Do you support re-aligning municipal and regional transportation plans and investments to meet the provincial government’s CleanBC target to “reduce distances travelled in light-duty vehicles by 25% by 2030 compared to 2020? 1
Do you support making the default speed limit 30 km/h for streets without centrelines?
Specific questions by municipality:
Central Saanich: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate your active transportation plan? 2
Colwood: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate your active transportation plan? 3
Esquimalt: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate your active transportation plan? 4
Oak Bay: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate the Oak Bay Active Transportation Strategy? 5
Highlands: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to create an active transportation plan and then accelerate its completion?
Langford: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to create an active transportation plan and then accelerate its completion? 6
Metchosin: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to create an active transportation plan and then accelerate its completion? 7
North Saanich: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate your active transportation plan? 8
Saanich: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate the Saanich 2018 Active Transportation Strategy? 9
Sidney: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate the Draft Sidney Active Transportation Network Plan once competed? 10
Sooke: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate the walking, rolling, cycling and public transit parts of the Transportation Master Plan? 11
View Royal: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate the draft Active Transportation Network Plan once competed? 12
Victoria: Do you commit to budgeting sufficient funds to accelerate the walking, rolling, cycling and public transit parts of Go Victoria? 13
Do you support using neighbourhood-wide traffic calming to create low traffic neighbourhoods with much lower traffic volume with quick build materials? 14
How would you support making walking safer and more enjoyable in your municipality?
Do you support building a network of all ages and abilities (“AAA”) bike and roll routes throughout your municipality? 15
Do you support welcoming people who use wheelchairs and mobility scooters to use all ages and abilities (AAA) bike and roll routes?
Do you support rapidly completing bus lanes at key locations on busy bus routes in your municipality, including for BC Transit’s proposed RapidBus lines, as well as effective transit priority measures along all of BC Transit’s proposed RapidBus routes across the CRD? 16
With the court-imposed deadline of March 14, 2023 to keep the Island Rail Corridor intact, how would you support modern rail service for Vancouver Island?
Do you support making transit fares more affordable, both by reducing the cost of passes and individual fares and free or discounted passes for youth, seniors, and people living on low incomes?
Do you support removing the requirements for off-street vehicle parking from new and infill developments while adding requirements for car share, EV charging, bike and other micromobilty parking, as well as expanding accessible parking?
How would you activate and bring more people into public spaces within your municipality, including sidewalks, public squares, streets and parks?
Do you support adding substantively more accessible public bathrooms across your municipality? 17
Central Saanich created an active transportation plan in 2021, which aims to “enable people of all ages and abilities to walk and cycle throughout the community, while respecting our unique character and heritage.”
Colwood is in the final stages of completing an Active Transportation Network Plan, which aims to “Create high quality active transportation facilities so that people feel safe and comfortable walking and cycling”.
Esquimalt recently completed its Active Transportation Network Plan, which has its Vision that “Esquimalt’s active transportation network offers all residents, regardless of age, ability, or socio-economic status, greater protection from motor vehicle traffic so that all trips—regardless of purpose— can be done safely and comfortably by walking, cycling, or rolling”.
Oak Bay completed its Active Transportation Strategy in 2011, earlier than many other municipalities, yet progress on that strategy has largely remained stalled since then.
Unlike most municipalities in the Capital Region, Langford lacks an active transportation plan that determines how and where Langford residents would like new walking, rolling and biking infrastructure to be built.
Metchosin currently lacks any active transportation, cycling or walking plans, something that would help guide council in the walking, rolling or biking needs of Metchosin residents.
North Saanich created an active transportation plan in 2021, which aims build to be “a practical strategy that improves community connectivity and safety and respects the character of North Saanich”.
The 2018 Saanich Active Transportation Plan, currently under review, was one of the earliest ATPs in the region and identifies a number of key strategies to making active transportation safer and more comfortable in the municipality.
Sidney is the process of drafting an Active Transportation Network Plan, which will “provide guidance to develop a safe, accessible, sustainable, equitable, and efficient active transportation network by outlining strategies, and recommending infrastructure, policies, and programs to help enable active transportation as preferred modes of transportation throughout the community.”
While Sooke’s 2020 Transportation Master Plan covers all modes, we are asking candidates to accelerate the climate-friendly parts of the plan.
View Royal is drafting an Active Transportation Network Plan, planned to be completed in early 2023.
GO Victoria is the city’s 2020 sustainable mobility strategy, which states that “Our job is to make healthy, sustainable, and accessible transportation choices easy – through simple, practical, and affordable solutions for Victoria”.
Low traffic neighbourhoods are created by cutting off direct routes for car traffic cutting through the neighbourhood. Pocket parks and diagonal diverters are commonly created using low-cost “quick build materials” to test concepts and allow informed public input. Fernwood Square and the area around Victoria High School, as well as the Saanich Panhandle, are long-established examples of low traffic neighbourhoods.
The 2011 Oak Bay Active Transportation Strategy lacks mention of AAA or protected bike lanes, but does identify the major corridors along which protected bike lanes would be needed.
BC Transit has proposed a RapidBus network for the region, and making this network rapid and reliable requires continuous 24/7 bus lanes on many routes as well as short ‘queue jumper’ bus lanes and transit signal priority on other routes. Making this RapidBus network a success with require both the reallocation of road space on municipal roads and municipal pressure on the provincial government to create shoulder bus lanes on provincial highways.
Public bathrooms are necessities for anyone who makes their way through cities by foot, wheelchair, mobility scooter, bike, or public transit. Municipalities are increasingly treating bathrooms as vital elements transportation infrastructure.