Rethinking Malahat Solutions - 21 December 2021 Abstract

Vehicle traffic has hardly grown during the last decade (Figure 5), and current trends – aging population, improved alternatives (such as telecommuting and e-medicine), and rising environmental and health concerns (CleanBC includes targets to reduce light vehicle travel by 25% and approximately double walking, bicycling and public transit trips) – are reducing automobile travel demand and increasi. [...] Frequent and affordable bus service can be operating in a few months, and can easily change to accommodate changing needs and conditions. [...] It ignores downstream traffic impacts, and therefore the additional costs of highway expansions and the additional benefits of travel shifts to public transit. [...] Highway expansions are inherently unfair and regressive; they provide minimal benefits to disadvantaged people who cannot drive, they increase delay and risk to vulnerable road users, and they contradict the province’s strategic goals to encourage active travel, increase affordability, and reduce emissions. [...] In contrast, frequent and affordable transit improves mobility for non-drivers and reduces traffic problems on local streets, including delay and risks that vehicle traffic imposes on pedestrians and bicyclists, which directly benefits disadvantaged groups and helps achieve other community goals.