Dangerous parking on road

Open letter to West Kelowna council re. Gellatly Road South safety issue

This issue has been brought up numerous times and the West Kelowna city Council is very aware of it.

Year after year this happens. Gellatly Road South is an arterial road and as such is supposed to not allow parking but the city does nothing to prevent it.

I have seen elderly people and young elementary school (students) trying to walk from the end of the sidewalk at Whitworth Road to the Glen Canyon Regional Park and almost get hit by cars that must swerve into the oncoming lane to avoid a collision with someone.

With boat trailers and (vehicles) parking along this route, taking up half the roadway, it places the pedestrians and vehicle drivers in jeopardy. Vehicles have to drive straddling the center line just to get past these beach users who park their cars, trucks and boat trailers on the roadway, seemingly without care for the safety of others.

Please react as a responsible city council and city staff. If you cannot put in a proper sidewalk and make improvements by widening the road, please—at the very least—install “No Parking” and “Vehicles will be Towed” signs to eliminate this danger. Then get bylaw officers and/or the police out, doing their jobs enforcing this citizen-protection measure.

There are also vehicles parked in the bike lanes at the new Carbury development at 4025 Gellatly Road South. Again, the city has approved a development without enough parking so people will park wherever they want. What will happen when this development is fully occupied with up to 400 residents? Does the city not care about bike lane safety?

Please do not ignore this request and take action now before someone is hurt or killed.

Thomas Lovell, West Kelowna