2021-04-06 Summary

April 2021 HUB North Shore Committee regular meetings was held on on the 1st at 6:30pm - 8:30pm.

• Attendees: Don P. Peter S. Paul S. Mike C. Jonathan A. Erika R. .Dana B. Nadia F. Heather D. Giaccomo F. Fred R

Events - Fred/Tove

• Spring Go by Bike Week - May 31 to June 4 -
  • Online only, no Celebration stations

City of North Vancouver - Erika/Nadia

Esplanade Complete Street – Spring Engagement

• City is pushing back Esplanade consultation by a few weeks in order to incorporate more detail. Mo Bot will join the next HUB meeting on May 6th to provide a verbal update, present the design and gather input. In the meantime, update from Mo: "Esplanade is an important street that needs to serve many different people in many different ways. City of North Vancouver is advancing the preliminary detailed design of the Esplanade Complete Street corridor to ensure we are building a street that works better for everyone. Our proposed design rebalances the limited public space to achieve our design goals of:

Mobility Strategy

• Preliminary goals and strategies of the Mobility Strategy were presented to Council on March 8, and staff were given support to use this as the basis for community and stakeholder consultation.
• Visit the City’s Let’s Talk page to provide input and feedback. The deadline for feedback is Friday, April 30. https://letstalk.cnv.org/join-us-on-a-mobility-journey
  • It requires a login - discussion: This may discourage of some people, but improves quality of input.
  • Three sections.
• We will be meeting with City staff in April for high-level input
  • Q how does this relate to INSTEP/NEXTSP - no relationship
  • AI: Erika/Nadia - Get contact information on Zack. Confirm that he prime for INSTEP and bike share.

St Andrews Safety Improvements

• Making improvements along St Andrews from Keith Road to 13th Street.
  • This section of St Andrews is a wide, local street that is well-used by pedestrians, a designated bike route and an important connection to the Green Necklace, Lions Gate Hospital and other amenities.
  • Changes: sidewalk infill (on East side of the road) + traffic calming.
  • Timeline: summer 2021.
• Provide input: https://letstalk.cnv.org/st-andrews-safety-improvements-project
  • We plan to write an official letter to respond as well.
    • Agreed that we would prefer a slow(30Km) residential street (vs bike lanes)
    • suggest adding Plaza
  • Newer profile of bumps are not so bad. Stopping at 13th. May be thinking of it as a pilot.

Micromobility

• MOTI announced the approval of electric kick scooter pilot projects in six BC municipalities, including CNV, DNV and DWV.
• It is now up to local governments to pass bylaws to identify where these devices will be permitted in their municipality.
• Media release: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021TRAN0042-000523

1st Street

• Pooling areas fixed, paint is coming, no date provided yet.
• Work completed recently for the new letdown that was added on the south side of the mid-block crossing (near Rona).

ITC - Dana & Jonathan

• Not much to report. Meeting with ICBC and RCMP.
  • Qs: Degree of enforcement? Who is responsible and if they have a plan?

District of North Vancouver - Fred/Don

• Liaisons meeting regularly with Ingrid (DNV). Last meeting was Mar 30th.
  • discussed HUB Priorities and 2021 plans
  • Upper LV Road (Phase I) from TC to Peters Road in 2021. Expect DNV public consultation online in May
  • Peters to Dempsey planned for 2022 but may be included in Phase I. DNV expecting a lot of push back from community on upper LVR. Looking for HUB member support, especially from those living on this corridor.
  • Bridge replacement over Mosquito Creek to eliminate steps is a Parks Board project (not a cycling amenity) and time frame is unknown. There is a narrow at grade crossing some metres downstream connecting to a gravel path, more suitable to trail bikes.

Mtn. Hwy to Peters Road

• Currently in the design stage
  • HUB Liaisons have been asked to provide input
  • In general terms there will be a protected bike lane on both sides of Lynn Valley Rd as part of phase I. (Mountain Hwy to Peters Rd.)
  • Design looks promising, HUB provided feedback on intersections and signage
  • Will need to make sure that design meshes with plans for LV TC bike plans
  • LVR & Mtn Hwy intersection will get bike boxes with let down.
• Buffer posts on southern LVR will be installed by Valley Traffic. It is with a new base design.

Phibbs to Keith

• Brought up issues with Orwell (poor lane condition). Phibbs will be done before Orwell will be addressed. At this point all that could be done at Orwell at this time would be brush cleaning. DNV waiting for crushed road material (grindings) for pot holes.
• Travel by bike or on foot from Keith Rd. bridge to east Seymour via Fern Street Bridge is no more as this bridge has been demolished. The contractor has been slow to open travel over the new overpass connecting with Mt. Seymour Parkway.

Other

• AI: to ask about budget for missing Wayfinding signage
• Started discussion of adding protection to bike lanes on Mountain Highway south of the Hwy Overpass. DNV however is adverse to providing protection, pointing out that there are alternative safe routes when MoTI project is completed.

District of West Vancouver - Paul/Peter/Mike

• 26 March Meeting with Park Royal concerning HUB HQ's Bikeability Assessment
  • Hard to get from Taylor Way to PR. West Van cooperating with PR to improve this. Good news

• 31 March meeting DWV staff
• proposal by Councillor Thompson for a ciclovia on the first Sunday of each month. Generally positive reception.
• Cycling budget presently minuscule. Working on NEXT STEP agenda.
• Active transportation program is not on staff agenda. Need to lobby council.
• Marine drive cycling path - Hoping this will materialize this year in cooperation with DNV.
• DWV are removing center divider on Westmount Rd per Neill’s previous requests.
• Welch St bridge - lots of unhappiness with traffic diversions and congestion. Cycling detour is OK. Construction extending into July.

MOTI - Don/Jonathan

• Lower Lynn Interchanges - Monthly meeting
  • Mountain Hwy Interchange
    • 4m MUP along the north side westbound Mtn Hwy offramp will have 10 "refuges", so the hill will be a series of 10m 15% pitches with 2m flats (refuge). Should open in June/July.
    • The maze-gate on MUP between the bridges will be removed in next few weeks
  • Mt Seymour parkway/Keith Interchange
    • bike detour in place until June (to demolish old bridge and complete south side of new one)
    • New 4m wide MUP on side of Mt Seymour pkwy no open, new 3m one on south side will be completed by early June
  • Main-dollarton interchange
    • onramp to IWMB west sidewalk closed until July (detour via east sidewalk)
    • new 4m MUP on south side of main-dollarton will open in May/June
    • new 4m MUP on north side of main-dollarton should open in June
  • Phibbs exchange upgrade
    • Construction should should start in late summer

• BC Economic Recovery funding - Completed
  • started in Nov, must be spend by March!
  • HUB provided feedback to design team (Parsons) on near final design of Lynn Valley Rd underpass and Capilano Rd interchange
  • 3 North Shore Projects:
    • Lynn Valley Rd Underpass - Design only - reviewed 2nd draft, will incorporate may of our suggestions
      • have widened bikeway to 2.5m next to 2m pedestrian path, right though underpass
      • cross-ride + crosswalk added to intersection N of overpass
      • on-ramp slip-lane is removed and off-ramp corner sharpened to improve visibility and reduce speeds
    • Capilano Road interchange - Design only - reviewed 2nd draft, will incorporate may of our suggestions
      • They have widened the bikelanes on Capilano Road to 2.5m to allow passing (for much of the distance)
      • Asked for larger waiting spaces at intersection crossings & islands (NB)
      • Will have a separate meeting to discuss repairing & improving connection from North Intersection to North sidewalk and thus Hugo Ray in West van
    • Lion Gate Bridge improvements
      • barriers on both sides of the North end of the bridge have been extended a couple weeks ago.
        • AI: North end of Barrier needs fencing on top and ask if they can widen the path at this pinch point.
      • some improved wayfinding signage should be installed on the causeway.

• Lane Control upgrades on Lions Gate Bridge & Causeway
  • Initial meeting on 6-April -> work & closures in the summer

• Hwy 1 North Shore Corridor Study: Lynn Valley to Horseshoe Bay
  • Still waiting for draft report

Communications & Outreach - Heather/Antje/Giacomo/Paul

Planning

• Communications = Paul, Antje, Giacomo, Heather - let us know if there is something we should communicate about - blocked bike lanes, new infrastructure, etc.
• We are coordinating our approach to communications on groups.io, Facebook and Twitter
• Facebook and Twitter have increased in terms of numbers of followers and numbers of original posts
• Number of posts on FB up %169 | 200% increase in comments shares and likes.
• Number of posts on Twitter up 104% followers up 30 for total of 1311
• Targets are to double Facebook followers by Dec 2021 and add +300 to Twitter
• Commitment to send out 2 google group emails per week
• New North Van Rides episodes on Youtube - subscribe to Heather Drugge
• Call for comms topix
• Still looking for help with photos / videos

Developers - Fred/Paul & Peter

• Currently active:
  • West Van
    • Marine Drive
  • CNV
    • Habourside
  • DNV
    • Maplewood
    • Lynn Creek TC
      • Interesting redevelopment at Marie Place (off Crown St east of Mtn Hwy) in the Lynn Creek town Centre. DNV council allowed it to go to first reading at March 29 /2021 council meeting. Eleven single family homes to be replaced by two 6 storey apartments. Unique to the plan is to provide bicycle parking facilities on each floor of both buildings. The same developer owns a large property to the west bordering Mountain Hwy which includes the Dykoff Nursery lands for which they are hoping to get council approval. Mayor Little commented that these projects need wider support from the community for council to consider them. Those who spoke in favour tended to have a business relationship. HUB NS is aware that without large scale redevelopment Lynn Creek will not see better cycling infrastructure. A HUB member presence might make a difference. The concept of locating bike rooms in upper floors is gaining traction.