Dear Editor:
After spending another afternoon crawling through gridlock on Third Street and Marine Drive in North Vancouver, I keep asking myself why no one in last month's civic election talked about how we can make local vehicle traffic move more smoothly. Instead, all the talk seemed to be about increasing density while removing vehicle traffic lanes and replacing them with bike lanes, adding more traffic lights and various other "traffic calming" measures.
If traffic in North Vancouver gets any calmer, it's going to be catatonic!
There are a number of areas where I just have to shake my head.
I have always enjoyed cycling on West First Street and never felt unsafe, yet someone obviously felt the need to reduce the vehicle traffic lanes to one in either direction in order to create a bicycle super highway for the hordes of cyclists that have yet to appear on our streets.
Between that decision and the addition of a traffic light at First Street and Lloyd Avenue, the last freeflowing route between West Vancouver and the City of North Vancouver has been reduced to a crawl just like the traffic disaster to the north, Marine Drive.
The bike lanes on the Third Street hill cause similar problems. How many cyclists actually go up Third Street instead of the Low Level Road or some other, more gradual route? On the way down the hill you really don't need a bike lane, because you can move with the flow of traffic.
It appears we only narrowly avoided having bike lanes installed on the Keith Road hill after the recent repaving, but I'm sure they will be back unless more of us speak up.
Then there are the so-called "traffic-calming" measures. My least favourite of these take the form of street-narrowing constrictions. I don't recall asking to have my tax dollars spent on the installation of obstructions which are largely ineffective in slowing down the drivers who actually need slowing down. They waste our money, make snow removal more difficult and, ironically, create a hazard to cyclists by forcing them to merge suddenly with vehicle traffic.
Given the weather, the hilly terrain and the fact that many of us are transporting children around the North Shore, bicycles and transit are not practical alternatives to vehicles on most occasions. The councils of the City and District of North Vancouver have to face that reality. With density increasing, we need to improve traffic flow, not put our heads in the sand and hope that a few more bike lanes will somehow solve the problem.
Traffic is only going to get worse unless our local governments start looking at realistic solutions to getting vehicles moving while improving transit so that it is a practical alternative for more of us and our families.
Brad Braun North Vancouver
