Unsafe Conditions for Pedestrians and Vehicles on Denman Roads
It is disappointing to observe the disregard for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists evidenced by MOTT and its contractor Mainroad allowing shoulders along East Road to become highly overgrown and allowing large edge drops from the pavement in many places on Denman Island.
On Denman Island most of us live on a few main roads. If we want to go for a walk, a stroll with a baby carriage, a run, an outing with a dog, we have to do it on one of these roads. When a vehicle approaches we have to get off the road. On East Road the shoulders are overgrown with all manner of weeds, some with barbs and brambles and some that sting. This jumble of growth is tall and you can’t see the underlying ground so you don’t know what footing is available there. You don’t know whether there are bird nests, bee hives, snakes, slugs or whatever else is in that overgrown mess. East Road is the main route across Denman to and from the Hornby ferry so there’s lots of vehicles, and when you are walking there and one of these vehicles approaches you have to get off the road. I dare the MOTT and Mainroad management to come take a walk with me and actually experience the unsafe situation I am trying to describe.
I’m sure you know the safety problem presented by large edge drops/pavement lips. A rough survey of edge drops found 31 situations on East Road, 10 on Denman Road and 3 on Lacon Road where the drops were more than around 6 cm and some were 8-10 cm. Drops like those are enough to cause the operator of a bicycle, a motorcycle, a car or small truck to lose control. These situations are persisting month after month, year after year.
What kind of diligence are you people claiming to deliver when you allow such situations to persist? Your performance is not satisfactory.
Peter Spurr
