Push to include pedestrians in design

REPRESENTATION FROM a school principal,
the president of the Society Promoting

. Environmental Consideration (SPEC) and the
Lower Capilano Steering Committee has finally
succeeded in convincing North Vancouver District
Council to ask for bicycle and pedestrian access to
the new Upper Levels Highway interchange at
Westview Drive.

NORTH VANCOUVER
DISTRICT COUNCIL
By Martin Millerchip

SPEC president Paul Hundal initially appeared before

council last November to ask for its support for a cycle
lane in the planning of the Westview interchange.
There is presently a bicycle lane alongside the Upper
Levels Highway from Horseshoe Bay to Capilano Road.
; But while the councils of West Vancouver and North
‘Vancouver City agreed in November to support Hundal's
‘request to the highways department, North Vancouver
District referred the matter to a committee to be headed by
"a bicycle co-ordinator who has yet to be hired.

On Monday night council hastily agreed to support the
request after Hundal reminded council that, under a new
provincial tendering process already under way, the con-
sortium that builds the interchange will also design it.

Cathy Adams, representing the Lower Capilano .

» Steering Committee, told council that it “must be on
record as supporting the need for a safe route for pedestri-
ans and bicycles along Highway 1.”

: Adams said the route along the highway is the one cho-

‘sen. by the majority of the 150 students who live in
Pemberton Heights and attend Carson Graham secondary

the much longer walk down to Marine Drive and back up
Larsen Road.

“When the Ministry of Transportation and Highways
(MoTH) hetd an open house for the public in’ late
November drawings for. the Westview interchange did
include provision for pedestrians and bicycles.

“However, many of us auending the open house were
left with the impression that there was nota clear com-
mitment from the provincial governmeat in this regard.”

‘said Adams.

Capilano clementary school principal Lowell Jackie
also described the partial walkway used by students and
others as “extremely dangerous.”

While concrete crash barriers protect a narrow hard
shoulder for some of the route, pedestrians and cyclists are
forced right next to highway traffic at one point.

“This is an opportunity. because we'll be living with
this for decades. It's imperative that we have something in
place.” said Jackie,

Council took the unusual step of adding the delega-
tion's request to the Monday night agenda and subse-
quently approved Coun. Don Bell's motion to request that
MoTH include provision for pedestrians and cyciists
“from Capilano Road east through the Westview inter-
change."

Bell said he was aware that the difficulty of getting
from Pemberton Heights to Westview was compounded
by the deep ravines in the area and that the ministry should
recognize that the community had been divided by the
original construction of the highway.

Coun. Janice Harris pointed to the loss of the pedestri-
an footbridge across the highway at St. Andrews during
construction of the Lonsdale underpass and the lack of the
bicycle access to the Cassiar connector.

“The highways department has a record of betraying

pedestrians and cyclists in the past. Is it only the car that .

counts? We've got to make room for alternate modes of

NEWS photo Yerry Peters
SOCIETY PROMOTING Environmental Consideration (SPEC) ~
president Paul. Hundai successfully lobbied North Vancouver

“school, '

i

» The alternative is a two-bus public transit journey or

Cigarette smoke

thick at school

‘SIX NORTH Vancouver high

, schools have cigarette smoking
" populations greater than the aver-
age percentage of adults who
smoke: on: the North Shore,
according to a recent survey.

: By Anna Marie D’Angelo|
‘News Reporter

“The survey: was conducted last

* spring by North Shore Health staff’

anda group of North Vancouver
- Students from the. various high
, schools, Data from the North Shore
fouth Jor. Health survey was com-
‘piled in August.
:h¢ "The: numbers. didn’t surprise
me’ at the high school level,” said
Sandy, Mann, a Sutherland’ sec-
; ondary. .Grade .12 student involved
~in the survey, 0-0,
4 The elementary level surprised
me. where some people started in
ade’*5,""added the non-smoker
Who .is.-a° member of the North
‘Shore Youth Action Council.
According to the survey, by age
ight, one in 10 of the smokers had
tried their first cigarette. By age 12,
60% of the smokers had tried their
first cigarette. .
“*. North Shore Health representa-

tive Deb Jones said about 20% of | .
indicates that cigarette-smoking

“adults on the North Shore smoke
_ cigarettes. ;

* The. high schools where smok-
‘ing populations were higher than
local adult smokers are:

@ Carson Graham secondary, 36%
(about double the adults); ~

@ Saint Thomas Aquinas high
: school, 26%;

# Seycove Community secondary,
26%;

fi Windsor secondary, 24%;
Argyle secondary, 22%;

@ Keith Lynn Altemate secondary |

(KLAS), 74%.

Just under the percentage of that of
North Shore adult smokers are:

Ef Sutherland secondary, 19%;

&@ Handsworth secondary, 18%:

@ Balmoral junior secondary, 18%. .

The number of students. sur-

“veyed at each school ranged from

11} to 240, except at KLAS where
38 students participated.

North Vancouver School
District. 44 has 6,245 students: in
Grades 8 to 12.

“There are a lot of cessation.
programs for adults, but there aren’t
that many for kids. And there is
nothing on the North Shore for kids
right now,” said Jones.

She said an eight-week teen

smoking cessation program called
Kick the nic:was developed bya
group of youths in Port Alberni.
The program has been tried in other.
areas of the province on a trial’
basis.

Meanwhile - the local survey

girls outnumber their male counter-
parts. But the boys who smoke out-
puffed the girls in the number of
smokes they inhaled daily.

transportation,” said Harris.
¢ Please see editorial on page 6.

THE ABDUCTION of Surrey
resident Melanie Carpenter, the
suspected victim of convicted
sex offender Fernand Auger,
has lit a fuse under independent
West Vancouver MLA David
Mitchell and his constituents.

By lan Noble
News Reporter
Mitchell has written to Reform

Party of. Canada leader. Preston
Manning to enlist his aid in calling

for tougher accountability for the .

parole board and ending statutory
early release.
» Mitchell said although’ police had
to press time .no . proof that
Carpenter's abduction was by Auger,
“the public believes there is enough
circumstantial evidence to say Auger
was our man, and therefore the
parole system has failed again,” he
said.

Carpenter, 23, was kidnapped

from a Surrey tanning salon Jan. 6 -

and has not been seen since. Auger,
who was convicted of sexual assault,
theft and buggery, was photographed
withdrawing $300 from Carpenter's
account soon after she disappeared.

He committed suicide in southem
Alberta last week.

Mitchell said he -has received
reaction from dozens of. outraged
residents upset that Auger was
released after serving two-thirds of
his sentence, the maximum required
under current law.

“I think that law is absolutely
ludicrous.” he said.

Distvict Council to support bicycle and pedestrian access to the
planned Upper Levels Highway Westview ‘Interchange. : :

He added
the! justice
system
should not
let danger-

ous offend--

ers out
before . serv-
ing their full
sentences.

The “lib-
eral” ‘justice
system
believes in concepts like parole and
rehabilitation for dangerous offend-
ers, he said, even! though evidence
shows ‘half of dangerous offenders
will offend again within two to three
years of release. |

He-said his constituents do not
believe violent’ offenders ‘should
receive parole or ‘statutory early
release.

Mitchell wants parole: boards
granting early release. to violent
offenders who reoffend to be held
accountable, which would force
them to err on the side of caution, he
said.

. He said the justice system worries
too much about the rights of danger-
ous offenders over the safety of the
public.

“That's why there is so little con-
fidence in our corrections systems
today,” Mitchell said. '

He said both federal and provin-
cial parole boards are letting people
out too early.

DAVID Mitchall ...
law “ludicrous.”

Mitchell : said politicians of all”

stripes and levels must work together
to support , reform of the system. To
that.end, he wrote to Manning Jan.
17 and asked the leader of the “real”

Opposition to ‘ ‘turn up ‘the heat‘on nthe
federal parole. board /and their gov-’
emment masters who write these ,
insané-laws, °°. “7

“It’s time -at_the. very feast to.
demand resignations from -those.in |: -:

charge both at the’ parole board.level. .

and. in the.public’ service and i in the

[
i
ul

wi

federal cabinet.”/
:Provincially,: Mitchell said he has —
tried to get attorney-general Colin

Gabelmann to address the i issue, but |

has hit a “dead end.”.-

‘Premier Mike Harcourt has sent a
letter to. Prime: Minister Jean’
Chretien. urging 3 action by Ottawa to
stop high-risk violent offenders from
finding fresh victims.

Meanwhile, Mitchell said that

oe

i
f
i
t

Hoos
Ps

two North Shore residents who are. , |

suspects, in’ a triple ‘murder in
Bellevue, Washington have an oblig-

ation to ‘cooperate ’ with American.

_ police. '

He ‘ said’. he would: monitor’
whether the current laws governing
cross-border crime become an obsta--
cle to justice, but he does not think”

_ they currently do.

However, « Bellevue ‘Police
spokesman -Lieut. Jack. McDonald
said the two suspects, who were 18.”
and 19 years old when the July 1994
murder occurred, have not been
cooperative.

Police have tried to obtain hair
and blood samples from the two, but

because they are in Canada the U.S.-"

based police have not been able to

get the samples, McDonald said.
Mitchell said differences in jus-

tice systems have not stopped justice

. from. being served in the past,

although they may slow the process...

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