Dear Editor:
TransLink would have us believe that reducing traffic lanes by 50 per cent and prohibiting left-hand turns [in Ambleside and Dundarave, to accommodate the Marine-Main B-Line] will miraculously improve all traffic flow.
Perhaps it will help buses, but it ignores the majority of road users who have a valid right to be there. They continue to demonize cars but the B-Line is not going to take everybody where they have to go. What about all the commercial vehicles who deliver goods and services to our community? They will not benefit from this Draconian measure but will spend more time waiting to get to their customers. Setting aside half of your road for buses so that traffic lanes sit empty 80 per cent of the time is not the answer. We could use improved bus service that travels across the North Shore without having to transfer three times to get from North Vancouver to West Vancouver, but surely we do not have to give exclusive use of the only roadway to get it.
On a further note, what nitwit designed the Marine Drive sidewalk in front of the Grosvenor development? Most of the block is indented for parking use so that existing traffic lanes can continue past. The western corner however is bumped out and home to the bus stop where buses stop to pick up passengers and park their bus while they take a break. The result is gridlock for eastbound traffic on Marine Drive and those on 14th Street trying to make a right-hand turn onto Marine Drive every time there is a bus blocking the lane. It would have been so easy to indent this area for a bus stop in alignment with the rest of street during construction of the sidewalk, but now we are stuck with it and blame the cars instead.
S.J. Berry
North Vancouver
EDITOR’S NOTE: The District of West Vancouver is inviting its residents to provide their feedback and learn more about the proposal online at westvancouverite.ca/b-line.
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