Safe Mobility Strategy

City of North Vancouver

Safe Mobility Strategy

ABOUT THE STRATEGY

A safe mobility network is foundational to creating a healthy and people-oriented City where everyone has safe, comfortable, convenient, and reliable access to work, school, and other destinations we need to travel to every day.

Every year, there are approximately 10 collisions on streets across the City of North Vancouver that result in a serious injury or fatality. Countless other incidents or near misses go unreported.

Everyone has a role to play in reducing the risk of collisions and incidents on City streets, especially those that result in serious injuries or fatalities. The Safe Mobility Strategy lays out the City of North Vancouver’s commitment to improving the safety of City streets for all users through proactive strategies and supporting actions in line with Vision Zero: the principle that serious injuries and fatalities on City streets, sidewalks and pathways are unacceptable and preventable and that the City’s transportation system can be designed to minimize the risk that collisions end in a serious injury or fatality.

The City will use the Safe Mobility Strategy as a policy to help guide and prioritize how we will work with our partners and key stakeholders and with the City’s available budgetary and personnel resources, to design safe streets and intersections, deliver community education and programs, undertake enforcement, and collect and make use of data to support our actions.

The Safe Mobility Strategy builds on a multiyear process to examine the key factors contributing to safety issues on our streets, explore proven practices and actions that help to improve safety, and learn from key stakeholders to ensure strategies make sense for the needs of our community. Council endorsed the Safe Mobility Strategy in July 2020.

Vision & Goal +

Principles +

Safety Context +

THE BIG MOVES

WHAT WE WILL DO TO MAKE OUR STREETS SAFE

DESIGN SAFE STREETS +

Make changes to the design and features of City streets, intersections, and curb space to reduce the risk for conflicts by providing more space, separation and protection for the growing variety of ways people use to get around.

ENCOURAGE SAFE SPEEDS +

Promote speeds that are appropriate for the type of street or pathway through lower speed limits and street design changes – like narrower streets, speed bumps, landscaping, and other treatments.

PROMOTE SAFE BEHAVIOUR +

Support development of a range of community outreach and education campaigns, targeted enforcement, and new regulations to foster a culture of safe mobility.

BE EVIDENCE-BASED & ACCOUNTABLE +

Prioritize actions and interventions in the right areas by collecting better data through new tools and partnerships to increase our understanding of safety issues on our streets and reporting back to the community regularly on our progress to meeting our vision and goal for safe mobility.

Design Safe Streets +

The Big Moves

Design Safe Streets

By designing a predictable mobility network that protects, separates, and makes people more visible to each other, the City can promote safe behaviour, reduce conflicts, and prevent collisions before they occur.

Actions

Design Safe Streets

provide safe and protected space on our streets for the growing variety of ways we move around

Street, sidewalk and curb space across the City is limited and needs to be allocated to meet the safety needs of a growing variety of ways people, goods and services move around. Key actions the City will pursue to support this strategy include:

a. Expand the City’s network of protected mobility lanes.

Mobility lanes include a range of infrastructure and facilities designed to separate and physically protect slower moving modes, like bicycles, scooters, and skateboards, from automobiles and pedestrians. The City will prioritize mobility lane investments on corridors that have high demand and connect key destinations.

b. Increase the availability of dedicated passenger and commercial loading zones.

Dedicated loading zones provide a safe space for vehicles to pull out of the street when picking up or dropping off people and goods. The City will prioritize establishing new or redesigning existing loading spaces in key locations in the City’s most congested areas, where demand for curb space is highest and the risk of conflict is greatest.

c. Deliver a more complete and comfortable sidewalk network.

The City will focus on providing a complete sidewalk network on both sides of all streets within a reasonable walking distance (typically 400-metres) of all key pedestrian areas and destinations in the City, prioritizing investments around schools, community centres, and frequent transit corridors. The City will prioritize improving the quality of existing narrow sidewalks on our busiest pedestrian corridors.

d. Create more people-focused streets and blocks.

The City will look to temporarily restrict or close key streets or areas to motorized traffic during times when there are high volumes of people walking, riding, and rolling on streets.

e. Make investments to improve designated walking and rolling routes to schools.

In recent years, the City has worked with schools across our community to identify designated routes for children and guardians to travel to school using non-motorized ways. Moving forward, we will identify further interventions needed to improve these routes through elements such as gateway signage and wayfinding, traffic diverters, traffic management.

f. Maintain safe and direct routes for people walking or cycling in and around construction and special event areas.

The City will require the provision of direct, unobstructed and where possible protected routes for people walking or cycling as part of the permitting process for construction and development, special events and public works.

minimize the potential for conflict where different users come together

Over two-thirds of all reported collisions in the City occur at intersections.1,2 Making intersections safer is a key area the City will focus on to make our streets safer. Key actions the City will pursue to support this strategy include:

a. Increase the separation and protection of different users at our busiest intersections.

The City will work to expand the use of measures like pedestrian/cyclists-activated traffic signals, dedicated and protected turning signal phases, centerline medians, “no right turn on red” restrictions, and advanced pedestrian and cycling crossing signals at intersections that have high volumes of people using different modes and making different movements.

make it easier to see and be seen when travelling on our streets.

The visibility of people, vehicles and infrastructure under all conditions is a critical element of a safe mobility network. This is especially important where extended periods of rain, fog, and darkness can create challenging conditions on our streets. Key actions the City will pursue to support this strategy include:

a. Increase the quality of lighting on streets and paths.

The City will provide new or upgraded LED streetlight fixtures, prioritizing investments at poorly-lit intersections and along key arterial streets with high traffic volumes.

b. Increase the visibility of street features, like signs and road markings.

We will make use of retroreflective tape, paint and similar measures to make travel lanes, medians, crosswalks, signage and other features of the mobility system more visible under all conditions, through regular maintenance and targeted investments, especially on busy arterial corridors and intersections with high traffic volumes.

Encourage Safe Speeds +

The Big Moves

Encourage Safe Speeds

Speed is a fundamental factor in the severity of a crash or collision. A person walking or rolling hit by a car travelling at 50 km/h has only a 10% chance of survival. The same person hit by a car travelling at 30 km/h has a 90% chance of survival. The faster a person is travelling, the less time they have to react to avoid a collision, and the more severe any resulting injuries will be. Vehicles have the ability to travel at high speeds, but so too do an increasing number of electric-assist modes like e-bicycles and e-scooters. Speed should not put others – especially more vulnerable persons – at increased risk of harm.

Actions

Encourage Safe Speeds

set speed limits to fit the street context

The appropriate speed limit for a given street should depend on the use and function of the street and the risk experienced by those who use it. Slower speed limits in key areas of the City send a signal that extra care and caution is needed. The City has already taken steps to set speed limits at 30 km/h on streets immediately adjacent to most schools, parks and designated bike routes. Key actions the City will pursue to support this strategy include:

a. Establish more 30 km/h speed limit zones.

The City will work with the RCMP to reduce speed limits in additional areas of the City with high volumes of vulnerable road users and higher risk for conflicts and collisions. Priority areas for slower speed limits may include local streets in expanded zones around schools, parks and community centres, and commercial areas with high volumes of vulnerable persons.

encourage slower speeds through street design

Designs that promote slower speeds include narrow streets, medians, speed bumps, and others treatments. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to designing slower streets and pathways so interventions need to work for the surrounding context and minimize impacts on emergency service access. Key actions the City will pursue to support this strategy include:

a. Make more use of low-cost, temporary measures to slow speeds on streets and pathways at key locations.

Permanent changes to streets, pathways and curbs have high costs and require significant planning. Using temporary interventions like paint, rubber curbs and planters will allow the City to do more with less and work with users and neighbours to understand impacts and effect before making permanent changes. Where appropriate, the City will prioritize implementing pilots or temporary interventions to slow speed on streets or pathways with high occurrences of speeding.

b. Leverage redevelopment to create conditions for slower streets.

We will proactively assess opportunities arising from redevelopment or public works on local and collector streets to deliver design interventions that create slower speeds.

Promote Safe Behaviour +

The Big Moves

PROMOTE SAFE BEHAVIOUR

The behaviour and decisions of individuals can play a significant role in collisions and incidents on our streets. Tackling the conditions that create risky behaviours through education, awareness-building, regulations and enforcement helps support and complement efforts to design safe streets.

Actions

PROMOTE SAFE BEHAVIOUR

deliver and support a comprehensive suite of safe mobility education and awareness initiatives

The City and our partners have a number of on-going programs and campaigns aimed at bringing awareness to safe mobility and travel options. These programs are a primary touch-point with the community and help promote safe travel behavior. Key actions the City will pursue to support this strategy include:

a. Collaborate with partners on safety outreach and awareness-building campaigns.

ICBC, the North Vancouver RCMP, North Vancouver School District, and others deliver regular campaigns to educate and inform all types of users about safe travel behaviour. These include campaigns focused on distracted driving, intersection safety, and speeding. The City will seek to regularly support and partner in these programs.

b. Launch a safety campaign focused on building awareness of new micro-mobility and electric-assist ways of getting around on our streets.

Electric-assist bicycles are becoming more common on our streets. Electric-assist scooters, skateboards and others are likely to grow in popularity in the near future. The City will develop a refocused Look Think Go campaign – our on-going road safety program – to build awareness of these new ways of getting around, the rules and regulations that apply to them, and considerations all road users need to keep in mind to travel safely on increasingly busy streets.

c. Continue to deliver youth-oriented programs around safe and active travel to school.

The City has a long history of working with the North Vancouver School District and individuals schools to develop active school travel plans and initiatives. The City will continue to partner with the School District to deliver these programs to ensure students gain confidence in using active ways to travel.

update city street regulations and increase coordination of enforcement strategies

Rules and regulations about how to travel safely establish what behaviours on our street are acceptable. Enforcing the rules and regulations of travelling on our streets and sidewalks requires partnership and collaboration between the City and the RCMP. Key actions the City will pursue to support this strategy include:

a. Update City Bylaws to reflect the safety needs of a more diverse range of vulnerable road users.

The City will review and update the City’s Street and Traffic Bylaw and other regulations, to improve the way the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and other new and non-motorized ways of getting around are accounted for and communicated.

b. Coordinate with partners to focus safety enforcement on the key contributing factors of collisions and at key locations across the City.

The City will do this by working closely with the RCMP and ICBC to regularly review safety and collision reports and data to determine where enforcement resources should be prioritized and deployed.

c. Support expanded use of automated enforcement.

In British Columbia, municipalities do not have the jurisdiction to install or use red light cameras or other types of automated enforcement without provincial approval. The City will work with the North Vancouver RCMP and Provincial Government to explore opportunities to expand the use of automated enforcement tools, where appropriate./p>

Be Evidence-Based & Accountable +

Next Steps

ACTING ON THE COMMITMENTS IN THIS STRATEGY

Work to deliver on the strategies and actions outlined in this Strategy begins now. Safety cannot wait and the City will move as quickly as possible, with our available resources, to make progress towards achieving our vision and goal of reducing the risk and incidences of serious injury or death on our transportation system. In delivering the Strategy, the City commits to:

COLLABORATE

We will work with the public, our partners and key stakeholders, including the RCMP, North Vancouver City Fire Department, North Vancouver School District, ICBC, and Vancouver Coastal Health to ensure we properly account for other needs and considerations.

COMMUNICATE

We will be clear and transparent about when and why strategies and actions are being delivered.

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Safe Mobility Strategy

City of North Vancouver