June 17, 2001
Ken
Krueger
District of North
Vancouver
Transportation
Planning Department
355 W Queens Rd, V7N
4N5
Ph:
990-2450
Fax:
987-7185
I think the District
is going in totally the wrong direction with the current speed hump proposal.
The reality is that this will effectively reduce the speed limit on lower
Riverside to substantially below 50kph resulting in greater traffic congestion
than there already is.
Lower Riverside
drive is not just a residential street. It is an access road to a large number
of properties on Upper Riverside, Riverbank, Rivergrove, Treetop, Chapman Way,
Swinburne, and Edgewater. Rather than enforcing the existing speed limit the
district is attempting to lower it to a level that will slow access to a large
number of homes to an unacceptible level.
I wholeheartedly
support the sidewalk and lighting innitiatives. I would also like to see parking
allowed on only one side of the road along the entire length of Riverside. The
district would argue that this will result in higher speeds. I would argue that
this will result in greater public safety. There is substantial use of Riverside
Drive by cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists. Rather than making it easier
for traffic to flow up and down Riverside, the District is embarked on a course
to restrict the flow of traffic effectively increasing the conflict between the
various user groups. The District has been embarked on attempts at lowering the
speed below 50Kph for a number of years (aka 'traffic calming') and even
though it has been unpopular the entire time the District seems unwilling to
accept the fact that Lower Riverside Drive is an access road and should be
treated as such. At the moment there are still many sections of Riverside
where pedestrians are forced to walk on the road and cyclists find themselves
unable to move out of the way of cars due to the small space left when cars are
parked on both sides of the road. It seems that the District is paying greater
attention to a small number of property owners on Lower Riverside than to all
the other users of the road.
While the
engineering department spends significant time and tax dollars on studies and
various attempts to lower the speed limit below 50Kph there is still inadequate
street lighting, the sidewalk project which was halted last summer has still not
been resumed and there is a large section of uneven broken pavement on Riverside
below riverbank which has not been repaired in a number of
years.
I hope that common
sense prevails in this matter and that the District stops attempting to impead
the flow of traffic on Riverside Drive below the limit of 50Kph which it
currently is and which is the commonly accepted speed in it's other residential
areas.
Regards,
Bill
Maurer
2403 Riverside
Drive
North Vancouver, BC
V7H 1V8
Ph:
789-2172
Fax:
929-5795
cc. Mayor Don
Bell
Robert West-Sells,
Director of Engineering