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NEWS photo Paul McGrath

ARE traffic fights just around the corner? The intersection of Garden Avenue and Hope Sireet in North
Vancouver currently features a traific circle and four-way stop signs. The intersection has made headlines
since the mid-1980s when area residents protested the use of Garden Avenue as a commuter thoroughfare.

Andrew MsCredie
“Editor andrew@nsnews.com

<T could be a case of we never
promised you a calm Garden,

In what could very well be the only
intersection ir: the wortd with both a traftic
circle and four-way stop signs, the Garden
Avenue-Hope Street. crossroad -in North
Vancouver has preven quite a chaiienge to
district traffic engineers who have wrestled
with problems posed by the popular com-
muter shortcut for more than a decade.

Despite efforts of the engineers, some
area residents continue to voice their dissat-
istaction with those solutions. The fight

dates back to 1986 when angry residents.

took to the streets and blocked rush-hour
traffic on Garden Avenue for three straight
days (the result of that protest was the elim-
ination of left hand-turns onto Capilano
Road from the north end of Garden
Avenue).

The latest salvo in this street squabble
was fired by Garden Avenue resident Dalia
Gortlieb*Tanaka at district. councii’s
Monday night meeting.

“The excessive speed and volume causes
residents to retreat into their hemes and if
they are lucky to their backyards,”
Gottlieb-Tanaka read from a prepared let-

gns for circie-chall

Traffic circle proves
too much for some

ter to council. “This cut-through trattic is a
threat to the security and the social strue-
tare of any neighbourhood.”

Garden Avenue connects Marine Drive
and Capilano Road, and many drivers use
the residential street to avoid the congested
and awkward Marine Drive-Capilano Road
intersection.

Neighbourhood fears of a traffic fatality
were realized in June, 1997 when 40-vear-
old Douglas Folk was killed when a Toyora
4X4 ran the stop sign at Hope Road and hit
Folk’s van as he ‘travelled along Garden
Avenue.

Area residents called fur an outright clo-
sure of access to Garden Avenue from
Capilano Road, but according tw district
manager Gavin "Joyce, such a move would
create even bigger problems at the already
over-taxed Capilano Road-Marine Drive
intersection.

“Even with the traffic calming measures
we've installed, over a 24-hour period you
have more than 6,000 cars using Garden
Avenue,” Joyce said. If Garden Avenue was
closed off at Capilano Road, he said, the
majority of those vehicles would cause fur-

ther gridiock at the Capilano Road-Marine
Drive intersection.

In the aftermath of the 1997 fatality, the
district’s solution was to install something
called trattic calmers, incorporating a traffic
circle (like those used across Europe) and
extended curbs on Garden Avenuc on
cither side of Hope Street.

Joyce said that before the traffic calmers
were installed (including the traffic circle,
and extended curbs on Garden Avenue),
about 70% of cars on Garden Avenue trav-
elled under 50 kim-k.

“And after the traffic calming, 92% of

the vehicles travel under 50 km-h,” Joyce
reported. “We also know on the vehicular
volumes, there has been an 11% decrease in
the average daily trattic using the street.”

So why the four-way stop? According to
Joyce, too many drivers were not yielding
while going around the traffic circte.

“We watched it, we studied it and
although we were very pleased that a large
percentage of people in the district obeyed
the right-of-way requirements of the traffic
circle, there was still a sizeable percentage
of people who caused us concern,” ke said.

joyce added that the four-way stop sig-
nage — installed in December — has
reduced speeds on Garden Avenue, and
that as far a3 his staff is concerned the issue
was closed.

Friday, February 5, 1999 — North Shore News — 34

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