Walking and cycling are the most basic forms of travel. They are inclusive, affordable, healthy, joyful, and good for the environment, both locally and globally. Surveys indicate that many people would like to walk and bicycle more than they do, provided they have suitable facilities. Everyone – motorists included – benefits when more people are able to walk and bicycle safely. Improving active transportation helps us to create more livable communities.

Active transportation improvements can also generate large savings and public benefits. Since most public transit trips require walking or cycling to get to a bus stop, improving active travel will encourage more use of public transit. Similarly, safe walking and cycling paths reduce the need for parents to chauffeur their children to school – trips that are particularly inefficient since they often involve an empty return trip. Electric bikes greatly expand the number of trips that can be made on two wheels, but only if there are cycling facilities that make people feel safe.

Clean BC’s Roadmap to 2030 climate action plan includes two ambitious targets:

• To double walking, bicycling and public transit travel by 2030, and
• To reduce automobile travel by a quarter by 2030.

The province needs an equally ambitious plan to meet these goals. If provincial policies arerealigned to favour resource-efficient travel, following the sustainable transportation hierarchy illustrated below, they are achievable.

The majority of transportation resources – money and road space – are currently devoted to automobiles. The BC Ministry of Transportation and Highways has allocated just 0.73% ($60 million over three years) of its $2,729 million 2022/23 budget to its Active Transportation Grant Program, while planning to spend more than a billion dollars to expand highways, despite abundant evidence that highway expansions induce additional vehicle travel, causing congestion to get worse, rather than better, and air pollution to increase. 

 Other jurisdictions have stronger, more comprehensive plans. Washington State’s 16-year transportation budget includes $81 million a year for Active Transportation. Allowing for the state’s 40% higher population (7 million), that is three times more than BC’s budget. For financial contrast, a single new highway interchange in Victoria (at McKenzie) cost $96 million, almost  five times more than BC’s Active Transportation budget for the entire province.

 BC’s current transportation planning practices are unfair to anybody who cannot or chooses not to rely on an automobile. Surveys show that many more people want to walk, cycle or roll, but they are discouraged by  inadequate infrastructure (sidewalks, pathways, or bike lanes), unsafe intersection design, and a lack of safe crossing opportunities to access transit stops or other destinations. 

In rural areas, they are discouraged by busy highways with inadequate shoulders and a lack of maintenance to remove leaves or snow. 

In winter, outside of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, people walking, biking or rolling have to navigate narrow paths, gravel and snowbanks. 

Experience in many communities shows that when these obstacles are removed, and good facilities are built, more people will walk, bike or roll, resulting in fewer trips by automobile. Research also shows that people who live in such communities are fitter, healthier and happier. These improvements are particularly important for children, parents, people on lower incomes, people with disabilities, and seniors. 

Great active transportation makes our communities safer, more inclusive, more affordable and more equitable, while reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are so dangerous for our planet’s climate.

 Provincial Policy Requests

 A: Financial Support

1. Increase the MoTI budget for Active Transportation five-fold to $100 million annually, including a commitment to long-term funding for municipalities, making it closer – at $20 per person per year – to what leading jurisdictions spend on active transportation infrastructure. (London $27, Winnipeg $32, Netherlands $40, Brisbane $51 per person per year).
2. Increase the maximum grant that a jurisdiction can get for a project from $500,000 to $5 million.
3. Obtain the new funds by reallocating funding from highway expansion to public transit, walking and cycling. The Capital Regional District recently made a unanimous request for just such a change.
4. Within the new budget, prioritize projects that serve disproportionately impacted communities that have fewer transportation options. 
5. Include funding for Safe Routes to School, and for cycling promotion and education programs, to increase awareness and encourage more people to cycle and walk.
6. Within the new budget, include long-distance urban-rural bicycle trails, building a world-class province-wide rural cycling network similar to those in Denmark, Holland, Britain, Germany,  and Quebec. 

B: Policy Support

1. Establish a detailed plan to achieve BC’s targets to double walking, bicycling and public transit mode shares, and to reduce automobile travel by a quarter by 2030.
2. Appoint a Director of Active Transportation, and a Safe Routes to School Coordinator.
3. Require each region to have dedicated Active Transportation staff who can ensure that all Provincial Highways are Active Transportation friendly.
4. Establish an Active Transportation Centre of Excellence within MoTI, gathering all governance, policy, strategies, investments, education and encouragement programs into a single agency which can truly transform BC and help British Columbians prepare for future mobility challenges.

C: Regulatory Support

1. Update the Motor Vehicle Act, which has not been substantially changed since 1957, renaming it the Motor Vehicle and Active Transportation Act.
2. Include a Safe Passing law with sizable fines, and a minimum passing distance of 1.5 metres.
3. Include legal definitions of bike lanes, the legalization of bicycle specific signals and of riding two abreast, and remove or update the “near to the right” clause.
4. Legalize the use of wheelchairs and mobility scooters in bicycle infrastructure.
5.  Enable cities to create a blanket speed limit that is less than 50 km/h, and default speed limit of 30 km/h on local streets. 
6. Increase the penalty for dooring from $81 to $368 plus 3 demerit points.

 Municipal Active Transportation Policy Requests

1. Establish a complete streets policy to ensure that all roadways can safely accommodate all users, including vulnerable users who choose to or need to walk, cycle or roll.
2. Build cycling, rolling and walking facilities for people of all ages, from 8 to 80, enabling safe recreational trips and direct connections to schools, places of work, grocery stores, restaurants, medical offices, and parks. 
3. Build protected sidewalks, pathways, and bike lanes along major roads, and separate user groups whenever possible, given that some users travel at 5 km/hr while others travel at 30 km/hr.
4. Prioritize projects that serve disproportionately impacted communities which have historically had fewer transportation options. 
5. Redesign residential streets so that vehicles are treated as guests and naturally move at a slower speed, giving streets back to their residents. 
6. Re-allocate road space to walking, cycling, and public use, making our communities safer, helping people to build more social connections, and improving mental, emotional, and physical health, as Melissa and Chris Bruntlett show in their must-read book for Municipal Councillors and Regional Directors: Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Vehicles. Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan seeks to reallocate at least 11% of the city’s road space to walking, cycling and transit, “to greatly reduce dependence on fossil fuels through a reduction in vehicle ownership and kilometres travelled by vehicle.” 
7. Require continuous tree coverage on these streets to provide shade in the summer, when people are at most risk of extreme heat events.
8. Remove requirements for City staff to engage with the public on whether or not to increase active transportation and reduce traffic. It is critical to speed this up to make a dent against the climate emergency.

‘Terrifying’ IPCC Report Chronicles ‘Fast Track to Climate Disaster’, Shows Narrowed Path to 1.5°C

From The Energy Mix: “I don’t have words to explain. ‘Concerning’ is not enough. This is frankly a terrifying report,” former UN climate secretary Christiana Figueres told Bloomberg Green. “It’s not really about megatonnes” of emissions, she added. “It is fundamentally about the long-term well-being of the entire web of life on this planet.” Read more. 

No, British Columbia’s LNG Cannot Solve Europe’s Russian Gas Problem

From Sightline: Fossil fuel interests in Canada are taking advantage of the Ukraine crisis to promote Canada’s languishing LNG export industry as a solution to the EU’s dependency on Russian gas. But the EU plans to be fully off Russian gas by 2025: the same year that the first of British Columbia’s five LNG export proposals would be up and running.  What’s more, British Columbia cannot both frack the levels of gas needed to supply these LNG facilities, and meet the greenhouse gas emissions cuts required by its own climate commitments. Read more.

The World is on Fire. Why is Canada considering massive new oil drilling?

From Conor Curtis and Tzeporah Berman, The Guardian: A Norwegian oil company wants to drill 73m barrels a year off the coast of Newfoundland – the equivalent of adding 7m gas cars to the road. The new Canadian cabinet was supposed to make a decision on whether or not to accept this project by 6 March, but has now delayed that decision by another 40 days – time, we hope, that they will use to plan a just energy transition instead of another oil project. This is the first test of their climate leadership and threatens their claims of being environmental champions. Read more.

Ottawa Issues ‘Slap in the Face’ to Climate Science, Approves Bay du Nord Offshore Oil Megaproject

From The Energy Mix: The federal cabinet administered what one critic called a “slap in the face” to climate science with a decision today to approve the massive Bay du Nord oil and gas megaproject off the Newfoundland coast. The $9.4-billion project led by Norwegian state fossil Equinor is expected to extract 300 million to one billion barrels of oil from a site about 500 kilometres northeast of St. John’s, beginning in 2028. Environment and Climate Minister Steven Guilbeault announced the decision just two days after the latest warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that humanity is less than 10 years away from exceeding a carbon budget that would deliver just 50-50 odds of holding global warming to 1.5°C. Read more.

Oil project Bay du Nord approved after United Nations say no more oil

From Seth Klein, Climate Emergency Unit: Despite warnings against fossil fuel expansion from world’s top climate scientists and United Nations Secretary General, major deepwater oil project off the east coast of Canada, Bay du Nord, gets green light. But hope is not lost—we the people hold the power, and it’s time to mobilize! Read more.  

ExxonMobil Announces $10 Billion Oil Investment the Same Day IPCC Signals End for Fossil Fuels

From DeSmogBlog: The oil giant’s massive plan to drill in Guyana’s waters comes as the UN Secretary General warns of fossil fuels as a “blight on investment portfolios.” Read more

‘This was our forever home’: floods, climate change and the end of one Alberta community

From The Narwhal: Climate change could force 216 million people from their homes worldwide by 2050. In one flood-prone Alberta community, 18 people are experiencing that loss firsthand. Read more

The Thwaites Glacier

From Shaw TV: Guy Dauncey talks with Antarctic climate scientist David Holland, who studies phenomena relating to the Polar Regions and their impacts on global climate. On the edge of western Antarctica sits the world’s most unstable glacier, held back from falling into the sea by a slab of floating ice. If the Thwaites Glacier were to collapse, the water in it  would raise sea levels by two feet. If its collapse triggers the fall of nearby glaciers, global sea levels could rise by up to 10 feet. Read more

Fear and Loathing in the Climate Era: 8 Thoughts on How We Win

From Tzeporah Berman, Stand.earth: Climate campaigns and mobilization need to address fear and security in a world on fire, and create common purpose. Here are 8 thoughts on how we can do this. Read more.

A West Coast Climate Action Network discussion paper by Eric Doherty – March 8, 2022

Transportation is British Columbia’s largest single source of greenhouse gas pollution – about 40% of the total. Great public transit is essential for getting these emissions trending down, rapidly, in all parts of the province.

The BC government supports this goal – its October 2021 CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 update calls for reducing “distances travelled in light-duty vehicles by 25% by 2030, compared to 2020.”

CleanBC puts reducing distances traveled and increasing mode shift (from private automobiles to public transit, walking and cycling) at the top of its policy list, as shown in its graphic.

Meeting the CleanBC targets will require a shift in provincial transportation policy. The government has dozens of urban highway expansion projects planned, including the four-billion-dollar plan to replace the four-lane Massey Tunnel with a new eight-lane tunnel. More than 350 organizations, including many WE-CAN members, have signed an open letter including the demand that BC “invest in affordable, accessible, and convenient public transit within and between all communities [and] reallocate infrastructure funds from highway expansion to transit and active transportation (cycling, rolling, and walking).” Recently the Capital Regional District unanimously approved a policy calling on the provincial and federal governments to reallocate funding from highway expansion to public transit, walking and cycling in Greater Victoria.

Whenever you expand a congested road or highway it quickly fills up with new traffic, and the congestion gets worse rather than better. This is called induced traffic. And GHG pollution increases, even if public transit and active transportation are improved at the same time. 

If we leave existing highways, roads and parking lots as they are, traffic volumes will stay close to where they are whether or not transit is improved. That is one of the paradoxes of subways and elevated metros like SkyTrain – they provide great transit service without necessarily reducing driving.

When you subtract road space for cars, traffic evaporates. Two decades ago, the accumulated evidence for traffic evaporation was summarized in the Municipal Engineer paper “Disappearing traffic? The story so far.” It says when “reallocating roadspace from general traffic, to improve conditions for pedestrians or cyclists or buses… significant reductions in overall traffic levels can occur.” In fact, large reductions in traffic levels are normal with well-planned projects. However, as Dario Hidalgo, a Bogotá based civil engineer, notes “most decision – and opinion – makers are still under the impression that reducing car lanes will make traffic worse.”

Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan calls for reallocating at least 11 percent of road space to “walking, cycling and transit [to] greatly reduce dependence on fossil fuels through a reduction in vehicle ownership and kilometres travelled by vehicle.” Both BC Transit and TransLink have plans for RapidBus (bus rapid transit) networks in urban and suburban areas. To be rapid and reliable, RapidBus needs 24/7 bus lanes to be reallocated from existing travel or parking lanes, which would also trigger traffic evaporation. 

Reallocating road space in cities can make life more affordable, pleasant and just. Car ownership is a huge expense, and walking, cycling and rolling options throughout urban and suburban areas would relieve a financial burden for many. Protected bike and roll lanes, pedestrian priority streets and bus lanes make our cities more pleasant and healthy. Reducing transit fares, and having free or deeply discounted transit passes for youth and low income people, is also very important.

Inter-community public transit

The lack of inter-community public transit disproportionately impacts Indigenous and other peoples in rural areas. As the Union of BC Indian Chiefs asserts in their letter calling for a BC-wide public transit network, “Safe, reliable, and accessible public transit to and from First Nations communities in B.C. is essential because transportation is necessary to many indispensable components of daily life.”

Reallocating money away from highway expansion could fund public inter-community bus service province-wide. To meet B.C.’s ambitious traffic reduction target, this bus network would have to be much better and more affordable than Greyhound ever was. Expanding and improving BC Transit’s modest BC Bus North network, using electric buses, is an obvious option. Passenger train service on existing tracks is also needed in the longer term.

A frequent and affordable bus service between communities would make life more affordable and safer for people across B.C. People in rural areas and small towns spend a lot of money on long drives, and crashes on snowy highways are a serious threat. Because many people in cities pay to buy and insure vehicles primarily for visiting rural areas of B.C., car use in cities could be reduced by improving transit to rural areas.

Proposed Actions

• Challenge your elected municipal councillors, regional district directors, and candidates for office to set a local target that matches or exceeds the provincial target of reducing vehicle travel 25% by 2030. Ask them to advocate for reallocating provincial and federal infrastructure funds from highway expansion to transit and active transportation (cycling, rolling, and walking). See GVAT example.
• Thank the BC government for their ambitious target for fewer cars and 25% less traffic, and demand transportation investments that respect human rights – Amnesty International has a helpful guide.
• Endorse and become active in the grassroots Let’s Ride campaign for a public inter-community public transit system across British Columbia – bcwidebus.com.

This discusssion paper was written to correspond with the first of a four part webinar series entitled “Transportation in a Time of Climate Crisis.” A video recording will be available once the event concludes and the video is processed. If you’d like this discussion paper as a PDF, you can download it here.

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