“Thank you for your messages regarding the continued disruption for pedestrians and cyclists trying to use the Green Necklace adjacent the construction site at 21st and Eastern. City staff are monitoring the site multiple times each weekday and share your frustration. Our efforts so far have not been effective so we will continue to escalate enforcement actions to ensure compliance from this construction site.” – CNV
I don’t know much about much, but I’ll share two things I learned for certain this week. Firstly, the City Of North Vancouver’s (CNV) fines for bylaw infractions are significantly too low – how much are they? I have no idea, but I’ll get to that.
The other thing I learned is that Darwin Construction is “committed to community” on their terms only. They’ll violate the shit out of the agreed upon mobility strategy for their construction site, and put members of the community at risk, to save a buck and make things more convenient for them.
I e-mailed photos to the City Of North Vancouver on Friday after attempting to navigate the Green Necklace greenway on bicycles with my eight-year-old. As I noted previously, Darwin Construction has already taken over the permanent paved section of the Green Necklace for their construction project, and in it’s place a temporary bike & pedestrian lane was erected featuring vertical paint (cones) and signage.
Then, without permission from the city, Darwin started using said temporary bike lane to store construction materials, stage and operate heavy machinery, and park vehicles.
On Tuesday morning I received a note from the CNV that bylaw officers had visited the site on Monday morning, issued a bylaw infraction, and that “staff will continue to work with the site to ensure that they provide safe access around the construction site for Green Necklace users and the general public.”
In return, I sent a photo from Monday evening that included heavy equipment staged in the Green Necklace lane.
Before you cry foul of my attempts to impede progress I’d like to make a couple of notes. Firstly, Darwin Construction has complete access to their construction site from the west side (Lonsdale Ave). Their pirating of the safest pedestrian and bicycle route in the area is simply cold & calculated convenience.
Also, the temporary 21st and Eastern Ave Green Necklace greenway is part of the mobility plan they agreed to for their construction project. If this project couldn’t go ahead without putting vulnerable road users at risk, or otherwise relocating the greenway that should have been part of the planning phase of this project.
Also, at the start of this experience a cyclist was killed two blocks away by a dump truck driver servicing another construction site just eleven days earlier. Clearly the company didn’t take even a second to consider what types of similar risks they were putting onto the community.
A miraculous thing happened when I rode home from my job wrenching on the 23rd. Not only was the Green Necklace clear on both Eastern Ave and E 21st but there was even someone from the site sweeping construction detritus out of it with a push broom. Crazy.
Did the city threaten a stop work order? Did those tens of dollars in fines finally add up? Did Darwin Construction choose to do the right thing for the community? Will people be parking in the Green Necklace again come Monday?! I have no idea. But I’ll let you know.
Why do I bother? Three reasons:
1) I want to take my kid riding, from our door, around our neighbourhood and this is the safest route.
2) It’s proven time and again that many folks do not run errands and otherwise cycle around the city because they’re afraid of interfacing with cars. Infrastructure like this is so important to changing mobility choices.
3) The CNV and Darwin Construction have agreed to keep this route open during their construction project and clearly need to be held accountable by someone in the community. I’m someone in the community.
Your Death’s Not A Crime:
-Just Take That Fucking Door, Andrew
-Your Death Is Not A Crime (It’s A Cycling Accident)
-We Came Out Of Nowhere (Your Death’s Not A Crime Pt. 2)