OPINION - Adventures in Active Transportation

BC Cycling Coalition LogoAdventures in Active Transportation is a blog post by Tannis Braithwaite, a member of the BC Cycling Coalition. In it, she highlights some of the barriers to active transportation in B.C., especially as they apply to provincial (non-municipal) highways. The focus here is still on moving motor vehicles, not active transportation.

Case in point is a philanthropic gift to an active transportation advocacy group so that they could hire a professional transportation planner to do a feasability study for a multi-use pathway that would share part of a provincial highway right of way.

Braithwaite is puzzled that this active transportation studies was not funded directly by the province, but two recent studies were made regarding expansion of the highway's capacity for motor vehicles.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has released an Active Transportation Design Guide, indicating at least some interest in the provision of these facilities.

While MoTI did indeed release an Active Transportation Design Guide in 2019 it also therein exempted itself from implementing many of the facilities included.  The somewhat cryptically named section F. Context Specific Applications essentially confirms the policies and practices that have guided the development of public ways under provincial jurisdiction for the last 20 plus years.  It appears that most of the Design Guide is applicable only to municipalities that choose to use it.  A case of do as I say, not as I do?