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.
Community Planning, Membership, Special Events
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active transportation, Bowker Creek, Community Planning, Connector, CRD, cycling, Cycling Master Plan, events, forum, garden, New Oak Bay High School, Oak Bay Councillor, pedestrian, public spaces, safe, Safer Routes to Schools, walking
We had a great turnout for the first ever Community Association Potluck on Saturday!
We had a couple of people come that were new to Oak Bay, and many who have been here for years. We had CAOB Executive members and their partners and families, many of whom were meeting for the first time, as well as new members that signed up at the door to join the Association.
The crowd brought some delicious food, and we hope that you’ll share your recipes on our Forum.
We enjoyed some good luck, and were treated with a huge variety of choices on the table, from homemade soups, bread, mashed potatoes fresh from the garden that day, tabbouleh, cookies and crumbles, Coffee (donated by Neil at Willows Park Grocery and Black Bear Coffee), and so much more!
We enjoyed some great music from Ron and Linden Carter! A huge thanks go out to them for bringing their guitars and sharing their talent with us! Good music definitely makes a gathering fun and memorable!
For more photos from the event, please see our Flickr stream.
Thanks also to the Oak Bay Scouts for renting us the Hall! It was great to have a warm and dry space to come in from the (torrential) rain that day!
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