Real solutions to truck threats

[Eric Doherty]

I don't think this went through when I copied it to the ACTORS list a few days ago.

 

I first heard about this issue through the GWAC listserve, and think that GWAC should be actively involved in finding real solutions, not just shifting the problem around to different parts of our neighbourhood and region. See below for the email I sent and copied to local politicians.

 

 

Dear GWAC Directors:

 

There does not seem to be a route change 'solution' to port trucks on Nanaimo Street that does not put a different population of East Vancouver residents at risk. (See correspondence below).

 

It is worth remembering that the 'Knight Street Corridor' is the western edge of Grandview Woodland and includes high density residential development with a high proportion of children. These residents breath in the diesel fumes and are exposed to the danger of excessive numbers of trucks on Knight / Clark, but we are used to this edge of Grandview Woodland being an industrial sacrifice zone. Making the eastern portion of Hastings, including all of Hastings in Grandview Woodland the southern edge of Hastings Park, into an industrial sacrifice zone as well is no solution either. As an environmentally aware community it is also impossible to overlook the global warming implications of the tar sands oil being burned in these trucks.

 

Lets be clear that diverting the port trucks back to Knight also results in them in someone's front yard. The real solution starts when we recognize that there are better ways to move goods around the region. Electric trains and short sea shipping (tug and barge) are safer, much less polluting, low-carbon emitting, and cost effective. See www.policyalternatives.ca/transportationtransformation for further information.

 

I would like GWAC to take a position in favor of low-carbon alternatives to trucking for a substantial portion of port traffic now using the Knight Street Corridor and other routes through East Vancouver (traveling to and from destinations throughout Metro Vancouver and beyond), and request that the City of Vancouver do the same. A real solution will require action from all levels of government, but the City of Vancouver must take a leadership role in this.

 

The City is in the process of developing a new transportation plan intended to meet Greenest City goals, including steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from transportation; the situation on Nanaimo is great way to raise the issue of low carbon goods movement in this context.

 

Thank you,

 

Eric

 

Eric Doherty - Ecopath Planning
2021 Kitchener Street
Vancouver, BC Canada
V5L 2W6

604 877 1223
er...@ecoplanning.ca
www.ecoplanning.ca

 

cc Libby Davies MP

Shane Simpson MLA

Ellen Woodsworth

Geoff Meggs

Andrea Reimer

Kerry Jang