Traffic & Transportation

As Kelowna’s population has grown, so too has the amount of congestion on our roads. In fact, according to the city’s annual vehicle travel time surveys, it’s gotten quite a bit worse: From 2023 to 2024, the number of routes that experienced moderate or severe congestion increased from 47 to 57%. Worse still, almost the entire increase came from higher levels of severe congestion (defined as routes with travel times almost twice as long as they would be with no congestion), rising from 9% in 2023 to 18% in 2024. Surprisingly, according to the City of Kelowna, “these reasonably stable travel times show that we are generally trending in the desired direction.” I disagree. 

Kelowna’s 2040 Transportation Master Plan laid out 16 goals. While it has succeeded in achieving 12 of those, including “improving health” and “enhancing urban centres,” it has made no progress towards “supporting livable communities” and “enhancing travel affordability,” and is outright failing the goals that should be the core priorities of a transportation plan: “fostering a growing economy,” and “optimizing travel times.”

While health, bike ridership, and efforts to improve access in urban areas are laudable goals, they should be secondary to ensuring Kelowna residents can safely get where they are going in a timely fashion. In a city where just 3.6% of trips are made by bicycle, but congestion is growing at a pace that is outstripping our population growth, the city needs to ensure its focus is on getting you to work or your kids to school safely and without delay.

Furthermore, the city must move faster on identified infrastructure issues. For example, the Clement Avenue extension to Highway 33, now in the preliminary design phase, was first presented to council in 2010. In 2020, it was re-confirmed as a transportation improvement priority within the Transportation Master Plan. Currently, construction is expected to begin in 2028 - 18 years after it was first proposed, and 8 years after it was identified as a priority. That is simply ridiculous. It took 20 months to build the Coquihalla from Hope to Merritt. Likewise, the well-known issue of having four traffic lights spaced an average of 200 metres apart on Highway 97 from Abbott to Richter must be addressed, again in a timely fashion. 

And the impact of construction and maintenance on traffic flows must be better managed. While water main maintenance is obviously a priority for the community, it has turned one of the city's main arteries, Glenmore Road, into a construction zone for years. The closure of Burtch Road was extended by almost double due to construction. And line painting projects simultaneously close numerous parallel routes every spring and summer, forcing commuters onto one or two remaining open routes. All of this is unacceptable. Road users must be the priority, and any projects closing lanes or roads must be held to a higher standard.

To this end, the City of Kelowna should revise the Transportation Master Plan and budget to reflect how Kelowna residents actually get around, and ensure the focus remains on reducing travel times.

Lastly, I believe Kelowna must begin work on a rapid transit system to alleviate traffic over the bridge, and provide a better transit option for in-city commuters. Although the province has been adamant that a second crossing is never going to happen, and the depth of the lake does indeed make such an endeavour impossibly expensive, engineers have stated that it is possible to add a sixth lane to the existing bridge. 

If elected, I would strive to partner with the province to fund this sixth lane, with the intention of creating an affordable at-grade light rail or tram line that would run from West Kelowna, over the bridge, then route north past City Park and run along Water Street to Prospera Place, where the route could proceed east to make use of the former CN railbed already owned by the city. Paralleling the Rail Trail to the airport, this route would pass through Kelowna’s core commercial and industrial areas to serve local commuters, while also serving the UBC campus, and our rapidly expanding airport. It would greatly reduce commuter traffic over the bridge and within the city by providing fast, comfortable service through our busiest areas. It would also allow us to relocate the existing transit hub from its current location, which is hardly central, and open the door to new residential and commercial development areas, all with minimal impact on existing residential areas. 

But we must begin work on this route immediately if we are to avoid the problems experienced with the GVRD’s Skytrain network in securing efficient routes that do not unduly impact residential areas and developments. 

 The widespread adoption of electric bikes and scooters has brought much-needed alternative active transportation options to Kelowna. By extending the distance people can travel by self-propelled means, these options help reduce the number of cars on the road, lower emissions, and provide an affordable alternative means of transportation. 

But their integration into our transportation network needs to be better managed. Significantly heavier than standard bicycles and scooters, and capable of vastly higher speeds, their use on shared infrastructure from the Rail Trail to our roadways and sidewalks comes with new challenges and must be addressed, if their benefits are to be fully leveraged and realized.

So in order to ensure the safety of riders, drivers, and pedestrians, while striving to reduce congestion and increase roadspace efficiency, the City of Kelowna should take a leadership role in how our province integrates these and other forms of alternative and active transportation into our existing framework of infrastructure and laws by bringing forward a resolution at the Union of BC Municipalities to commission a province-wide study into how to best to modernize the motor vehicle act to reflect today’s reality. The simple fact is, many of the electrically assisted options available today can reach speeds roughly comparable to the average moped or 50cc scooter, and their use should reflect that.

Additionally, Kelowna should lead by creating divided lanes on our most heavily used stretches of shared trails and pathways to separate slower-moving pedestrian traffic from faster cycling and electrically-assisted riders, to reduce the risk of a collision and make sure everyone is able to use these shared pathways enjoyably.

Finally, Kelowna should hold a plebiscite providing insight and guidance on rental e-scooters and e-bikes in town. Broadly useful and, by all accounts, reducing the number of car trips required, conventional logic nonetheless holds that the city’s Lime fleet is likely predominantly used by tourists - tourists who don’t live with the daily frustrations of finding Lime bikes parked across sidewalks, discarded in areas less frequently serviced by Lime’s employees, or drunkenly ridden down busy roadways. But Kelowna residents do, and they deserve full transparency into the costs, benefits, and impacts of Lime’s undoubtedly lucrative operation in Kelowna, and a voice in the discussion of how Lime or any other rental company is allowed to use our infrastructure.