The number of vehicles crossing the North Shore’s two bridges has almost returned to pre-COVID levels.
Following the declaration of a public health emergency in March, traffic on the Ironworkers Second Narrows Crossing dropped from about 130,000 crossings per weekday during the first week of March, to just 71,238 at the end of the month, according to data from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.
Since then, it has been slowly climbing back up to pre-COVID levels, although traffic was still down by about 5.9 per cent, as of the last week of July.
Routine afternoon traffic backups returned on the Cut in early July. It’s not easy to discern how much of the congestion is caused by people returning to work on the North Shore and how much is caused by people coming to visit parks. Metro Vancouver, the municipalities and the province have all noted record numbers of visitors as Lower Mainland residents have been looking for outdoor recreation options closer to home.
Numbers on the Lions Gate Bridge have shown a similar trajectory with 62,040 average weekday crossings during the first week of March compared to 27,542 following the provincial health directive to stay home. By the end of July, average weekday crossings had risen to 53,963 – about 13 per cent below normal.
