Dundas Street, between Nanaimo and Renfrew is a 5-block, .8 kilometre stretch of residential roadway being used as a shortcut by motorists, commercial trucks, and buses avoiding east/west-bound traffic on nearby Hastings Street or McGill.

These motorists routinely speed, often exceeding 60-70 km/h, and ignore pedestrians trying to use crosswalks at Penticton and Slocan. There are regular accidents at various intersections, particularly Kazlo and Dundas where the bike route crosses. Plus, this stretch of Dundas Street is off-limits to trucks, but residents of Dundas Street regularly see over-weight commercial trucks and buses using the street illegally. If a child stepped in front of one of these trucks, the driver would be unable to stop.

The current classification of Dundas Street is a Neighbor Collector, having been downgraded in April 2005 by the City of Vancouver from a secondary arterial. It is now awaiting the outcome of community consultation with the City whereby it may receive calming features such as bulges, turning circles, etc.

As local residents, we have formed the Dundas Street Group and it is our position that this short stretch of Dundas Street should be traffic calmed as soon as possible with turning circles, no-through traffic signs, and other limiting features to make the street safer to live on and to cross for residents, school children, cyclists, and pedestrians alike.

The Dundas Street Group also supports a comprehensive study of traffic in the immediate neighbourhood to lessen the impact of east/west communter traffic on all of our residential streets.

Please join us in helping make our neighbourhood a better, safer place to live. You can participate by joining the SlowDownDundas email list and receive updates and communicate with others in the group.