Kelowna鈥檚 per person fuel consumption is down 10 per cent compared to 2018, a new city report on transportation says.听
The trend is presented as an indicator both of the rising popularity of hybrid and electric cars, which now account for 7.6 per cent of local vehicles, but also as a sign various city initiatives to encourage other forms of transit are bearing fruit.听
The vehicle collision rate has dropped 22 per cent, people are riding bikes less often but for longer distances, and transit ridership is at an all-time high, the report says.听
A transportation master plan contains 130 recommended actions over two decades, according to a report going to city council on Monday.听
鈥淎lmost three-quarters of the actions are either complete, in progress, or ongoing, showing good progress on implementation,鈥 staff write in the report.听
Many of the objectives are obviously directly related to transportation, such as the construction of new roads and bike paths and funding for transit, but others have a more indirect relationship. For example, the city has been encouraging more new development in urban areas rather than suburbs, to decrease driving times and make walking to shops and services more feasible.听
Some listed initiatives have a more opaque relationship to transit, such as a municipal policy requiring builders to offer more assistance to displaced renters and rules governing the construction of new buildings in the Abbott Street heritage district.听
And there are some discordant notes in the report, such as an observation that travel times and delays in the afternoon rush hour have 鈥渋ncreased modestly鈥. And a significant slowdown in building permits, a possible indicator of a weakening economy, gets short shrift.听
As well, a rise in office vacancies, to almost nine per cent of inventory, is described as being 鈥渕uch lower than other big Canadian cities鈥.听
Overall, however, the report will likely be praised Monday by councillors as a sign transportation is headed the right way in Kelowna
Some specific data presented in the report:听
- traffic-related injury collision decreased by 22 per cent, from 1,600 in 2018 to 1,284 in 2023
- a total of 6.4 million rides were taken on transit buses last year, a 42 per cent increase since 2018
- between 2021 and this spring, 1.6 million rides have been taken on rental e-scooters and e-bikes licensed to operate in Kelowna听
