Car’s hold on Kelowna may be starting to slip
Report says per capita rate of vehicle ownership in city, though highest in Canada, dropped between 2006 and 2011
The car may be king in Kelowna, but the rate of vehicle ownership is declining. Kelowna was one of only five cities among Canada’s 44 largest communities where the per capita rate of vehicle ownership dropped between 2006 and 2011, the latest years for which information is available.
But Kelowna still had the highest overall rate, at 0.92 vehicles for every city resident, according to the 2016 Transportation Association of Canada’s Urban Transportation Indicators report.
The three next highest rates of car ownership were seen in Thunder Bay, Ont., Moncton, N.B., and Regina, Sask. The information is based on data collected by Statistics Canada.
For other B.C. cities, the rate of vehicle ownership per capita is 0.67 in Surrey, 0.66 in Victoria and 0.56 in Vancouver.
Kelowna’s slight decline in vehicle ownership rates is said by the Canadian Transportation Association to be due to expansion of the city’s transit system and greater use of “active transportation,” which refers to modes such as cycling and walking.
No mention of Kelowna’s declining rate of car ownership was made at Monday’s council meeting, where staff presented a report recommending a “transition” away from a so-called carcentric culture.
Between now and 2027, the city proposes to spend nearly as much on walking, biking and public transit ($202 million) as it does on building and maintaining roads ($210 million).
“We can’t build our way out of congestion,” Mayor Colin Basran said, supporting staff’s contention that adding to the city’s road capacity might only encourage more private vehicle use and increase traffic woes.