Noisy truck traffic rocking East Van street

Residents of Vancouver's Nanaimo Street say an increase in truck traffic has made their neighbourhood far noisier and more dangerous.

The residents say that in the last few months, the number of container trucks rumbling through has skyrocketed and say that statistics show truck traffic is up 900 percent over last year.

"Our fear is that somebody's going to get hurt or killed," said Dave Pasin, who lives in the area and also is a Non-Partisans Association candidate in November's municipal election.

"We're asking the city to enforce its own laws. It created the problem in the first place. We're asking it to solve the problem."

Other residents CBC News spoke to Tuesday didn't need much prompting.

"It has been really bad, and our house has been shaking," said one man. "And when they brake it's so loud. And we have little kids in there, and they are waking up with the sounds."

"We've had all the windows redone and the noise still carries through," said a woman, holding her young daughter. "We can't really let her outside the front yard as well because we're concerned about the trucks stopping."

Port closed entrance

It's just a matter of time before a child is hit by a truck, said Joe Caranji, who's also an NPA candidate this year.

"When that day happens, the city will say we should have acted sooner," said Caranji.

City officials say the container truck traffic on Nanaimo Street jumped when the Port of Vancouver closed its Clark Drive entrance

The challenge is reduce that traffic without simply moving the problem somewhere else, like Renfrew Street, said Councillor Kerry Jang.

"We want to know if you increase traffic flow on this street or that street, what is the impact on the infrastructure," said Jang. "How does it impact the safety of children, for example going to schools?"

In the meantime, the city said it will work with police and ICBC for speed-control programs in the area. And the port says it will ask truckers to avoid using Nanaimo Street in favour of major truck routes, like Boundary Road.