Traffic congestion is the number one local issue in North Vancouver, reflecting the impact it’s having on the local economy and everyday life across North Vancouver.
The problem seems to have become worse quite quickly. Could we have seen this coming?
Traffic studies are required with all major developments but individual reports only draw conclusions about the impact on adjacent intersections. Planners at the City admit they don’t track cumulative effects inside the City, never mind coordinating with the District.
Transonic says that “density has to come before transit” but that just doesn’t work on the North Shore. A new committee of representatives of all the governments, led by our local MLA, is going to look at long term solutions, since there are no short term ones. However, a committee like this is not going to address a problem that is deep and structural.
But there is one thing that you can do when you find yourself in a hole that is just getting deeper and deeper… stop digging!
There can’t be any doubt that lack of coordination in transportation and development planning between the City and District is part of the problem. And that it is in the public’s interest, if not in the interests of certain politicians and senior managers, for closer coordination between City and District planners to be mandated. There needs to be a combined review of the impact on traffic of all projects that have been approved or that are under consideration in order to forecast how much worse it’s going to get before it can start getting better.
It may be obvious to the average citizen this needs to happen, but it won’t happen unless there is a real change in direction at City Hall.
ps. It’s ironic that in 1906, the year before the City was carved out of the District, a street trolley car system was started in North Vancouver that eventually took passengers from the foot of Lonsdale west to Capilano River and east to the end of Lynn Valley road. There were only 2,000 people living here at the time so it seems density wasn’t a much of a precondition as it is today.