The Gordian knot of exits, on-ramps and highways at Stewardson and 20th St. near the Queensborough Bridge is one of the gnarliest intersections in the Lower Mainland, let alone New Westminster. I live just blocks away and regularly end up in Burnaby when I mean to go to Queensborough, or vice versa.

One of the strategies resulting from the Translink Regional Cycling Strategy Stakeholder Workshop Summary held April 6, 2009, was to “make bicycle-transit interaction convenient, seamless and intuitive.” Good strategy, but what is being done to realize it?

“I want to go to Columbia. Because it’s a really good place, and they have toothbrushes there.” So said The Girl, my four-old daughter to me on the SkyTrain just yesterday.

One year ago, we were facing an epic Vancouver Snowmageddon. This weekend the flurries begin and it’s a good reminder to all to prepare for salting and shovel duty on the sidewalks that line your property. Last Christmas, we ranted about the difficulty faced by those in wheelchairs or pushing strollers (and really, anyone at all) to walk our slippery streets when the snow is left to ice over. Don’t be the one all the neighbours scowl at as they walk past.

I stumbled across New West city Councilor Jaimie McEvoy on Saturday conducting the 2009 wheelability assessment uptown with a group of volunteer citizens. On a perfect September day, the group was busy on 7th street creating an inventory of inaccessible curbs, dangerous sidewalk cracks and non-compliant porticos.

The latest crime statistics challenge popular belief of SkyTrain safety in New West. New Westminster SkyTrain, for example, was ranked as the second least secure in a 2008 survey of transit riders, but the actual rate of crime places it 13th on the list. I would have assumed that my home station, 22nd St. SkyTrain, would have ranked somewhere in the middle of the pack, but it’s actually the third-worst station on the line for crime after Surrey Central and Gateway.

Some cycle enthusiasts espouse the merits of riding fixed gear. They speak of purity, fitness, and oneness with the bike and road. But why not consider single speed instead? After commuting through a couple of wet winters in New West, I was annoyed with the maintenance requirements of my gearing, and decided to exchange the ease of hill climbing and speed on flats and descents, for the simplicity of riding in the same gear, up, down, wet, or windy.

This is a guest post by Travis Fehr from New West Cycle, New West’s newest bike shop. New West Cycle is a community-oriented co-op specializing in reviving neglected and vintage bicycles.
As a home and part time bicycle mechanic, bicycle enthusiast, bike commuter, and believer in all things pedal-powered, I have come to rely on some practical and social practices that make my ride safer and more enjoyable.
One that I would particularly like to share is this: be nice.
Bike riders are a rugged, lonely, and sometimes maligned minority. The sideline is …

This is a guest post by New Westminster city councillor Jonathan X. Cote. Upon hearing of City Caucus’ civic leaders car-free challenge, which dared Metro Vancouver mayors and councillors to give up their car keys for a week, we at Tenth to the Fraser asked New West City Hall if anyone here would take up the gauntlet. Only four civic leaders were willing to participate: Abbotsford Mayor George Peary, councillors Suzanne Anton in Vancouver and Brad West in Port Coquitlam, and of course our very own Jonathan Cote. Here’s Jonathan’s account of …

Two contestant meetings have been organized by the Electoral District Association for the Conservative party; all candidate events for the upcoming Conservative Party nomination on July 25th.
The first event will be held between 6:30PM-8:30PM at the Justice Institute Theater, 715 McBride Boulevard, New Westminster. The second event will be Wednesday, July 15th between 6:30PM and 8:30PM in the MacDonald-Cartier Room of the Dogwood Pavilion, 624 Poirier Street, Coquitlam. As previously reported, four candidates are up for the nomination: Diana Dilworth of Port Moody, Mark Lea-McKeown of Coquitlam, Andy …

Faced with a surplus of transportation issues and a dearth of public consultation, New Westminster folk are turning to digital channels to make our voices heard.
As Ruth Seeley wrote yesterday, TransLink has held public meetings to collect citizen  input that will shape the 10-year Lower Mainland transportation plan coming in 2010. Ten of these meetings have been held, including some in the surrounding communities of Surrey, Burnaby and Coquitlam, but New Westminster – the transportation network bull’s eye of the Lower Mainland – didn’t qualify as a “central” enough location …

This is a guest post by Ruth Seeley of No Spin PR.
It’s hard not to laugh at the line in the Wikipedia listing for New Westminster (no, not the part about its seven glory years as the capital of the Colony of British Columbia before Victoria snatched the honour away). The line about it being geographically small but most of it being positioned on the side of a hill.
They aren’t kidding about that. I’m lucky enough (or smart enough) to live in the area known as Brow of the Hill, …

Image by janusz l via Flickr

New Westminster Residents affected by the closure of the Pattullo Bridge last January will no doubt know what is coming as Translink closed the bridge again this season for a significant overhaul of the paved surfaces. Depending on where in the city you reside, festering traffic jams or placid car free streets resulted from the last bridge shut down, caused by a fire set by a transient, that spread to a wooden flex-brace structure. Areas around 20th st. and Queensborough had a nightmare on their …

About two years ago, I was car-addicted. I owned a vehicle – an old piece of junk GMC Tracker – and I drove everywhere, even just a few blocks. I wouldn’t go places if I couldn’t drive there. My husband took transit to school, or carpooled with me and when he graduated and secured employment in the construction industry, one of the requirements was a vehicle to visit job sites. My old clunker of a Tracker, although fairly fuel efficient and highly manouverable, simply didn’t have enough room to carry …

 
New Westminster is working on a new sustainable development plan for our downtown area thanks to a $136,000 grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities‘ Green Municipal Fund. 
The plan will guide development in a proactive manner by identifying policies and implementation strategies to ensure sustainable growth of the downtown as a high quality, liveable, transit-oriented regional town centre.
The plan will:

Review land use/zoning policies
Research innovative ways to provide public open space
Foster adaptive reuse of heritage resources
Identify options to mitigate the noise, air quality and connectivity issues relating to the regional goods movement …

If there’s one issue that everyone in New West agrees is a problem, it’s traffic. The problem of drivers speeding through residential areas and, worse, school zones, is just one of the many traffic issues that New Westies like to complain about. 
The city has resolved to do something about it. Permanent solar-powered signs have been installed near Tweedsmuir, McBride, Howay and Robson Elementary schools that nag drivers to check their speed. 
Says the city’s news release: 
The new speed reader boards will remain in operation around the clock. On school days, from …

In my mailbox today, I got a little piece of paper that appears to be junk mail. Upon further inspection, it was a blurb from the Metro Vancouver letting me know they are seeking to amend their solid waste plan, by exporting our garbage to the United States. The Cache Creek landfill, long one of the Lower Mainland’s dumping grounds, is closing down in 2010 and the powers that be apparently went, “Huh. Well. What are we going to do wih all that garbage?”
So they have two proposals they want …

While the rest of us brace for a month or more of commuting hell while TransLink repairs the burnt-out Pattullo Bridge, a few local thinkers on transportation issues offer an alternative view. No one doubts the short-term pain, but The South Fraser Blog and Stephen Rees suggest motorists will find alternate routes or change their travel patterns given some time. Meanwhile, the temporary loss of that bridge might actually get us thinking differently about Lower Mainland transportation problems if we take the time for self-reflection.
Back in the day (and even …

This is a media release from the City of New Westminster. We hope this New Westminster Park ‘N Ride solution will help some of the affected Pattullo commuters who are finding our blog via search.
New Westminster, BC –The City of New Westminster is offering Metro Vancouver commuters a new way to avoid travel delays across the Fraser River while repairs are done to the Pattullo Bridge.
Mayor Wayne Wright has announced that commuters can access nearly 800 parking spaces at the City’s parkade on Front Street and complete their trips …

Image via Wikipedia

As we blogged earlier today, a fire has shut down the Pattullo Bridge. Now it seems it will not just be Monday’s commute that will be affected. It looks like the bridge could be shut down for up to six weeks. 
“Because of the severity of the damage, it will certainly be closed for a couple of days, but there is a strong likelihood that it will be closed for an extended period, perhaps as long as four to six weeks,” [TransLink spokesperson Ken Hardie] said.
Source: Pattullo Bridge closed …

If you are one of the 80,000 commuters who cross the Pattullo Bridge to get to work, brace yourself: you may want to plan to work from home, time-shift or take a sick day on Monday. One of the trestles caught fire early this morning, and the bridge is closed to traffic until further notice.
“It’s heavily charred,” [TransLink spokesperson] Ken Hardie said. “When the blaze first broke out … reports were that there were flames shooting up from underneath the bridge on both sides.”
TransLink engineers are assessing the bridge’s structure, …

New Westminster police are putting their snazzy new retro-styled cruisers through their paces. It’s seems like it’s been an unusually busy – and hazardous – week for local law enforcement officers. 
Last Sunday, cops were pepper-sprayed by two youthful ne’er-do-wells near 5th Ave. and 7th St.  The attack happened while arresting the pair, following a call about an attempted theft. One officer was temporarily blinded, but neither teen got away.
On Monday, suspects in a stolen car rammed two police vehicles after the cops trapped them in the McDonald’s drive-thru on McBride. Police …

A fellow New Westie, Waferboard, has uncovered the indisputable law of public transportation: You’ll have to wait the longest time possible to catch your bus.
He offers a few telling illustrations of the ‘law’ in action: 

When arriving at a bus stop, the bus will have just gone by. Often you can see passing, tantalizingly close to your “if I run, maybe I can catch it” threshold. If you dont see it pass, the abandoned bus stop will let you know youve just missed it and will have to wait.
If you have a choice …