Last night I attended the Port Moody City Council meeting because I noticed on the agenda that there was an item about banning commercial truck traffic from Gatensbury Road.

Item 9.5a – Gatensbury Road, Commercial Heavy Truck Ban

Since I have taken on the task of helping to keep the safety of our road on Council’s agenda until we see significant improvements in that direction, I felt obliged to attend.

I was also tired of hearing complaints from my step daughters about how dark it is walking up the hill from St. John’s Street in the evening.  They kept talking about how the street lights only seem to work sporadically and come on and off with no warning and how they are often in the dark, literally, when they walk home. They have resorted to wearing colourful flashing lights to help ensure they are seen by oncoming drivers.  In particular, the 2 sharp curves are especially lacking in lighting.

So, during the public input session at the beginning of the meeting I thanked them for considering the truck issue and mentioned about the street lights and how they don’t seem to be working well enough to light the street for our night time pedestrians to feel safe.

The response pleasantly surprised me.  The Mayor looked behind him at where the staff sat, indicated that transportation would deal with it, and they further assured me they would look into it immediately, like the very next day! OK!! I like that 🙂

On to the discussion of eliminating heavy truck traffic from Gatensbury Road.  In the agenda there is an excellent couple of paragraphs with background information from previous reports on Gatensbury Road.

After a bit of council discussion, the motion was unanimously approved.  Of course, enforcement is an entirely different issue but at least signage will be in place and tickets can be issued if offenders are caught.  If you’d like to listen to the discussion you can do so here.  Bottom line is that now heavy trucks can no longer assume Gatensbury Road is a route for them to transit between Coquitlam and Port Moody.

And there is a role for ordinary citizens to help ensure this comes to pass. If anyone notices a truck in violation, the recommendation is to note the license plate number and report them with a call or email to Coquitlam Bylaw Enforcement division if they are heading North to Port Moody or to the City of Port Moody Bylaw Enforcement division if they are headed South to Coquitlam.

It’s a small step forward but I’m happy to see it being taken.  My thanks – and I’m sure those of other Gatensbury Road residents – to the Mayor and Council for making this happen.

Rich