Fairfield Bicycle Shop puts the wheels on Capital Bike and Walk Society
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Welcome to the Capital Bike & Walk Society homepage. Our community is dedicated to educating, growing and helping
"Green Commuters" - bicycling and walking - travel throughout the capital region of Victoria, British Columbia (BC), Canada.
Spend a couple of minutes browsing the site to learn more about the Capital Bike & Walk Society.
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The Galloping Goose Defense Campaign!
Victoria’s treasured multi-use trail, the Galloping Goose, is facing a new threat.
A development proposed for suburban Colwood could turn a bucolic piece of the trail into a
near highway for cars and trucks. We need to act now to make sure the brakes are applied
to this ill-conceived attempt to pluck the Goose to feather someone’s private nest.
The stretch from Sooke Road at Juan de Fuca that circles behind Colwood Corners, where the new
development is planned, connects through km 14 to the grounds of Royal Roads University and
back to Sooke Rd. Right now it’s a quiet and beautiful section of the trail.
The proposal to reroute the Galloping Goose in Colwood should be a non-starter, though it does
have the support of some local cyclists who have long been frustrated at the lack of continuity
of the trail, cut off at Sooke Road.
This is not a reason to give away a public asset to support a private development.
The Colwood Corners development needs to work with the trail, not through it.
The Goose needs an overpass to bridge the first crossing of Sooke Rd – it’s so far a couple
hundred metres away from the nearest signalized intersection – but a level crossing and push
button signals at the western end of the loop at Aldeane serves well enough already.
The developer, with Colwood council’s support, is laying claim to the trail to serve the vehicle
traffic that will be generated by the new development. The now current plan would route the
Goose onto a two-way sidepath along Sooke Road, crossing busy driveways and Goldstream Avenue
on the way to Aldeane at the entrance to Royal Roads University.
That plan exposes cyclists to a hazardous design and undermining the appeal of the trail for
the many walkers and other users who enjoy the Goose today.
It also doesn’t square with the plans first shared with the community that secured the zoning
necessary to advance the project. Density and development shouldn’t add thousands more vehicle
trips to an already congested corridor – it should embrace the trail and the cycling and walking
traffic it generates.
A new development is still the right project at the right place – it fits with the region’s
growth strategy to concentrate density in key regional centres. Colwood Corners is one of those
centres – but the new transportation scheme supports runaway growth in vehicle traffic and steals
options from people who want access to safer and more sustainable choices.
The community was sold on images of a trail integrated into the plans for the project and assurances
that the sympathetic treatment would ensure that feared traffic growth would be moderated by more
reliance on cycling and walking.
It’s not the first time “new and better” plans for cyclists and the trail are being sideswiped to
solve problems for cars and trucks. (A nearby crossing at Wale Road and the Goose bears little
resemblance to the supportive crossing first planned).
It can be stopped. The trail doesn’t belong to the developer and it doesn’t belong to Colwood.
They’ve gone begging to the provincial government, who own the right of way, and CRD Parks, who
manage the trail on our behalf.
You can all help to save the Goose. Here’s who you can write:
Province of BC
Hon. Shirley Bond
Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure
PO Box 9055, Stn Provincial Government
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
Find your local MLA here
The Capital Regional District (Parks Committee and Board)
Mayor Chirstopher Causton (Oak Bay)
Chair, Regional Parks Committee
By email: Click here then on the left hand column
PO Box 100
Victoria, BC
V8W 2S6
Colwood City Council
Write your local municipal council:
The Galloping Goose and Lochside trails are managed on behalf of all of us.
It’s a fantastic greenway we also share with a growing number of welcome eco-tourists
that support Bed and Breakfast operators from Sooke to Sidney and every bakery and bartender
in between. All told, travel on the trail is approaching a million trips a year.
Your Mayor and many local councillors city on the CRD Board and committees.
They need to hear from trail users that the Goose is not for sale. It’s not just this
development that threatens the continuity of the trail – it could open the door to invite
other developments to steal parts of the trail around the region.
Find your council here
Don’t live here? The CRD still needs to know that visitors from around the world
care about the Goose – many of you have been here, taken a ride along the trail and know
what we stand to lose. Local leaders need to from you too. Pick your own target.
The Goose has more value as is – for commuters, for local residents, for many recreational
users and for cycling tourists and other visitors who fuel Victoria’s growing eco-tourism
industry. Don’t let them take it away! Write today!
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CBWS Reports: Case Studies and Best Practices
Bicycle Count Project
Friends of the
Chandler - Gonzales
Pathway
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CBWS projects are supported by grants from VanCity, the City of Victoria,
Saanich, View
Royal, the Provincial Capital Commission, the Province of BC,
Translink, Mountain
Equipment Coop and private funders. Support for this
project does not necessarily imply
VanCity’s or other sponsor endorsement.
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