District of West Vancouver is inviting the community to fill out a survey on a wayfinding plan that aims to increase visitors to the community.
The deadline to complete the survey is Monday, March 16, at 4 pm.
With the Community Wayfinding plan, District of West Van hopes to inform visitors about local areas of interest and draw regional visitors and tourists to the community.
The plan will also direct pedestrians, cyclists and motorists within the community and establish a wayfinding vocabulary and design for West Vancouver.
The district is working with the consulting team at Applied Wayfinding to prepare this plan. It is expected to be complete in the spring of 2020.
The community wayfinding is a key strategy of the district’s Economic Development Plan, which aims to position West Vancouver as a tourist destination.
Traditional signs, maps and diagrams, online and smartphone applications, interpretive information as well as environmental design are all part of wayfinding in a community.
Ambleside Dundarave Business Improvement Business Association (ADBIA) researched wayfinding as part of a pilot project in 2017.
ADBIA proposed 57 signs that would create four connected walking loops around Ambleside, Dundarave and the natural, waterfront attractions in West Vancouver.
The District helped the ADBIA to install arrival and street maps, although other ideas including fingerposts and nudges are yet to be implemented.
West Vancouver will take the research generated by ADBIA into consideration in this new plan.
How about a ferry/water taxi service to Dundarave. No one wants to brave the Lions Gate Bridge
Good initiative to make some of our lesser known beaches, parks and attractions better known to visitors. But first there needs to be a survey of parking and a cost for the need to provide spots for cars. We cannot offer to a wider audience without ensuring a chance to park near the attractions.
Other than directing people to our most treasured ‘secret beaches’, many of which are tide-dependent, um, sorry, what are these signs pointing to, exactly?
Whyte Lake has been heavily advertised as a local and international tourist ‘hot spot’ for years. While serviced adequately by an expanded parking lot, the trail itself has been utterly decimated by high user traffic, severe weather and increasingly wide-spread erosion. How about spending some money on trail maintenance? (or was that budget eaten by the industrial-strength dock).
Build something new, WV, ANYTHING, a wee place to rent some low-risk, well-loved colonial past times like kites! or hoop-rolling! on Ambleside beach, and then a sign would be merited! But for now, people can find the beach just fine without the district spending millions on signs and sign consultants.
Thankfully, as we approach the firey edge of this flat earth, we are looking at better housing options in the near future which will hopefully ensure more population density. Without it, there will never be a restaurant open past 6pm, a decent shop that can afford its own rent, and all of us will be sitting double-parked in the Whyte Lake lot, because we followed the only sign that pointed to anything.
Unfortunately, people cause problems, too many people cause chaos! Advertising to come in to West Vancouver to use the facilities is really short sited. There is no parking as it is for people who live and pay taxes here, no room on the picnic tables for the people who live and pay the taxes here, it is no longer ‘the Place of Excellence’ it once was but the place of grid lock. Built it, advertise and they will come. Many of our attractions require the use of vehicles, is that sensible for Climate Change? I wish our Municipal employees were ‘practical’ thinkers and not what it seems, that they are trying to provide more paperwork…..
More recreation facilities? A splendid idea. More visitors ? Who benefits? Certainly not our local community which is facing ever higher property taxes but more traffic congestion ,limited parking space and so it appears less maintenance of existing facilities. Most popular is our Sea Walk ,lot’s of signs but hardly any enforcement of the regulation. Dogs, bicycles, skaters, smokers all are not supposed to use the Sea Walk but more and more people disregard the signs. We do not want to live in a police state but rules are necessary if all members of the community want to equally enjoy our recreational facilities. There is a fine of 120$ for cycling on the Sea Walk mentioned on one ! sign only. Other signs of violations don’t even mention a fine. Before we invite more people to use our beautiful recreational facilities, let’s make sure we can maintain them well (dog walk is in a horrific state) and the rules of using them are clear and enforceable and enforced respectively.