Crash renews calls to reactivate pedestrian bridge outside Metrotown Mall

Road safety advocates are calling for action after a pedestrian was struck by a transit bus at a notorious crossing outside the Metrotown Mall in Burnaby.

Transit police had initially reported the pedestrians suffered “life-altering injuries,” but fortunately turned out to have only suffered a broken ankle.

The collision took place on a stretch of Central Boulevard, which separates the mall and the Metrotown bus loop from the Metrotown SkyTrain station and sees thousands of crossings a day.

0:33 Pedestrian hit by bus near Metrotown in Burnaby

In November, the mall’s head of security called on the city to improve the busy crossing, warning the intersection could be the scene of a serious collision.

Nathan Hawkins, a volunteer with road safety group Vision Zero Vancouver, said it is difficult to understand why an elevated walkway that once connected the SkyTrain station has been left decommissioned since the station was upgraded in 2016.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“This has just been derelict for almost a decade now, nobody has decided to do anything about it and everyone says it’s somebody else’s problem, somebody else needs to pay for it,” he said.

Hawkins said Metrotown Station, the second busiest in TransLink’s network, sees about 27,000 passengers a day, while the bus loop sees about 15,000 daily boardings.

“And you look at these tiny, narrow little crosswalks and it’s a really short signal, you see these huge crowds of people trying to cross and clearly it’s an issue,” he said.

2:11 Metrotown mall raising alarm over ‘dangerous’ crosswalk between SkyTrain station

In its 2019-2023 capital plan, the City of Burnaby reported it had the funds to deal with the overpass, but now says the infrastructure is the mall’s responsibility.

The city said no one was available for an interview, but in a statement, it said it had looked at removing the bridge, but determined the walkway actually belongs to the mall’s owners.

“Any decisions involving removing the bridge or rebuilding it would need to be made by the ownership group,” the city said.

Mall owner Ivanhoe Cambridge did not respond to a request for comment. Metropolis at Metrotown’s property manager said the facility was “actively working” with the city on pedestrian crossings in the area.

Hawkins acknowledged both the jurisdictional politics and the cost mean reviving the elevated walkway would take time.

But he said there are quick fixes the city could implement, such as lengthening the crossing signal time or painting wider crosswalks, that would improve safety at the crossing in the short term.

“That would cost $1,000 and you could do it basically overnight,” he said.

“It’s a small ask that they could deliver on very quickly.”