Sidney residents have a final opportunity to comment on the town’s active transportation plan.
A draft of the plan will be posted for two weeks at the end of June to allow the public to provide their final comments. Following this period, the plan will be brought to council for adoption, and staff will proceed to planning and implementing the plan, which will involve bringing projects through the budgeting process in future years.
The 10-year plan is focused on expanding the sidewalk network and crosswalk improvements, with $1 million per year allocated to these initiatives.
“To put that in perspective, Sidney’s annual capital budget is about $10 million for close to 100 projects per year. So we have limited financial and staff resources, so to make an annual $1-million commitment to pedestrian and cycling infrastructure each year is very significant,” said Mayor Cliff McNeil-Smith.
The first project to will be a Bowerbank Road bicycle boulevard project, which has an estimated cost of $405,000, according to the draft plan.
Council voted Monday to authorize staff to proceed with a detailed design of the 1.5-kilometre bicycle boulevard, which will connect people in north Sidney to the town’s core, with parks and schools along the route.
Other projects will start to come forward starting in 2024 according to their priority.
The town has identified 20 priority sidewalk improvements, estimated at roughly $3.5 million to $4.5 million for all projects, according to estimates in the draft plan. The top three projects are on Lochside Drive, Fifth Street and Amelia Avenue.
The town, which is about five square kilometres, already has roughly 40 kilometres of sidewalks, McNeil-Smith said. The 20 sidewalk projects amount to more than five kilometres of new sidewalks.
There are 13 priority crosswalk improvements, estimated at about $290,000 to $330,000.
Council will consider a balance between sidewalk and crosswalk projects as they look to allocate the annual $1 million for active transportation initiatives in future years, McNeil-Smith said.
Thirty-four per cent of trips made within Sidney are done on foot, while only three per cent are by bike, according to the Capital Regional District’s household travel survey. Sixty-two per cent of trips are done by car.
In a previous round of engagement, the town received hundreds of letters about the draft active transportation plan and more than 1,000 responses to a public survey, exceeding the response to any other online survey the town has conducted, including a survey on the Beacon Wharf replacement, a topic that sparked protests.
The active transportation plan is expected to be adopted by council within the next two months.
