Active Transportation Plan

Our students are now travelling throughout our community to get to school safely.

Last fall we asked residents and visitors to identify priority improvements to improve road safety within Central Saanich.

Residential streets and school zones were identified as priority areas where speed bumps, chicanes, roundabouts or other traffic calming could make for safer streets.

Reducing speed limits was suggested by numerous participants as a quick and cost-effective method for improving safety.

We are heading into our final phase of the active transportation plan’s development and are excited to have a strategic plan to work to make our community a safer place to be.

“…START FROM SCHOOLS AND WORK OUTWARD TO THE SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES." ~SURVEY RESPONDENT

Throughout Phase One of the Active Transportation Plan process a need to expand and improve sidewalks and crossings around schools was frequently mentioned as a result of the experiences of students and families travelling to and from school. Key concerns related to school travel are both a lack of safe, continuous pedestrian facilities to/from schools, as well as concerns over driver behavior and vehicle speeds in the vicinity of schools.

Suggested improvements for walking and cycling to school within the Active Transportation Plan include priority given to enhancing intersections, crossings, sidewalk networks and lighting along routes regularly travelled by children and their families, as well as focusing traffic safety and speed enforcement efforts in these locations.

August is a great time to practice walking to school. Families can map out routes based on their walking and cycling priorities and travel together!

Travelling actively in a socially distanced way to travel to and from school and has the additional benefits of improved health and fitness and air quality and arriving at school refreshed and alert and ready to learn.

We are in the midst of designing the Active Transportation Plan and are using community input and road data to identify the priority projects needed to create networks.

We heard you clearly say there are gaps in our existing bike lane and sidewalk networks. Our plan will provide a list of priority projects to help us fill those gaps. Connection is key to creating routes people feel comfortable on.

Creating an overall build out plan for these projects will ensure a connected networks.

We must prioritize projects to ensure that the plan fit within our budget— as active transportation infrastructure can require considerable funding depending on their scope. For a small community like ours, the plan requires serious analysis and planning to ensure it is suitable. The financial analysis is underway and will be presented to the community along with the draft Active Transportation Plan this fall.

So far we have heard from more than 700 community member representing a range of abilities and ages.

Feedback from the survey and engagement activities highlights the need to address traffic safety concerns; this will also increase active transportation user comfort and safety and thereby encourage more people to travel actively. Specifically, people asked us to look at residential streets and school zones and an increase in enforcement.

Other top priorities for residents included more sidewalks, continuity in crosswalks, separated bike routes, improving the linkages to regional trails, and a call for more focus on access to bus stops.

Several routes, including school routes, locations for crosswalks, intersections and bus stop shelters were frequently mentioned; you can read about these in the full report here. It will be presented to Council at the Council meeting on May 25, 2020.

We have now moved onto the next phase of the project and are working to identify and describe the opportunities to improve active transportation conditions and present a report to Council and the community. The draft Active Transportation Plan will be available in the Fall 2020. At that time, further community input will be sought to ensure community priorities are reflected in the plan and to gauge the level of resident support for the action items identified in the plan. Please stay tuned for future community engagement opportunities!

Thank you to everyone who's shared feedback to help us design Central Saanich's first Active Transportation Plan. We have heard from hundreds of people so far and had the largest response to an online survey we've ever had! A summary of what we heard will be published here next month.

On Saturday, September 14, 2019, a member of our Active Transportation Team was on hand at the Saanichton Village Design Plan open house to talk with residents and business owners about the village's transportation challenges and opportunities. To see all the boards at the event, and learn about other upcoming Saanichton Village Design Plan events, please see the project site.

We are rolling on the early stages of developing an Active Transportation Plan. Key to this work is recognizing we are a rural community with a limited tax base,and finding practical ways to support and encourage active and accessible transportation.

The team, which includes Urban Systems (architects of BC’s Active Transportation Design Guide), is currently collecting data and looking at existing trails, roads and opportunities. Beginning in early 2020 there will be many opportunities to share what your priorities are, and we’re eager to work with the community on this exciting project!