Transportation Choices

Smart Growth Principle 3 states "Provide a variety of transportation choices." The specific questions posed to Group C were:-

"Should neighbourhoods and the downtown be linked with cyclepaths and walkways? How could this be done? Who would pay?
Group C had two suggestions for cyclepath/walkway links, and one comment:-

1. Illahie Beach Camp Ground to lower town walkway/cycle path
2. Centennial trail to town is under construction/improvement
3. "Neighborhood" needs to be defined to answer this question
   

"Is public transport needed? How could it be made viable?"
These are the methods of private transportation that group C considered practical for Summerland

1. Walking & Cycling
2. Motorbikes & Mopeds
3. Cars

Public transit improvements considered viable for Summerland are

1. Enhance existing taxi service
2. Enhance handi-dart
3. Shuttle bus linking neighbourhoods

Which roads or areas of town should have cycleways and walkways?

1. Wherever practical nodals should be linked to the downtown - so all possible areas.
2. Existing roads and easements could be used to create cycleways and roadways
   

I'd like to pitch in here with another transportation idea. We have a high proportion of elderly citizens and the loss of a drivers licence is a real blow to them, especially as it often coincides with failing ability to walk any distance. Electric scooters are only a partial solution - they work for folk who live close to the downtown. I for one will be very reluctant to surrender my driving license when the time comes because of the huge loss of mobility.

Why not allow folk to use electric golf cart type vehicles, limited to roads within Summerland? This would be an in-between vehicle, giving more range and carrying capacity than a scooter but be limited to use within the town (not allowed on highway 97). I see these advantages

• The special vehicles would make Summerland an especially desirable place to retire, and retirees with their safe pensions and higher health care needs are perhaps the best "industry" we could ever hope to have.
• If they were fitted with side screens they would be relatively weatherproof
• Their reduced speed and great manoueverability would allow folk with diminishing reaction time and reduced eyesight to continue to drive safely
• They take up much less parking space than cars
• Regular car drivers would spot these special vehicles easily and be able to allow for the driver's possibly reduced reaction times and all around vision.
• Cheaper to buy and run than a car
• More stable and safer than a scooter (I've seen 3 scooters topple over sideways during the last 12 months)
• Can carry two people so an elderly couple could still go out together.

This idea works in posh golf resorts and in totally retirement oriented places like Sun City, so why not use it here?