How cycling is going in the District of North Vancouver

The District is talking about removing a bike lane and deferring cycling projects.

 · 2 min read
 · Andy McKay

The District of North Vancouver is discussing removing the bike lane on 29th Street. Unsurprisngly lead by Councilors Lisa Muri, Betty Forbes and Mike Little on removing part of the bike lane.

Current news is that the District will spend $200k to remove or alter the bike lane to provide 8 parking spots. So that's $25k per parking spot to allow storage of private property on public land, reducing access for everyone else. This is a reminder that free parking isn't free and is a choice by municipalities for tax payers to subsidise parking 1.

If you are thinking that perhaps this project was put in hastily or without public consultation, this project took over 3 years from public engagement to completion 2, so it didn't happen overnight.

At the same time the District is looking at deferring or delaying more bike lanes.

This includes delaying the Spirit Trail. The Spirit Trail is meant to be:

Winding its way along our scenic waterfront, the North Shore Spirit Trail is truly a City treasure as a fully accessible 35km greenway that will extend from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove

City of North Vancouver, Source

The City of North Vancouver has done a great job on the Spirit trail and should be lauded for the work they've done. The District of North Vancouver has done nothing and it stops at the City boundary.

This means there is no safe way to cycle to Deep Cove, one of Vancouvers most popular tourist locations. A spot that every year is overrun by cars. It's the number one complaint and issue in Deep Cove and repeatedly the District asks people to cycle and then provides no safe way to do it.

The Spirit Trail has been delayed since its first proposal in 2007.

The summary: the District seems to be going all the wrong directions. If you feel none of this makes sense, feel free to contact the councillors at 3:

Or as Eli Mallin put it:

  1. This podcast gives an excellent overview of the costs of free parking ↩

  2. Slide 17 of this presentation ↩

  3. I emailed all these candidates recently and only Jordan Back took the time to reply. Since I cycle or walk past Mike Little's house everyday, perhaps I should drop a letter off in person instead. ↩