Creative, trendy and not safe
Creative, trendy and not safe
Editor:
Re: Dreams go up in smoke, Nov. 2.
My best wishes for a speedy recovery of the injured and displaced of LK Service.
I would like to share owner Kris Fournier’s concerns about the proliferation of unnecessary “traffic soothing” devices throughout South Surrey – roundabouts, speed bumps, medians and road narrowings. The variety of these barriers and their sudden appearance are a testament to Surrey’s fancy-pants planners.
These devices have now sadly demonstrated that they successfully impede traffic, destroy businesses and cause injuries.
However creative and trendy city planners are, their designs require better consideration of the habits and needs of tax-paying locals rather than following the latest trends of foreign fashion mavens of avant-garde traffic planning.
Maybe these sorts of barriers look great in Paris, Sao Paulo or some other place, and they may even work, but the destruction of LK Service is a good reminder for the need to review the current crop of these devices to better determine their risks and values to the communities they are installed in.
Yes, we all know these infra-structure additions are not as costly to maintain as traffic lights, but the experience of LK Service suggests there may well be unexpected and significant costs to these barriers.
(Editor’s note: While the 24 Avenue median interfered with some firefighters’ access to Thursday’s blaze, fire officials deny they impacted the outcome.)
It is a good time to stop and reconsider how appropriate these barriers are for our communities.
Rob Scagel, Surrey
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