Traffic and Emergencies

Traffic and Emergencies

The North Shore is like an island, connected to the rest of the Lower Mainland/Metro by two bridges and a Seabus service.

What happens during a state of emergency on one or both bridges? 

I'm not sure that the stophirises folk have delved much into Emergency Preparedness, but the North Shore Emergency Management Office has.

Near as I can tell from the DNV Emergency plan, evacuating North Vancouver doesn't seem to be a likely outcome in any of their scenarios. Given the lack of nuclear reactors and the fact that we're mostly well above sea level, I can't think of any emergency that would call for that kind of operation.

The reality is that evacuations happen on a building or, worst case, neighbourhood level, not whole cities. If resources need to be brought to one location or another there are already established Disaster Response Routes.

If both bridges are blocked it's usually a large nuisance, but not life threatening.

Now, if you're just complaining that sometimes the Second Narrows is crowded, well yeah. It's not like the hour and a half commutes Torontonians face, but it can be annoying.

But then again, those folks in Burnaby also face slow traffic commuting to downtown Vancouver.

In any event, traffic to, from, and in the District pales compared to most large cities.