between 15th and 22nd

Posted by: metalman on March 19 2008 7:55 AM

The Foo has it right. We are living in the 21st century, we know that progressive cities plan to route heavy traffic around areas of congestion/population with a ring road or similar. It is not always easy to fit those concepts into an existing circumstance, look at Vancouver for a good example. Seattle put their highways up in the air, a great concept that should be adopted in Vancouver. It all costs money, but what is the cost of doing nothing?
I thought that foothills blvd. was originally a kind of bypass road, too late now. A ring route would provide an alternate path for not only traffic, but for dangerous goods. We are going to have heavy trucking around for a lot of years, we might as well start to plan on adequate infrastructure.
metalman.

Posted by: thereasonableman on March 19 2008 10:26 AM

I think the police should set up a roadblock and write tickets to jaywalkers, forcing them to use the legal crossing.

Posted by: wrinkledawg on March 19 2008 12:24 PM

And they should ticket the DIPSTICKS that are rideing their bikes at night/early morning that have no reflectors or lights on them.

Posted by: Palopu on March 19 2008 9:15 PM

Reasonable Man. There is no law against Jay Walking in Prince George or most BC Cities. Vancouver is one exception, and you will get a ticket if you Jay Walk their.

Our illustrious City Council who managed to get money from the Province to build an underpass to access the Hood using the excuse that it is part of our great trail system, cannot solve the 8th Avenue problem. Maybe they should build an underpass and then lobby the Province to get their money back.

On the other hand they seem incapable of building a **Toilet** downtown so maybe we shouldnt expect too much from them.

Posted by: thereasonableman on March 20 2008 6:08 PM

Palopu, I was joking. Sorry you had to write all that.

Leave a couple of shovels at roadside and they can tunnel their way underneath if they want a crossing there so badly.

Besides, having to run and dodge oncoming traffic is good exercise for people who were too lazy to use the existing crossings in the first place.

* OK, those were also jokes, but the last one was kind of true too.