Monthly Archives: September 2022

advocacy

Greater Victoria Election Candidates Challenged to Take Positions On Transportation Questions

Victoria – Victorians for Transportation Choice (VTC), a collection of seven groups who work for better transportation solutions for all, has launched a candidate questionnaire for the October 15th municipal elections. The VTC hopes to inform the voting public about candidates’ ideas and platforms on a surprisingly wide range of transportation questions.

The VTC’s member groups – Capital Bike; Greater Victoria Placemaking Network; British Columbia Sustainable Energy Association; Walk On, Victoria; Vancouver Island Transportation Corridor Coalition (VITCC) Action Committee Of People With Disabilities (ACPD); and the Better Transit Alliance of Greater Victoria – want our communities to shift to transit, walking, biking, and rolling, as a means to meet transportation needs while improving livability, while reducing carbon pollution and other harm. 

“Municipal governments in Greater Victoria have take steps to provide healthy and affordable transportation choices, including investing in bike and roll infrastructure and prioritizing public transit over highway expansion”, said Amanda Macdonald, VTC spokesperson and Chair of Walk On, Victoria, “However, there is a lot more work to do to make active and sustainable transportation accessible to everyone and it is important to know where candidates stand on these issues.”

“The provincial government’s ambitious target of reducing car traffic 25% by 2030 should be on every candidate’s radar,” said Tom Hackney of the BC Sustainable Energy Association. “Do they support making the big changes needed to help meet this target, or not?”

The full questionnaire is available at www.transportchoicevictoria.ca and candidates answers will be publicly available before the election. All candidates are invited to fill out the survey. VTC will not be endorsing any candidates. 

“We want to know if candidates are ready to welcome wheelchair and mobility scooter users on bike and roll routes, and if they will help meet the provincial government’s ambitious target of reducing traffic 25% by 2030,” said Eric Doherty of the Better Transit Alliance. “Bus lanes are important, but so are accessible bathrooms.”

Media Contacts: 

Amanda Macdonald

Chair, Walk On, Victoria

walkonvictoria@gmail.com

778-587-0246

Eric Doherty

Better Transit Alliance of Greater Victoria 

eric@ecoplanning.ca 250 818 8223

Tom Hackney

BC Sustainable Energy Association

tom.hackney@bcsea.org 250 381 4463

advocacy

Barriers to Safe and Accessible Walking on Oak Bay Avenue

During the first weeks in August, Tom and Jean Newton, two members of Walk On, Victoria, led public walks and conducted interviews with people walking along both sides of  Oak Bay Avenue between Foul Bay Road and just past Monterey.


The purpose of the walks and interviews was to gather information from participants about the most challenging sidewalk, curb and crosswalk barriers they experience while walking on Oak Bay Avenue. The majority of people who participated were older adults with mobility or vision challenges, though young parents pushing strollers and people of all ages walking their dogs were also interviewed.

The data Tom and Jean gathered was submitted in a report to Oak Bay Council, Oak Bay communication, planning and engineering staff, and the consultants Oak Bay hired in preparation for the Pedestrian and Sidewalk Master Plan the municipality intends to draft later this year. In this blog post, we’re sharing the report the Newtons provided to Oak Bay.

A copy of the report can be found here:

Oak Bay Walk Final ReportDownload
Photos from the Oak Bay walk

If others of you have led public walks or advocated with your municipal councils for better pedestrian infrastructure, we’d like to hear from you. Please email an account of your experiences to walkonvictoria@gmail.com