Report: Get active on travel
City urged to spend $10 million on bike lanes and other routes
By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE City Hall Reporter
Sun, May 1 - 4:53 AM
Regional council’s transportation standing committee is recommending councillors consider authorizing $10 million for multi-use trails, bicycle lanes and other active transportation elements in the Halifax area.
A new report to council suggests the municipality look at ways to fund the planned network. It suggests $2 million a year over five years would be appropriate.
"This will affect current and future budgets," says the report, approved by Bruce Fisher, city hall’s acting finance director.
"There may also be future operating costs."
Public consultation would be part of the proposal.
Halifax Regional Municipality’s active transportation plan was approved in principle in 2006.
The report, on the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting, proposes five major projects:
•Employment centre "spines" in the Woodside area of Dartmouth, Burnside industrial park, Bayers Lake Business Park and on peninsular Halifax.
•Connect and extend the linear parkway in Halifax, near the Mainland Common.
•Develop a Bedford-Sackville corridor, with a trail built along the Little Sackville River.
•Complete active transportation connections in the Alderney area of Dartmouth.
•Construct arterial sidewalks on such streets as Wright Avenue and the Bedford Highway.
The report was released Friday, the day after regional council voted 15-5 to approve the 2011-12 operating and capital budgets. A late-hour budget plan called for the city to spend about $500,000 on active transportation this year, pending funding arrangements.
Coun. Jennifer Watts (Connaught-Quinpool), vice-chairwoman of the transportation committee, said Saturday that building a connected, active transportation network makes sense on more than one level.
She said dishing out millions of dollars on road-widening and other vehicle-related projects lacks foresight.
"We have to have alternatives so people can move around this city in a way that does not depend on single-car traffic," the councillor said. "And whether that’s transit, the other component of that is a really critical (active transportation) network that works for people and allows them to . . . get to school, get to work, get to the grocery store."
Watts said the committee’s recommendation "is out of sync" with the municipality’s budget cycle, "so we’ll have to look at whether we just want to recommend to (regional) council that this be taken in consideration with the capital budget planning."
Coun. Steve Streatch (Eastern Shore-Musquodoboit Valley) called the $10-million notion a low priority. He questioned if some existing active transportation routes in metro are being used.
"Over the years, we have spent millions of dollars on trail systems, walking paths and bike lanes, some of which get very limited use and have maintenance challenges. There would also be no guarantee people would even use new active transportation corridors," he said in an email.
Mayor Peter Kelly feels the plan is too rich for the municipality’s blood, though he said active transportation is important.
Criticizing active transportation as too expensive is missing the big picture, said Watts.
"We certainly have no problem going ahead with major road projects, which are vastly more expensive," she said.
"I don’t think we’re being realistic about how much money we put into car traffic, and we’re not critical of that or understand what that is. We really don’t understand what’s going to be happening in the next 20 years in terms of the impact on the environment and rising oil prices."
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