Editor, The Record:
I have lived on Second Avenue in Mission for two years. In that time I have noticed a few problem areas while trying to walk to places in our town.
1. Jack Poole Park: Are you aware that there is no safe way to walk to the park? When you go over the Murray overpass and turn onto Horn, you have to cross the highway twice without any crosswalk. I was with my two young girls in a stroller and let me just say, I won’t bother doing that again.
2. Mr. Pets: If you try to walk from Second to Mr. Pets, there is no crosswalk. The closest crosswalks are at Stave Lake or at Murray, but in both cases you have to walk along the shoulder, which doesn’t feel that safe with the speed that cars go on the highway, especially when pushing a stroller.
3. The Junction: I walked to Canadian Tire a couple weeks ago by crossing over Murray and walking along London Ave, and realized there is no sidewalk along the road. I made it, but again it felt like I was too close to the traffic.
On a related note, are there any plans to link the Safeway complex to the Junction using a pedestrian overpass similar to the one by the WestCoast Express? I often see people walking on the shoulder of the highway to get to the Junction, so I am sure a pedestrian overpass would be well used. It would be terrible if nothing was done and someone was hit while walking on the shoulder of the bridge.
Erik Mission