Advocacy Update

Corey Burger, Board Member

As you read this, the 2022 municipal elections will be over. Our new councils will need to tackle a variety of competing crises over the next four years, including the not-small challenges of road safety and climate change. As we look to see what amazing new bikeways are likely to be built in the next four years, let’s look back at the past four to see just how much the region has changed, because – make no mistake – our region is wildly different for bicycling now than it was in 2018. In concrete terms, pun intended, there is a lot more out there keeping us safe while riding our bikes: new lanes have opened on Fort St, Wharf St, and Government St in downtown Victoria, the Dallas Rd multi-use trail, the new parts of the E&N in Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, as well connecting the Goose to downtown Langford, Finnerty Rd in Saanich, and the Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail, to name just a few. Oak Bay also added new bike lanes on Cadboro Bay Rd. In total, somewhere near 50 km of new bikeways or trail have been built in the last 4 years. And encouragingly, almost 25% of new bike lanes built in the past four years have been protected, up from 10% between 2014 and 2017. On our regional trails and the work to separate and light them continues slowly. The CRD has approved a plan to separate and light the trails from Selkirk Trestle all the way to McKenzie Ave on both the Lochside and Galloping Goose. They are also working on policies on when to separate or light other trails, such as the E&N, and policies on good detours, which Saanich recently showed us is possible with their detour on Quadra during work on the Lochside. All of these projects will be expensive, but we remain hopeful that senior governments will be able to fund the whole project at once. On paper, the world has shifted. In 2018, most municipal bike plans were old or nonexistent, with very few talking about All Ages and Abilities (AAA) bikeways. As we head into 2023, there are now completed or inprogress plans for most of the region – Esquimalt, View Royal, Colwood, Sooke, Central and North Saanich, and Sidney, with Saanich’s under review. And these plans are starting to bear fruit – Esquimalt and both Central and North Saanich have plans to build at least some bikeways every year. What do we have to look forward to in the next four years? A lot more building! Some of the biggest transformation is likely to come in places where not much AAA exists already. Expect to see large parts of protected bike lane in Colwood, and hopefully View Royal and Sidney too. Esquimalt has just tendered work on Tillicum Rd and Saanich’s quick builds such as on Tillicum Rd will showcase a new way to build faster.

Photos from top left: Corey Burger. photo credit: Kevan Wilkie; rebuilt Todd Creek trestle; Dallas Rd bike lane; UVic connector construction. Photo credits: Corey Burger.