Getting close to Dutch levels of connectivity in Victoria with Nic Laporte
The City of Victoria on Vancouver Island has done so much in the last decade to enable people of all ages and abilities get around the city by various types of micromobility that today, it feels close to having Dutch levels of connectivity… And they’re not done yet… I was excited to see Nic’s take on it…
While filming the Lessons from the Dutch video with Nic in Eindhoven, we talked about cities in Canada that had applied some of the lessons. In the previous Nanaimo video, we highlighted design elements such as continuous sidewalks and bike paths that are now a standard in the City of Nanaimo, and note that they have also started to make appearances in Victoria…
But in Victoria, for me at least, I think there’s two key things that they’ve done better than any other city… The first is the scale of the network they’ve built and the speed that it’s been built out. The second is the way the network has been built out, often by reallocating space. Maybe that’s three… Extent, speed, reallocation of space… The ISL team and partners have been proud to support the city with detailed design and construction administration services on many of the corridors.
The City won the Transportation Association of Canada Active Transportation Achievement Award in 2024 for the network, and I love the map (copied below) from the award submission that shows the progress year by year. It’s amazing what you can achieve in a short space of time by doing one or two projects every year. You can click the image to view the full award submission where you might find a few familiar photos from past blog posts and a few more insights…
Extract from the 2024 TAC ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION ACHEIVEMENT AWARD SUBMISSION: City of Victoria’s All Ages and Abilities Active Transportation Network | how to implement and get results!
A big thanks to Tim Hewett from the City of Victoria for taking us on a tour of the city and providing some insights into the City’s approach to building out their all ages and abilities cycling network…
Taking photos wasn’t the main point of the trip, but I grabbed a few here and there… We bumped into Brad Ormiston out with his kids. Brad is one of ISL’s Senior Project Engineers in Victoria, and has worked on many of ISL’s projects with the City… Without the AAA network, he’d likely need to find another way to get his young kids downtown… We stopped by the ISL Victoria office at the AAA intersection of Fort Street and Vancouver Street…
Behind the scenes…
How do you connect uni-directional protected bike lanes to two bi-directional protected bike lanes? Fort Street plaza, a key intersection in Phase 2 of that corridor took a few iterations… One of ISL’s previous projects with the City…
You’re really here for the video though… So enjoy Nic’s take on the City of Victoria…
If you enjoy the video, be sure to give it a like, and subscribe to Nic’s channel if you want to see more… I’ve also included the previous videos I did with Nic in Nanaimo and Eindhoven below in case you missed them…
There haven’t been too many video’s about the City of Victoria’s bike network… But like buses, you wait 10 years for one to come, then two come at the same time... If you want more perspectives on the bike network in and around Victoria, check out Oh the Urbanity’s recent video too…