This block of Comox Street is two-way, with a row of on-street parking spaces down one side. During drop off and pickup times, drivers would park next to the school, reducing the street to one lane without enough room for cars to pass each other. Drivers would blast their horns at each other, leave their cars idling, block the driveway to the bike parking and block and reverse into the marked crosswalks at the intersections at either end of the street. Allowing drivers to access Comox Street at drop off and pickup times made it dangerous, unpleasant and inconvenient for people outside cars. The footpaths on the streets adjacent to the school are narrow and were overcrowded at drop off and pickup times.
By the time COVID-19 hit Vancouver in early 2020, traffic around Lord Roberts had been worsening over the years to the point where it had become the biggest complaint received from parents by the PAC, according to former PAC Chair Ian Rowe. The situation had been more manageable when the school had fewer students and before the average size of cars increased to current levels. In recent years, more cars driven to the school are SUVs or trucks, which have poor sight lines. This is a particular danger to children who can’t be seen by the driver when walking directly in front of these larger vehicles.
For a short time when school recommenced early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the school population was split into two “cohorts” with different start and finish times, spreading out drop off and pickup traffic, so it has now been over three years since the neighbourhood has endured peak traffic levels around the school.
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We gratefully live, work and play on the unceded and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples – sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.