North Cowichan’s Master Transportation Plan will provide long-term direction and guide all decisions related to the municipality’s transportation network over the next 30 years.
The project began last year and is nearing completion, but before the draft plan is finalized community input is needed on the draft vision, goals and recommendations. A survey is available now until Sunday, Aug. 14.
During the first phase of the project, residents and stakeholders provided feedback on current and existing conditions of North Cowichan’s transportation network and shared their values and priorities related to transportation.
From the travel survey, it was learned 84 per cent of residents own a vehicle, 5 per cent of those vehicles are electric, 58 per cent own a bicycle and 6 per cent of those are electric, 25 per cent regularly travel outside North Cowichan and the average travel distance is per trip is 11.24 kilometres. It was also found 48 per cent of existing vehicle trips were short and could be done by walking or biking.
The draft recommendations include targets to reduce future vehicle travel and the updated MTP will help guide future planning and projects to improve infrastructure to meet these goals.
All North Cowichan residents can access the survey at www.ConnectNorthCowichan.ca/MTP. Feedback heard through the survey will help prioritize the transportation network and infrastructure improvements and will inform the final list of recommendations in the plan. A full draft of the plan will be available later this fall.