Editor:
It is wonderful to see the new mall open and feel the buzz of excitement in the community. However, I am quite concerned for the safety of non-driving mall shoppers.
Driving home in the dimming light of the evening last week, I noticed the tiny concrete island between the right turn lane and the rest of the lanes of 52nd Street on the south side of Highway 17 full of people carrying bags and hanging onto children. They were waiting patiently for the pedestrian sign to light up so they could continue walking east on Highway 17 towards the bus stop.
As my car climbed the 52nd Street hill, I passed several school children happily walking down the sidewalk towards the mall.
This was already a dangerous intersection before the mall (remember the woman on the scooter who was killed in 2014). Once the days grow shorter and the weather becomes wetter and colder, asking people to walk across that busy highway in the dark is a disrespectful proposition. When that intersection was being redesigned, a pedestrian overpass should have been installed to allow for safe passage across the highway.
As a half-way measure in the meantime, I would suggest moving the bus stop into the mall parking lot. There must be enough room in that massive lot for a couple of buses to exchange passengers in a safe, out of the way location.
I'm hoping some changes are implemented before the highway claims another victim. We should be encouraging people to walk to the mall from Tsawwassen, and to take the bus from other locations, but I know I would be leery of letting a child go to the mall without an adult if it means crossing those busy lanes of speeding traffic.
Catharine Rudolph
