Delta independent council candidate Mike Smith says the city has not done a good enough job and must put higher priority on pedestrian safety.
The North Delta resident promises to increase the budgets for the sidewalk and neighbourhood traffic management programs.
“This is for all of Delta. There’s so many of our neighbourhoods in Tsawwassen and North Delta and Ladner that need them. Council gives itself golden handshakes but they won’t fund a few more new sidewalks for our kids and seniors,” Smith says.
Delta’s annual sidewalk program includes city funded projects and the locations are selected from a “master sidewalk” list which is ranked by priority. The program also includes projects paid for by residents as well as the city. Those lower priority proposed sidewalks may or may not meet the criteria for streets to have a sidewalk but don't rank high enough to be constructed in the near future.
Smith promises that if elected he’ll fight for the city to increase the number of proposed new sidewalks deemed higher priority, while many considered lower priority should be bumped up to a higher priority status.
“Sidewalks are becoming more of a priority as our residents of Delta continue to age. But also as the budget for our school board decreased the transportation and buses, sidewalks are also becoming more imperative as kids are forced to walk to and from school. We don’t want our children walking on unsafe sidewalks and crosswalks,” Smith says.
Smith also says the neighbourhood traffic management program, which includes crosswalks and traffic calming measures, needs to be beefed up to include more projects annually.
Smith will talk about a number of other big issues on improving neighbourhood livability in his campaign.
The civic election takes place Oct. 20.
