"If you build it, they will come" is never truer (outside of a Kevin Costner movie) than when talking about transportation.
More car lanes on highways breed more traffic. Offer convenient public transit like buses and trains and over time people will fill them. (Let's get those buses back on the road in Cowichan. Rebuilding after more than seven months is going to be a Herculean task.)
In the same vein, building proper bike lanes and walking infrastructure so people can safely use active transportation to get from here to there will increase these modes of travel.
Cyclists and pedestrians in our urban areas only make them better and more vibrant. Think streets thronging with people going in and out of shops, enjoying our parks and restaurant patios. It's the kind of atmosphere that every community the world over is trying to foster as it makes for a place where people want to go and spend their time. It's a draw for both locals and tourists alike.
Yet there are some in Cowichan who seem to think that people in vehicles are the only ones who should be catered to.
The downright hostility towards several excellent projects to make taking a bike or walking in our communities easier and safer has been eye-opening. It's also been disappointing. Think the scramble crosswalk and in-progress bike lanes in downtown Duncan.
In Ladysmith residents are fighting to see that an access road for a development isn't paved through a public park.
Believe it or not, streets weren't always, and shouldn't now, be built just for private vehicles. Somehow we've gotten to the point where drivers think it's their right to hog them all to themselves and push anything else out of the way. Too often the sentiment is that only vehicles should have the right to use our roads. In fact, we have all too often made our streets and roads too dangerous for non-motorists to use with confidence because of our single-minded focus. Ever been almost hit in a crosswalk? And that's using a safety feature.
Yet when a local government tries to install a bike lane or walking path to separate out non-motorists (isn't that what drivers want?) they are met with derision and accusations of wasting money.
We urge people to get out of their vehicles sometime, those closed-in private boxes that separate us from one another, from our communities, and take a walk around their town or neighbourhood. Or get out your bike, scooter or skateboard. You might be surprised at what you learn, and what you'd like your community to build in the future so that ease of movement isn't exclusive to motorists.
And it's not like bike lanes and walking paths are as far-fetched as a baseball diamond in a corn field.
