A six year old girl was trying to cross Central Avenue in Ladner between the Lions Park and London Drugs. She was with three brothers and sisters and her grandmother. A vehicle driver came from around the corner at great speed and almost hit the four children. This six year old girl decided to Do Something About It.
She drew a picture of what had happened to her family and wrote a letter to Delta City Council.
In her letter she wrote:
“Dear Town Council
I think we need a cross walk by lions park to the stores.
Lots of people cross there and it is a very busy road
and it is hard to see around the corner. I am six years old.”
She then drew up her own petition form to collect names and addresses of other people that also thought getting a crosswalk across Central Avenue between the commercial area and the park was a good idea. In knocking on doors and approaching people she also found out that other people had stories about almost being crashed into at that location. The six year old collected thirty signatures and addresses which she carefully appended to her letter to Council.
At their meeting of November 9, Delta Council received the six year old’s letter and petition. They directed Engineering staff to complete a crosswalk assessment on Central Avenue at the Lions Park pathway and to report the findings to the Transportation Technical Committee for review. They also directed that a “written response be provided to the writer”.
You can be sure that we will be following this crosswalk assessment, and also monitoring any changes proposed by the City. Because the one person you never want to disappoint is a six year old who has done their homework, evaluated the problem, and proposed the solution.
Kudos to her.
Such a great story. I hope they go ahead with the crosswalk, and I hope they install those pedestrian-activated flashing strobe lights in a way that lets drivers see them in plenty of time before they round that corner.
As a driver I really love the strobe lights. I never knew what how to interpret the older slow flashing yellow incandescent lights, because they’ve been used in so many applications where they flashed continuously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. So when I see them flashing at a crosswalk I’m always thinking “did someone just push a button? Or is this just a warning that there’s a crosswalk here?”.
The strobe lights remove all doubt.
I don’t envy the engineering manager who has to sign the request’s form rejection letter.
Your best piece ever!