vancourier.com
THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS
Muralsof Strathcona
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WEEKEND EDITION FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 Vol. 104 No. 50 • Established 1908
NEWS: Viaduct removal cost 7 OPINION: Towering over the Drive 10
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photo Dan Toulgoet
Temple of solace
IN THE LATEST INSTALMENT OF OUR VANCOUVER SPECIAL NEIGHBOURHOOD SERIES, WE PROFILE STRATHCONA LIFE AND BUDDHIST TEACHINGS— PAGE 27
Cityinstallsmid-blockcrosswalkonEastHastings MIKE HOWELL Staff writer
T
he City of Vancouver has installed a mid-block crosswalk across a dangerous stretch of East Hastings between Main and Columbia streets in an attempt to reduce the number of accidents involving pedestrians. The crosswalk, which includes a pedestrian-controlled stop light, travels from the north side of East Hastings near the Insite supervised drug injection site and links to the sidewalk outside the Regent Hotel on
the south side of the street. Jerry Dobrovolny, the city’s director of transportation, said the $250,000 crosswalk was installed mid-block because the city’s research showed there were 49 accidents at that spot over a six-year period. “That was a high crash location,” said Dobrovolny, noting the research included data from the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Simon Fraser University and the University of B.C. The installation of the crosswalk comes as Pivot Legal Society lawyer Douglas King and several members of the drug users’ organi-
zation complained to the Vancouver Police Board Tuesday about the disproportionate number of tickets issued to Downtown Eastside residents for jaywalking. Pivot obtained statistics from the police department via the Freedom of Information Act that revealed 76 per cent of the 2,699 jaywalking tickets issued in the city between 2008 and 2012 were to people in the Downtown Eastside. Another 17 per cent were issued in downtown while none was handed out in Shaughnessy, Point Grey, Oakridge, Marpole, Killarney and several other neighbour-
hoods in the city. King pointed out studies show jaywalking and crashes involving pedestrians occur all over the city, as a City of Vancouver pedestrian safety study indicated in 2012. The study revealed there were 3,066 reported collisions involving pedestrians between 2005 and 2010 in Vancouver. The neighbourhoods with the highest number of pedestrian collisions per 100,000 residents and employees included Strathcona, Mount Pleasant, Grandview-Woodland, Shaughnessy and Kensington Cedar Cottage, the study said. See CROSSWALK on page 4