COVID-19: Traffic dropped by 57 % in areas of North Vancouver

As more people stayed and worked from home during COVID-19, traffic dropped by as much as 24 per cent on major bridges and even more than 50 per cent in some areas of North Vancouver.

The numbers were part of a COVID-19 supplement papers that were developed as part of District of North Vancouver’s targeted review.

Prepared by Urban Systems for DNV, the supplement papers base their findings on data obtained from the BC Ministry of Transportation.

This data indicates that between March 2019 and March 2020, average daily traffic volumes crossing the lronworkers Memorial Bridge and the Lions Gate Bridge decreased 24% and 28%, respectively.

The District’s traffic count program found a 57% reduction in traffic from pre-COVID volumes on Indian River Drive.

The City of Vancouver saw a 48 % decrease in traffic in and out of downtown and a 39% increase in traffic in and out of the city boundaries.

In April 2020, traffic was down 30-40% on Golden Ears, Pattullo, and Knight Street bridges as well.

However, daily traffic has now rebounded.

Data from MOTI shows that daily traffic volumes had returned to near pre-pandemic levels by June, while TransLink data for major regional bridges showed daily traffic volumes up to 93% of pre-COVID volumes by late summer.

Although daily traffic volumes have largely recovered, peak period, peak direction volumes remain lower than typical.

In September 2020, the volume of traffic crossing the lronworkers Memorial Bridge from North Vancouver to Vancouver in the morning peak period was down more than 20% from 2019 and the return trip in the afternoon peak hour was down around 15%.

Traffic volumes throughout the remainder of the day, however, have largely returned to pre-COVID levels.