Gatensbury Road will soon be closed to commercial and heavy truck traffic entirely after Port Moody council agreed to match Coquitlam's ban.
It will be the latest measure in nearly 15 years to improve safety on the steep, winding road that runs through both cities, and will be part of a truck route bylaw developed within PoMo's transportation master plan. Gatensbury has a 30 km/h speed limit but residents report that is rarely followed; additional safety measures implemented since 2002 include pavement grooving, barriers, reflective devices, curb extensions, signs, medians and delineators.
Keeping large trucks off the road will give some peace of mind to Gatensbury residents, said resident Lori Holdenried.
"The shoulder of much of the roadway… is very narrow and having a large truck drive beside you as you are walking leaves little room for pedestrians and, in some cases, none," she wrote in an email to The Tri-City News. She added that her teenaged daughter has had to jump into bushes to avoid being hit by a truck on a sharp bend.
Gatensbury residents renewed their safety concerns at a December council meeting shortly after Canada Post stopped door-to-door delivery because it said the road was too dangerous for its carriers.
At last week's meeting, council agreed to have staff immediately begin the process to ban heavy trucks on Gatensbury but Holdenried remains concerned about whether it will have any effect and how often it will be enforced.
"Gatensbury is already a no-truck route in Coquitlam and there should be no way for commercial trucks to get to the Port Moody side," she wrote, noting heavy trucks use it anyway as a connecting route to Coquitlam through the Harbour Chines area.
Staff are expected to report back to council with a bylaw to prohibit commercial and heavy truck traffic on Gatensbury from the Coquitlam border to Henry Street.
