By: Vee Babbar, SFU Student
Content warning: mentions of car accidents and assault.
After a decade of lobbying by students, the BC TransLink Board announced plans to construct a gondola system to provide easier access to the SFU Burnaby campus when the city council voted in favour. This gondola will connect the main campus to the Production Way-University SkyTrain station, and is expected to be completed within five years.
That’s all amazing, but now’s not the time to let up. With the gondola, Burnaby Mountain is one step closer to year-round reliable commuting. The next step is to enhance the safety of Burnaby Mountain walkers, runners, and cyclists by adding lit walkways up the sides of Gaglardi road and the Burnaby Mountain Parkway.
These walkways would be safer and more direct than the current trails, providing security for cyclists and runners who already use the roads as their primary means of transportation. In 2019, 53-year-old Charles Masala was struck by a car while commuting by bicycle on Burnaby Mountain. His death shook the mountain’s many cyclists. In the wake of the accident, a petition called for a separated bike lane on Gaglardi Way.
Dr. Amarpreet Rattan, an SFU math professor, finds the mountain uniquely dangerous. In response to Masala’s death, he previously told The Peak, “The place where I feel least safe is actually on [Burnaby Mountain]. There’s a few spots when you’re going up the hill, where traffic comes quite close to you.” But nothing’s changed. No bike lane for SFU’s commuters.
Traffic isn’t the only worry for Burnaby Mountain’s commuters. Burnaby Mountain, boasting a massive network of walking, running, and biking trails, is an oasis for active Lower Mainlanders. But those trails aren’t always the safest option for commuters. The mountain’s conservation zone is home to sometimes unfriendly animals, from bears to, well, bears. Over the last decade, serious assaults have taken place on the forest’s trails, too. A well-lit, protected bike lane and walking path up the side of Gaglardi and the Parkway would offer commuters a safer alternative by bringing them out of the forest and towards a populated area that’s less attractive to wildlife.
It’s been done before. After Masala’s death in 2019, walkways were added to a particularly treacherous stretch of the Parkway. That’s great. But we need more.
Fortunately, SFU’s gondola success story provides students with a potential path forward. It starts with students getting SFU on board. It was the SFU Community Trust that initiated the gondola project back in 2009. Since then, a combination of student pressure and school lobbying has gotten the project off the ground. If students are interested in securing cyclists’ and walkers’ safety on Burnaby Mountain, it starts with petitions, emails, and letters to the school.
The gondola is a good step forward for SFU, but it’s not the only solution to students’ transportation woes. By investing in a separated, illuminated walkway along the side of Gaglardi and Burnaby Mountain Parkway, SFU can provide a safer and more direct route for commuters.
