..... So the Saanich ATP is now just a bad joke. Can't be taken seriously. Couldn't have been much worse if it had been written by the Save Our Saanich crazies.

2018 "award winning" Saanich ATP: bit anemic, pushing real progress 15+ years into future but not terrible. 2023 update: moved 5 year timelines to 7 years, only did "easy stuff" (read: inexpensive). Council present. last year: we're going to take much longer. Now 2028 update pushed back to 2029.

.. and why did BC cancel its carbon tax ... just because the feds cancelled the carbon-tax-or-alternative requirement it imposed on provinces?

While I'm generally in support of the use of bike lanes by scooters and wheelchairs, where the bike lane is uni-directional and too narrow for passing, I'm concerned when a 7km/h wheelchair blocks the lane... sidewalk if available might be a more appropriate route. Faster wheelchairs, scooters: OK.

Hello, Saanich. Please examine this map carefully. Yes, Saanich is more spread out and we can't expect the same density of bike infrastructure as C of Victoria. But we should at least be able to expect the same # of kilometers given that your tax base is roughly the same.

Gee, Mark, do you really think this is going to make me more likely to vote Liberal in the next election? Dream on.

Somehow, SOS, hereinafter referred to as ABN (the anti-bike Nazis), had its feed landing on my infrequently-visited Facebook page. Argued cars bumper to bumper but I didn't see any bikes (presumably on the Goose paralleling the TCH). Brace yourself for more from this group.

Contractors seem to think blocking pedestrians & bikes is not the same as blocking motor vehicle traffic: nothing wrong with holding up bike lanes for long periods (witness the Lochside trail blockage), discontinuing sidewalks, etc. Municipal engineering departments need to be "on this".

SOS Sure, there are sometimes points to be made regarding poorly designed development projects & there are instances where small compromises will mitigate the negative impact of developments on existing nbrhoods, but by an large SOS is merely anti -all-development (&worse: anti-bike too) . 2/2

Thank you so much Amber Wright for articulating what many of us think: the Save Our Saanich bozo brigade is largely a bunch of self-interested narrow-minded entitled a-holes who are incapable of listening to rational argumentation. 1/2

After publishing all sorts of "news" articles articulating the Save Our Saanich anti-development anti-bike cut-taxes & screw the idea of better public services view and then SOS opinion pieces we finally see an anti-SOS opinion piece in Saanich News Today. BUT they invited SOS to publish a "reply".

Dear car & truck drivers: please note that the 1 metre rule (you must give cyclists 1 metre when you pass) applies equally to cyclists in painted-line-only bike lanes. Please at least have the courtesy of slowing down to pass if you break this law.

Good luck trying this in Saanich, with the Save Our Saanich bozos screaming "no more bike lanes! no bus lanes! we want our traffic lanes!" to every member of council who will listen. Dedicated bus lane along the length of McKenzie E of Pat Bay a much needed solution, but will prob. never happen.

In the CRD, if your bus trip involves connections --> bad news, even if the connections sometimes work. My almost daily trip downtown is single route (no connections needed) by bus taking me about the same amount of time as biking but biking is "on demand" (no 40 min. schedule wait). So I bike.

Central Saanich is right up there on the Bike Ugliness Index. Probably has a higher score even than Oak Bay.

Sadly, Saanich might possibly become "Bikelash City" even though there is hardly much bike infrastructure construction (other than lanes "on the plan" for 2023 completion). Most of the SOS types seem to be totally opposed to any bike network elements. Like living in the 1950s, only worse.

I rode around my neighbourhood in roughly a 2km radius and was shocked at the automotive gridlock.. at 3:10pm. Huh? I asked myself. Then realized: school gets out at [the ridiculously early hour of] 2:50pm & parents were picking up their kids with cars. What's wrong with this picture?

The BC NDP have one big thing going for them (after alienating environmentalists by cancelling the Active Transportation grants, killing the carbon tax, over-promoting LNG, etc. etc.): they aren't the BC Conservatives.

Not a peep from Capital Bike, which should be running a letter-writing campaign with outraged protest about this. Hello, Capital Bike, anyone home?

Major issue with Rithet's bog is lack of water. Major possible (not probable) -ve impact if 4401 is stormwater runoff at peak water periods (increased nutrient load near one less threatened end, but only maybe). If so concerned, why hasn't the petition poster met with Rithet's Bog CS? (2 of 2)

There is a change.org petition calling for people to oppose a proposed 6 story development at 4401 Chatterton. Its claim regarding the impact on Rithet's bog is massively overstated and in many cases simply wrong. (1 of 2 posts)

Another day, another anti-bike-lane rant in the Times Colonist, not unexpectedly given top billing (first letter to the editor). We should start a "rename the TC" contest. Winning entry will probably include one of the following words: regressive, dinosaur, backwards-looking, car-centric, awful.

So the Save Our Saanich people (I'm trying not to use the plural form of the word bozo here) are opposing the proposed development at 4401 Chatterton (6 story apartments along the Quadra corridor). New motto for SOS: "build nothing, let younger generation pitch tents on Pandora"

As I understand it, Council is split between those supportive of more cycling infrastructure and those opposed, with the mayor as the deciding vote -- and sadly the mayor tends not to support meaningful cycling infrastructure initiatives.

Another day, another anti-housing-policy (in this case, anti-densification) cartoon in the Times Colonist. Surprise surprise.

I'm sick of the "there's no other way to get my kids to school" I keep hearing. In a few cases it is half correct (where parents don't feel safe sending their kids biking across terrible & dangerous Pat Bay highway crossings where catchment areas straddle the road), but in most cases it is BS.

...and this was a "bike route" crossing. Think of all the crossings in Saanich cyclists need to make that are super dangerous yet Saanich refuses to identify these as priority cycling routes (Pat Bay highway crossings the worst). Try to convince me that Vision Zero in Saanich isn't a cruel joke.

A new bozo brigade is being formed, calling itself the Conservative Electors Association. Only details on its web page: "safer streets" (let me guess: with fewer bicycles), "lower taxes" (English translation: fewer social & municipal services) and "families first" (huh?).

How on earth can this be a "no government intervention required" matter? If a highway is shut down for more than a couple of days it's a big urgent concern. Yet transit can be shut down the better part of a year and it's "not a big enough problem for us to worry about"? Hello, NDP, anyone home?

On a Facebook post, Saanich Coun. Nathalie Chambers claims that because (by her calculation) 54% of voters support pro-development policies there's "no mandate" due to low voter turnout. By this standard (must get >50% of eligible voters not those who voted), government would never be able to act.

I've only racked up one hit in >10 years, but dozens of near misses. As for the Saanich Road Safety Action Plan, I sometimes wonder if prefix "In" should be placed before the word "Action". They are at least cutting down speed limits but that is a) inexpensive b) at best marginally effective.

On a "how progressive" scale from 0 to 100, the Illiberals are currently around 20 and the Regressive Conservatives under Pee Pee are around 0. I'm not a huge fan of Trudeau, but at least the Illibs scored a bit (not a lot, a bit) higher under him.

An anti-bike lane cartoon in today's Times Colonist. Please, TC folks, can you at least give some semblance of an attempt to dissuade me of my view that you are a regressive if not right wing rag spouting inane nastiness to a dwindling set of readers?

Each year, 61 people are killed in BC -> "impaired causing death" . There's a whole massively-funded organization called MADD devoted this issue. The same year, there are 56 pedestrian and 7 cyclist deaths causes by motor vehicles, but no similar moral outrage re bad infrastruct. & driver att's.

Facebook discussion group Saanich Election 2026 Discussion Group has a number of posters calling for a "freeze" on the already anemic & already pushed back by half a decade Saanich Active Transportation Plan. I'm hoping future discussions on that group are more balanced but am not holding my breath

He still has a reservoir of good will. As much as I'd like to see said left course correction, he can probably get away without it. Note that the UK unpopularity of Labour was anticipated on the day they one the election (electors hated all parties; Labour the least objectionable at the time).

And check out the local transit plan, approved 2022, for Cordova Bay: 60 min bus service, none after 10pm. with a need to transfer ( extra $3 now) at Royal Oak to get downtown hardly appropriate for "walkability".

$160 million wouldn't restore the E&N, say as far as Duncan, but it would be a good start. No corridor widening needed, higher capacity, good alternative to hazardous winter travel to jobs in Victoria over the pass for Cowichan & Duncan residents.

Why I'm not enthusiastic about "provide free transit" movement. Money is desperately needed to improve transit infrastructure (why can't more med-sized cities have trams as in Europe?) and bus frequencies. If this money goes to free transit instead, most won't mode shift onto crowded systems.

Yep. In the meantime, proposed ICBC surcharge rate: a) car more than small car weight (multiply by factor car is > typical euro-car) b) pickup truck surcharge x 2 TIMES factor by which truck is > typical euro city delivery truck c) pickup truck w. high hood: set low height then 0.5 x # cm above.

Elephants are born weighing 250 lbs. They are the biggest babies on earth except for motorists when they see a bike lane

Summertime & I get to rethink my usual Lochside trail route between Royal Oak & McKenzie because of high levels of chain-destructive dust on the trail. Sick of having to wash bike every 2nd day. Why not pave this section ? To accommodate the equestrians who use this trail a few times a year.

Saanich is planning much the same, just not anytime soon. I'm guessing their network will be halfway decent by the end of the century, maybe a few years later.

For years, Saanich failed to build up reserves to help fund needed future capital replenishment projects. "Keep taxes low". Not the fault of the current mayor or most of the current council. With no reserves, when buildings fall apart what do they do? Not much choice other than borrowing.

And the various arguments about "democracy" and "good financial management" and "giving the people a say" were just window dressing. 2/2

My sense is that these people -- or at least the organizers -- were motivated by a desire to punish Saanich Councilors for not dumping the Quadra McKenzie Plan (they probably would stop at nothing short of scrapping it entirely) and not by a coherent critique of the works yard planning. 1/2

For a long time, I tried to retain the position that what IDF was doing was terrible but not genocide even though there were "genocide-like" outcomes, the IDF employed murderous and unreasonably insufficient rules of engagement etc. etc. This position became untenable over a year ago.

..And with car route alternatives (Blanshard, Pat Bay), better transit throughput and cycle lanes, a 4-to-3 car lane reduction on Quadra would probably reduce traffic volumes making traffic congestion less not more of a problem. 2/2

Frustrating that there are so many people writing to Saanich Council with "it's ridiculous to reduce Quadra to one lane of car traffic" (really a 4-to-3). Yet, traffic densities along Quadra are only slightly higher than Royal Oak Drive, where a 4-to-3 reduction worked very well. 1/2

Number of trips I made to the USA in a typical year prior to 2024: 3-4. Number of trips I will make this year: 0 Number of trips I will make in the next 4 years: 0. Number of trips I will make to "progressive states": 0.