A group of residents – 250 and counting – are calling for the District of West Vancouver to step in and make a uniquely dangerous street safer for kids and pedestrians.
Wildwood Lane, a narrow side street with blind curves and no sidewalks, runs north of Highway 1 near Taylor Way, connecting to Westcot Elementary and St. David’s Church, which has a daycare and two Montessori schools operating out of it.
But it is so busy with speeding drivers and people parking their cars, Shirley Anthony says it has become unsafe to walk her own daughters to school just 600 metres away.
Anthony said there have been two collisions in the area within the last four months, and too many near misses to count.
“It’s very dangerous,” she said. “Cars sometimes are travelling so fast and then they go into that blind curve and you have people walking on the side.”
Anthony has launched a petition calling for the district to remove the unrestricted parking along the south side of the road, which would give families a safer space for walking to the school and church. The petition also seeks a reduced speed limit or speed bumps and a convex mirror at the blind corner that would allow drivers and folks on foot to see each other before it’s too late.
Anthony said she has been raising the matter with district staff since March but she always gets told the same thing – that the district wants unrestricted parking on Wildwood Lane because it gets used by carpooling commuters. (Anthony, though, said it seems to be mainly used by carpooling skiers and ferry passengers).
Mostly recently on July 8, Anthony got the same response from district staff. The next day, she started the petition. Within 24 hours, it was clear there was a consensus among the neighbours, with more than 100 signing their names. As of Wednesday, it had reached 250 signatures.
Individual council members have been much more receptive to her pleas, she said, but still there is no indication of when they’ll see any meaningful change.
Anthony noted the irony of driving her kids to school, which adds to vehicle traffic, rather than the municipality providing safe infrastructure.
“I feel like the city needs to better consider greater accessibility around school areas for the neighbourhoods, especially in West Vancouver where you have very narrow streets. It’s also very un-walkable,” she said.
In Sept. 2023, West Vancouver council members voted unanimously to scrap a proposal for a sidewalk along the north side of Irwin Park Elementary. In that case, staff listed it as a high priority but neighbours complained about the proposal, saying it was unnecessary.
When there are competing interests, municipalities should come down on the side of people wanting to walk safely in their own neighbourhoods, Anthony said.
“Being able to afford residents a safe passage to daycares and schools, I would say is extremely important,” she said. “They have prioritized the availability of carpooling over the safety of school kids and I think that’s wrong.”
District of West Vancouver staff issued a statement in response to the petition on Wednesday afternoon, saying the municipality has a solution in mind, albeit one that is different than the ones the petitioners have been asking for. District staff said they plan to clear back about 1.8 metres of vegetation on the north side of the eastern section of Wildwood Lane, allowing residents to walk along the shoulder from the crosswalk at Westcot Road.
“Last week, the district conducted vegetation trimming on both sides of the roadway to create the path on the north side and to widen the existing south side parking area to allow vehicles to pull more fully off the asphalt. Once the trimming is complete, the engineering department will assess and determine if further measures are required to ensure a safe pedestrian pathway,” the statement read.
The district is also looking into collecting speed data and traffic volumes, but, with the exception of two recent collisions, ICBC has no historical record of collisions along the roadway, the district added.
“Staff will also be reviewing the ‘curve ahead’ signage to ensure it provides clear direction, and are exploring implementing time-restricted parking on the south side of Wildwood Lane,” the statement said.
