The provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has pumped the brakes on a proposed North Vancouver traffic flow change that had some Seymour residents feeling a bit of road rage.
A District of North Vancouver councillor was the first to sound the alarm over a traffic pattern change that could have made driving more of a headache for drivers accessing Dollarton Highway from the busy Main Street corridor.
Just before a public meeting on Monday, Sept. 23, Coun. Lisa Muri said she and the rest of council were briefed by district staff about a plan to change the lining of the eastbound lanes near the Mountain Highway intersection.
The new traffic pattern would change the lane designated for local eastbound traffic into a shared lane with vehicles feeding onto the highway onramp. Staff shared a map with council showing the new pattern designed by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.
Muri then mounted a campaign against the change, posting the proposal to her Facebook page. There, her posts received hundreds of replies from residents complaining of being held hostage by highway traffic in their own neighbourhoods.
A petition launched on Tuesday, Sept. 24, to stop the changes quickly garnered nearly 3,000 signatures.
The community’s response to the issue was overwhelming, Muri said.
“I haven’t had this quick of a response on anything in a very long time. People are absolutely furious,” she said last week.
The furor, however, did not go unheeded.
On Sept. 26, MOTI updated the project page on their website, stating that the proposed changes to the lanes would not be completed in the immediate future.
“Drainage upgrades will be completed in early October 2024,” the MOTI statement read. “Further consultation will occur before the project proceeds with paving and line marking changes, which are scheduled for spring 2025.”
On Tuesday, Mayor Mike Little said he was relieved to hear that the ministry was holding off on the project “until we’ve all sat down and had a discussion with all the stakeholders about what we need to see going forward.”
“It had been talked about at the staff level for several years and our position at the District of North Vancouver had been opposed to this realignment,” he said. “I don’t think they fully appreciated the impact this is going to have on the Seymour residents, and very importantly… the trucks coming out of Lynnterm. Already, the trucks coming out of our port terminal operators down in that area are facing 25- to 30-minute waits to get four blocks just to join that line.”
Little said he understood the ministry’s goal of cutting down the length of the eastbound traffic queue, which routinely stretches past Park & Tilford, but he also questioned whether the ministry’s solution would have the desired effect.
“If they’re trapping us with bridge traffic, then the line gets longer because all the Seymour people are stuck in it, right? You’re no further ahead.”
The timing of the spat with the province was awkward because MLAs technically ceased to be MLAs as of Sept. 21. In this period, the provincial government has paused normal operations to preserve the integrity of the election. As the government is run by the public service, MLAs don’t have their usual avenues of intervention.
As such, MOTI wasn’t responding to media requests.
“During the provincial election and interregnum period, government is in a caretaker mode and all government of B.C. communications are limited to critical health and public safety information, as well as statutory requirements,” read an automatic reply from the ministry when the North Shore News first inquired about the change.
North Vancouver-Seymour MLA Susie Chant said she only became aware of the issue last week.
“I absolutely disagree with the plan,” she said, adding that she directed her staff to contact MOTI about the changes, and encouraged District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little to also raise the issue with the ministry.
“I’m asking to pause any action until their better consultation has been done, and we have a plan that is aligned with the needs of North Vancouverites,” said Chant last week. “I’m fighting for North Vancouver to have a say in this significant piece of traffic management.”
The statement from MOTI brought the temperature way down for opponents to the proposed change, with the organizers of the petition shutting it down and declaring “victory.”
Sam Chandola, BC Conservative nominee for North Vancouver-Seymour, released a statement on his website criticizing MOTI under the BC NDP government for the proposed change, arguing that it was the result of a deeper problem.
“The real problem lies in our inadequate bridge infrastructure, which is failing to meet our community’s needs,” he wrote. “We need to invest in our transportation infrastructure to upgrade the Second Narrow bridge so that all communities can get enough on-ramp lanes to a wider bridge.”
- with files from Andy Prest and Brent Richter
