Lori Holdenried is relieved that traffic calming measures will soon be installed on the upper portion of Gatensbury Road but said they're still not enough.
"I think they're not understanding the gravity of the problem," the Port Moody resident said last week after learning that centreline delineators and signage improvements will be added to the top curve on Gatensbury, which is shared with Coquitlam.
Holdenried first petitioned PoMo council for traffic calming measures in the summer of 2010 after six vehicles in a six-month span lost control and veered onto residents' front lawns on the upper portion of Gatensbury. A short time later, several traffic safety improvements were made to the road, all in the lower portion.
But for Holdenried and others on Gatensbury, things have only continued to go downhill - despite an email from city staff saying Gatensbury was "considered safe."
Last week, Holdenried snapped photos of a vehicle that had been speeding south, lost control and ended up wedged in the ditch on the opposite side of the road.
In early November, her vehicle was hit by a speeder just after she pulled out of her driveway to take her six-year-old daughter to a skating class. Less than two weeks before that, a car heading north on Gatensbury left the road and slammed into the back of their parked car with enough force to move it 15 feet.
The speed limit on Gatensbury is 30 km/h but a Moody Centre traffic study clocked the average speed at 54 km/h. The street is a north-south collector road linking Coquitlam's Como Lake area and Moody Centre but Holdenried said it's not designed for the volume of commuter traffic now using Gatensbury.
"It's a more systemic problem," she said, noting traffic studies show about 6,000 vehicles are using Gatensbury every day. "When a commuter decides to leave a major roadway, they will not change their driving behaviour."
She wants to see a solution that will prevent such large volumes of commuter traffic from using Gatensbury, a residential street with single-family homes, particularly with more development on the way for Moody Centre as the Evergreen Line approaches.
PoMo acting city manager Tim Savoie said the upper Gatensbury improvements are being done based on concerns raised by the neighbourhood.
"After hearing those concerns, our engineering department, in consultation with Coquitlam, came up with the latest proposal... that should help alleviate some of the problems there," he said. "From the city's perspective, we feel the solution is a safe solution."
The delineators and signage are expected to cost up to $8,000, with possible funding coming from ICBC.
2 WHEELS, 1 SIGN
A Port Moody resident is hoping to bring a new form of advertising to the city.
Neil Doyle wants council to change the sign bylaw so he can operate his new business, Bicycle Billboards, in PoMo. Doyle says his bike, with an electric motor for hills and a 4x4 sign rack trailer, is a "green alternative" to diesel advertising trucks the bylaw was intended to keep out.
"On St. Johns, Murray and Clarke, there are lots of businesses that don't have enough exposure," Doyle told council last week. "People go whizzing by and they don't even know what's in their backyard."
He has already received approval in Burnaby, New Westminster and Vancouver for Bicycle Billboards.
Coun. Rick Glumac commended Doyle for his entrepreneurial spirit but declined to support his bid because the large billboards would cause "visual clutter."
Coun. Diana Dilworth noted the large size of Doyle's signs "contravenes the sign bylaw in so many ways."
Council agreed to handle the delegation request its next meeting on Jan. 9.
