Esplanade Complete Street is Complete
The project provides a considerable upgrade to the active transportation infrastructure and streetscape along this busy commercial arterial street, making it safer and more comfortable for everybody travelling along it.
Protected Intersection of Esplanade and Chesterfield along with some fresh kermit…
It’s been great to see this project come to fruition in the City of North Vancouver. Final paving was completed while I was back in Europe, but I’ve now had the chance to take some photos and video riding along the complete complete street in the last few weeks. I hope you enjoy going through them and that they inspire similar transformations elsewhere.
It’s important to acknowledge that the impetus for this project was the tragic death of Michael Warren McIntosh. Michael swerved to avoid a car door opening while riding along the previous door zone bike lane and fell under the wheels of a passing truck, bringing the very real danger of such designs to everyones attention. The ghost bike in memory of Michael remains in the new design as a lasting reminder.
Memorial to Michael Warren McIntosh
Unfortunately, with so much legacy infrastructure, it’ll take decades to get all our streets truly close to the standard we strive for, but I think most cities, while at different stages, are striving to do that. Even the Dutch are still working on theirs, and they too still have many door zone bike lanes. North America is generally in the very early days of this journey to safer streets for everyone.
Today, at least on Esplanade, people riding bicycles and various other micromobility devices now have a much safer route along the corridor. The upgrades, to name a few, include an improved pedestrian realm with wider sidewalks and landscaping enhancements, raised bike paths behind the curb, buffered from both motor vehicle traffic and people walking in most parts, is wide enough to ride side-by-side or pass, and feature protected intersections that manage bicycle left turns from the raised bike paths in two stages.
Below are a series of photos I’ve taken in the last few weeks. You can click the images below to view at a larger size.
Alternatively, take a virtual ride along the corridor, first westbound, and then eastbound in the video below. Chapter markers will also take you to specific parts of the corridor.
If you’d like to see the before, and almost complete side by side, watch this video. I’ll update at some point with the video above. More information on the project can be found on the City’s project webpage here: https://letstalk.cnv.org/esplanade-complete-street