Residents lined up to castigate West Vancouver council Monday night for even considering residential towers at Park Royal — the nexus of the worst bottleneck on the North Shore.
Who can blame them? We weep when thinking of the staggering loss of human potential that is sitting in vehicles idling on Taylor Way.
But what was the response at the same meeting to a new 500-acre mountainside village off Cypress Bowl Road? Crickets. Tumbleweeds.
It’s not like the Cypress Village residents will be travelling downtown via the world’s longest zipline — although, how cool would that be?
Even if it is densely designed with a commercial hub and transit access, it is no less urban sprawl. Yet only the towers proposal drew scorn from residents.
With its purposely reduced parking, and the Spirit Trail, shopping, entertainment and frequent bus service just steps away, we anticipate far less traffic impacts will come from the Park Royal plan than the Cypress Village one.
Taking a step back and looking at this, we must point out an apparent theme in the discourse on the North Shore: People who live in multi-family housing are blamed for traffic that plagues commuters who come from single-family neighbourhoods. Sorry, but that doesn’t wash.
If you’re stuck in a bottleneck, you aren’t a victim of traffic. You are traffic — regardless of what kind of home you live in. And the only people you can’t blame are the ones who take transit, walk or ride a bike.
