According to B.C. traffic law, there’s a crosswalk at every corner at every intersection, whether it’s painted on the lines or not – which means pedestrians have the right of way.
Try telling that to motorists speeding up 225th Street from the Haney Bypass. They don’t know and they don’t care, and they don’t care to know, says area resident Margo Elliott.
She wants the District of Maple Ridge to put a marked crosswalk at the corner so she and her fellow seniors and their pet dogs can cross safely to Brickwood Park.
“Everybody’s speeding up and nobody stops for pedestrians,” Elliot said Wednesday.
“There are lots of seniors in the area with little dogs and nobody stops. They can’t be bothered to put some stripes down.”
Elliott points out that the playground zone surrounding the park is within a 30-km/h speed zone.
Nearby is Fraserview Village, with eight buildings and about 700 residents, many of them seniors. And many residents have dogs they like to walk in nearby Brickwood Park, which is on the other side of 225th Street.
There are also basketball and tennis courts and a playground in the area.
Elliott has asked the District of Maple Ridge to put in the crosswalk, but was told after analyzing the corner that a marked crosswalk isn’t required.
Maple Ridge traffic engineer Michael Eng said a study of the corner in October showed there isn’t enough traffic volume to warrant a crosswalk.
Over the course of an hour during peak traffic times, pedestrians had 255 opportunities to cross the street. During that same time, only 183 vehicles went up and down the road.
Putting down crosswalk markings at such a corner could have the opposite effect by creating a false sense of security among pedestrians using the crosswalk in an area where motorists might not expect one, he explained.
People usually take greater care in unmarked crossings, he added.