Seymour Street residents are up in arms over a B.C. Trucking Association plan they say will increase noise, pollution and traffic in their neighbourhood.
The trucking association is compiling a report for the City of Vancouver that downtown residents worry will make Seymour Street a designated truck route.
"It was designated as a residential area, so we haven't been accustomed to that volume of traffic and noise and congestion," resident Gerhard Maynard said. "It really does impact your want to live in this area."
Sharon Promislow of the Seymour Residents Association agrees.
"It's a shock and an absolute betrayal of the concept of the residential area of Yaletown," she said.
But the trucking association says it only wants the change to allow charter buses back on to the Granville Street Bridge.
Charter buses were once allowed to cross the bridge before the city determined that it required structural upgrades. Now that the bridge work is done, the association wants the route back.
"In essence, buses are defined as trucks in Vancouver," said Louise Yako, vice president of the B.C Trucking Association. "In order for buses to use the Granville Street Bridge, we have to amend the truck route, which is, I think, confusing for residents."
Yako also says weight restrictions on the bridge won't allow big trucks to cross -- but Promislow isn't convinced.
"The issue of tour buses hasn't even come up," she said. "It's just smoke in the air."
The city declined to comment on the issue pending the completion of the report.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Norma Reid
