Dear Editor:
I am writing again to address the many traffic problems along the 29th Street/Fromme Road/William and Shakespeare Avenues/Tennyson Crescent/Laura Lynn strata corridors.
Excessive speeding, blowing through stop signs, and near misses continue to be a problem in and around our neighbourhood. This is also, I must add, a neighbourhood without sidewalks.
Phone calls to community policing help temporarily, but no changes have been implemented by the District of North Vancouver to permanently mitigate the many speeding and traffic infractions in the more than 12 years we have lived in the area.
Many families with children are moving into the neighbourhood again. To reiterate: This is a neighbourhood without sidewalks. These are all streets that drivers use or attempt to use to avoid construction, school zones, or to find shortcuts to Lynn Headwaters.
The OCP addresses the need to make the DNV more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. However, this type of “livability” remains impossible without addressing the safety of the taxpayers and voters actually attempting to live in these regions without traffic/speed control and sidewalks, especially with increasing densification. Will someone have to die before the DNV implements better pedestrian infrastructure?
Kristin S. MacDonald
North Vancouver
Editor’s note: According to District of North Vancouver spokeswoman Stephanie Smiley, the district has completed a number of infrastructure upgrades to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety in Lynn Valley. Here’s the district’s response:
Most recently a new sidewalk was installed on the north side of East 29th Street providing a continuous length of sidewalk from Connaught Avenue to Lynn Valley Road. Curb bulges were installed at the intersection of William Avenue and East 29th Street to slow traffic and enhance the safety of pedestrians and cyclists crossing there; raised crosswalks, sidewalks and curb bulges were also installed along Fromme Road. Later this spring, the Lynn Valley Bike Lanes project will be finished, providing separated bike lanes from Mollie Nye Way to Morgan Road.
There are a limited number of sidewalks in the district because many of the residential streets were built in the 1950s and ’60s. To address that issue, the district developed a Pedestrian Master Plan to prioritize sidewalk installation projects. Higher volume streets are our priority allowing us to focus limited funds where they will have the greatest impact on public safety. If your street is not identified in the plan as a priority location for a new sidewalk, you can request that one be installed under the district’s local improvement program. If council supports your proposal the district will split the cost of installation with residents along your street.
Information on how to request a sidewalk or any other local improvement is available at dnv.org/local-improvements.
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