Although many think of it as a suburb of Vancouver, New West was born a city – one of the first on this part of the coast. Like many an old house, New West may have its problems, but it is blessed with good bones.

In addition to running our local public transport system, TransLink has to plan, build and maintain roadways. To me, that seems like a very unusual set of roles to be combined under one umbrella. It creates a huge conflict of interest within the organization. On the one hand, they have to promote sustainable means of transportation and try to get people out of their cars, but on the other hand, they need to improve and extend the road infrastructure. These two things don’t go hand-in-hand. Which goal takes precedence? Transit or roads? An agency shouldn’t have to advocate for public transportation and be mandated to build more roads.

Opinion polling in New Westminster is pretty clear: New Westminster does not want a six-lane replacement to the Pattullo Bridge. TransLink’s public consultation in our community, however, has assumed six lanes as a given. Clearly, New West and TransLink are not seeing eye to eye. New Westminsterites concerned about air quality, livability, pedestrian safety and environmental impacts of increasing traffic through our already congested city have organized a rally for the whole family in response to TransLink’s Pattullo Bridge Open House at Sapperton Pensioner’s Hall this Saturday, June 23.

TransLink has proposed replacing the 75-year-old Pattullo Bridge with one designed to last 100 years. Unfortunately, after attending their open house in New Westminster last Feb, I walked away feeling that they had missed a crucial opportunity.

The Pattullo Bridge consultation process has got me thinking about acceptable city noises. (Photo courtesy Graham Ballantyne)

This is the third in a series of articles sharing highlights from NWEP’s mayor and council candidates questionnaire on environmental issues. While we shared the candidates’ opinions on traffic issues in our last post in this series, it’s worth taking a little more time to discuss one issue in particular that could have a profound impact on traffic flow in New Westminster: the proposed replacement of the Pattullo Bridge.

A constant source of frustration and conflict in New Westminster, traffic is one of the most heated issues in our city right now. This is the second in a series of posts highlighting responses from New Westminster Environmental Partners’ mayor and council candidates’ survey focusing on environmental issues.

I’ve been dutifully attending TransLink’s consultation sessions for the UBE. We’ve seen 3 so far, and the last one will be held this Thursday evening at 7 pm at the Sapperton Pensioner’s Hall at 318 Keary St, just up from Columbia. Translink will be “reporting out”, summarizing what they’ve heard from the community over the weeks of discussion. I’d encourage all citizens to come out to see what TransLink is planning to bring to New Westminster. As for me, I must admit that my attendance at these sessions has left me feeling like I’ve been pushed into owning something I really don’t want.

TransLink has been undergoing a “service rationalization” process for the past year. This is part of a complete service review the Provincial government has mandated before any consideration is given to approving other revenue streams for TransLink. Until now, this has been a fairly abstract concept when it came to transit services on the road, however as we are about to learn, “rationalization” means cuts to basic services in New Westminster.

For those who haven’t yet heard, Translink is back with a new round of consultations on the Highway Nobody Wants.  The first in a series of United Boulevard Extension workshops is this Saturday, 9:30am-12pm at the Sapperton Pensioners Hall, 318 Keary Street.

Can the North Fraser Perimeter Road, creating a four lane truck route through New Westminster even be built? Let’s examine the feasibility of the City’s mitigation wish list.

We won; we stopped the flood gates of the United Boulevard Extension from opening and releasing the hordes of new commuter traffic on to already chocked New Westminster streets. Or did we?

Over the past month I have received numerous calls from constituents regarding the proposed United Boulevard Extension (UBE) road project, connecting Coquitlam and New Westminster. Those from Maillardville argue that this ‘long overdue’ project will allow traffic to flow more freely out of the Brunette corridor in Coquitlam; while Sapperton residents have major concerns that the project will result in increased traffic flowing into New Westminster and the expropriation of residential and industrial land.

Chris Bryan is a New Westminster resident and the editor of the New Westminster NewsLeader.
As you may know, I write a weekly column in the New Westminster NewsLeader.
When I started the draft for this week, my goal was to talk specifically about the United Boulevard Extension project, which is the subject of a “town hall-style” meeting on Dec. 7 at the Justice Institute. I’d been hearing from people, in person and online, that a main concern was that the project would lead to more traffic coming to the Royal City.

And then …

Just a quick update on the controversial United Boulevard Extension plans for you: The Buzzer’s Jhenifer Pabillano took many of the questions and criticisms raised in your comments here, on the New Westminster Environmental Partners website and on NWEP President Pat Johnstone’s blog, Green New West (great commentary btw, Pat) to TransLink’s Director of Roads Sany Zein.

Seems Translink is listening. Here’s an email we received earlier today from Ken Hardie:
As promised, we have scheduled an additional session for New Westminster residents to look at options for the United Boulevard Extension.
It will be at the Justice Institute on Tuesday, December 7th from 6 to 8:30 pm.  Unlike the session we held there last week, the one on the 7th will include a presentation and open-mike session in the theatre, that will provide a better opportunity for people to get the background on each of the options and …

TransLink’s United Boulevard Extension plans are a hot topic in New West. The article we ran earlier calling for citizens to come out to the upcoming public consultation meetings and speak out against the plans has become the most-commented post in our blog’s history.
A number of comments in that post referenced an article written in the Coquitlam Now about the project that led some people to believe New West had already given approval to proceed, which the City says is not the case. The City of New Westminster forwarded me …

If you’ve ever wondered why Skytrain has a dip in the guideway along Brunette, it isn’t to create a roller-coaster experience, but was designed to accommodate an overpass connected to United Boulevard in Coquitlam with Brunette Avenue. This United Boulevard Extension is a potential disaster for traffic congestion in New Westminster. The proposed connector doubles the capacity for traffic to enter New Westminster from the expanded Hwy 1 and Lougheed corridors, while there remains nowhere for it to go except to overflow onto residential streets.

The New Westminster Environmental Partners will be holding an Urban Transportation Forum and Annual General Meeting on November 9 at the Douglas College Student Union lounge. The event, moderated by Tenth to the Fraser Will & Briana Tomkinson, will feature local and regional transportation experts discussing what works in transportation planning, what doesn’t, and what’s coming to New Westminster.

In 2013, TransLink will launch a new electronic fare system that would allow it to charge riders only for the distance they actually travel, rather than by zone. But just because they can charge more for people traveling long distances doesn’t mean they should.

In this city of hills, you really can travel uphill both ways. So it’s perhaps surprising that New Westminster has such a strong, passionate cycling community. While it is hilly, our city is both compact and central – features that lend themselves to bike commuting. Now City Hall too is sharing the velolove.

Translink recently announce a new bridge will be built in the next 5 years between New Westminster and Surrey, the third bridge across in the past 106 years.

Last September I wrote that New Westminster’s SkyTrain safety statistics challenged our community’s assumptions about crime issues at our five SkyTrain stations. First of all, crime is generally down. Secondly, when measuring overall incidences of crime per 100,000 passengers, 22nd St. Station turned out to be worse than the much busier New Westminster station.

Odysseus stopped up his ears with beeswax because he knew alone, he would not have the strength to withstand the lure of the sirens’ call. I did the modern green equivalent.

A robust transit system is one of the hallmarks of civilization. In the ancient world, it meant roads. And today, it means an affordable, accessible public transit system that runs on clean energy, and stands as a force to change the world for the better.