Saturday’s Active Transportation Forum: Walking, Cycling, Transit and Public Spaces was a great success! There were nearly 50 participants, and it was a very engaging, energizing session!

The agenda covered many aspects of active transportation in Oak Bay. We learned about the CRD Pedestrian and Cycling Master Plan, Complete Streets and Other Inspirational Ideas, the Oak Bay Master Cycling Plan, Safer Routes for Willows and Monterey Schools, Imaginative Ideas from Other Cities, Imaginative Ideas for Oak Bay, and the New Oak Bay High School as a Community Space.

The audience came with lots of input and ideas to share. These are some of the creative ideas shared after the morning presentations:

Support for recreational cycling (accessibility to Willows and Uplands Parks)

Simple solutions to pedestrian safety and accessibility, such as curb bulges, which narrow the pedestrian crossing, narrows the road which forces cars to slow down.

Traffic calming (i.e. parked cars)

Oak Bay regional access and connection to Lochside Trail by way of the Bowker Creek Greenway

‘No car’ day and associated activities (an idea from Brazil), which could work on Oak Bay Avenue

Runnymeade/Mt. Joy/Central Ave needs improved walking access throughout the area

Oak Bay needs to design pedestrian bulges appropriately

Enforce parking on property

Timed crossing signals

Interrupt vehicle corridors by use of diversions and cut-throughs to facilitate increased cycle traffic

Partner with businesses to supply more bike racks

We spent the afternoon hearing about the Oak Bay High School rebuild project, and the opportunities this will bring to improve pedestrian, cycling, and public spaces in and around the school.

Some ideas that came from the New Oak Bay High School group discussion session are:

Oak Bay High as a Community Hub where the paths and walkways are improved to encourage walking and cycling to and from the school, Recreation Centre, and the Village

Educational Corridor: A cycling/pedestrian only street or trail that connects UVic to Willows School, to Oak Bay High, to Monterey Middle School!

Planning for, and accommodating all modes of travel, including skateboards, and the addition of smaller transit lines, during the construction of the high school, and well into the future

Bowker Creek Greenway should include a pathway that allows cyclists to follow the whole way (no stairs)

Add Community Gardens along Bowker Creek at the high school for students to access or maintain as a learning resource

Widen all sidewalks around schools, and bury power lines, as many power poles are currently in the middle of the sidewalk

As you can see, we had some really inspirational discussion that requires some work to get us moving in Oak Bay! Keep watching here to see how you can contribute, or get involved in the Action Plan. If you have ideas to share, please feel free to comment, or start a discussion on our Forum.

We had some good media coverage by the Times Colonist, as you can see here.

5 Responses to “Oak Bay Wants to Get Moving!”

1. Notes from Saturday’s Active Transportation forum – Corey Burger says:

   November 11, 2009 at 11:05 am

   [...] such as the CRD Bike/Ped Plan, as well as what other cities have been doing. Michelle Kirby has a great write up at the Community Association’s website, plus there is the Times Colonist article, so I [...]
2. B. Grey says:

   November 13, 2009 at 12:25 pm

   It’s always a bad idea to fix things that aren’t broken – you just break something else. I and the other kids in my neighbourhood all rode our bikes down McNeill to Monterey school in the 1950s to ’70s, and never had a problem. We were taught to stay on the curb, keep our eyes open, and always use hand signals so drivers would know our intentions. Keeping out of the traffic stream was considered common sense in those days; now pushing into it is considered a political statement. Sigh …

   That route and that landscape hasn’t changed, so too bad what makes for “common sense” has.

   Putting in sidewalk bulges is a disaster — narrowing the road just pushes bikes and cars dangerously close together. If you want sidewalks to be safe, make sure bikes stay off them — it’s not cars that drive on them. Re. speed, the bumps are effective. Narrowing just causes gridlock and engine idling (wasn’t last year’s cause the anti-idling instruction?)

   We so hope the municipality does not tamper with the country road nature of Runnymede and Mount Joy. Leave the flower-filled boulevards alone; no one has died yet because there aren’t sidewalks. Why change what has worked for decades? The traffic is no different there, and so long as house density doesn’t increase, it never will be.
3. Corey Burger says:

   November 14, 2009 at 8:57 pm

   What has changed in the power of modern cars. They are bigger, faster and more powerful than 20 years ago. A lot of this weight is safety equipment, but it doesn’t help the poor pedestrian or bicyclist being hit by the faster, heavier car.
4. michellekirby says:

   November 14, 2009 at 10:47 pm

   B. Grey, you were also traveling a shorter distance, because Monterey is now a middle school that feeds from all of Oak Bay…

   What we all hope to see is less cars all around Oak Bay. If everyone were to embrace walking, cycling, transit, and/or smaller, electric scooters or smart cars, I’d feel that kids would be a lot safer traveling across the municipality.

   I struggle with the paved sidewalk issue, because it’s more permeable surface that can’t absorb rainwater, and the carbon created from the production of cement doesn’t help either. But, if we want people to get out walking, we should make sure it’s easy, and smooth surfaces do make it easy.
5. Lesley Ewing says:

   November 15, 2009 at 7:12 pm

   Motor Vehicle Act of BC is the legislative authority governing bicycle use on the road. Bicyclists have the legal right to occupy the centre lane under certain circumstances, such as to avoid dangers like “dooring”. Being doored is the single largest cause of death and injury to cyclists.

   The Insurance Corporation of BC, in Bike Sense, sets out the following:

   Parked cars: 
Ride no closer than one metre from parked cars to avoid being hit by an opening door. The doors of some vehicle types can swing far into your lane. If you can see that the car is occupied, be particularly careful. Where cars are parked intermittently, ride in a straight line instead of swerving in and out between the parked cars. This increases your visibility and predictability for car drivers on the road.
   When to take a lane If there is no shoulder or bike lane and the curb lane is narrow (i.e. when the right wheel track of most traffic is less than a metre from the curb), cyclists may choose to take the whole lane by riding in the centre of it. This can be safer than riding near the curb, which may encourage motorists to squeeze by where there is not sufficient room. You should also consider taking the lane when you are traveling at the same speed as other traffic. This will keep you out of motorists’ blind spots and reduce conflicts with right-turning traffic. Be prepared for the occasional frustrated driver who is not familiar with the safe and legal operation of a bicycle.

   Regarding Monterey Avenue, this route and landscape has changed in a very significant way. It is doubtful that a 1950s or 1960s photo would show the same number of cars parked along Monterey as today. In that era, families generally had one car, and some had no car. Two cars were rare, and three unheard of. Today, 2-3 vehicles per family are not uncommon. This means more cars end up parked on the street.

   Just look at the vehicle activity around Monterey/Oak Bay Ave/ Library/Royal Bank area to understand the dangers for kids on bikes.

   As for sidewalk (i.e. pedestrian) safety, it is motor vehicles, not bicycles that cause the vast majority of pedestrian injuries and deaths.

   Regarding the Mount joy/Runnymede, what has changed is that Margaret Jenkins and Monterey Schools have had their grade catchments modified. Since 2007, one is a middle school while the other serves only the primary grades. This means children in Oak Bay now travel to Margaret Jenkins School, while Fairfield children must now travel to Monterey. Kids no longer attend schools in their close neighbourhoods, and with more parents driving to school, those who walk are at increased risk. We have a duty to protect them.