A resident is fearing for his life and those of others who use Queensway Street due to what he calls an influx of heavy truck traffic on the road.
Retired pastor Peter Stinson said he and his wife experienced a hairy moment themselves the other day when they were nearly clipped by a transport truck.
"Someone's going to get killed," Stinson said, saying it's unsafe for cars to have to compete with loaded logging trucks on such a curvy road. "Queensway is not made for big transport trucks that are loaded."
Stinson claims there has been an increase in commercial traffic over the past three months and that neighbours have been calling the city to complain since September.
Central Interior Logging Association executive director MaryAnne Arcand said there are more trucks on the road, due to moving logs from the Lakeland Mills yard to Carrier Lumber.
"It is not a dangerous route," she added.
City transportation supervisor Heather Andreychuk said commercial trucks have used the route for years, and there's nothing in city regulations that would permit them from continuing to do so.
"The city of Prince George doesn't have designated truck routes," she said, explaining the only real distinctions are arterial collector routes (like Queensway, Fifth Avenue, Ospika Boulevard) and local (residential) roads. There are also routes, such as along Queensway, marked for the transport of dangerous goods - corrosive, hazardous or flammable materials.
"There's no mechanism to say a transport truck is not to go on a particular road with the exception of roads that are designated under weight restrictions," Andreychuk said. Foothills Boulevard is one such route and has a weight restriction of 46,500 kilograms or less.
Despite the lack of regulations, Stinson said it wasn't right and the fact that the trucks are allowed on the road that runs parallel to residences and through downtown suggests that Prince George is "not a city that cares."
With the completion of the Boundary Road connector linking Highways 16 and 97, Andreychuk said she expects there to be a shift in traffic towards the new route, which is away from residences and downtown and will have very few traffic signals.
