Car is king in Peachland

Survey says pubic transit not popular in Central Okanagan

Peachlanders are the most car-dependant residents of the Central Okanagan while those who live in downtown Kelowna can do most of their daily errands on foot.

A regional transportation study reveals some significant differences on how people get around based on where they live.

Public transit is less popular in the Central Okanagan than in some other comparably sized Canadian communities, the study also shows.

And while the W.R. Bennett bridge on Highway 97 might be a provincially built and maintained structure, it functions mainly like a municipal street. Only four per cent of all traffic on the bridge is passing through the Central Okanagan.

Study results, now being presented to municipal councils in the greater Kelowna area, give Peachland the lowest so-called Walkscore in the Central Okanagan. This is said to be a measurement of how often people can walk to accomplish their daily errands based on the proximity of shops and services to residential areas.

With a Walkscore of 31 out of 100, Peachland is said to be a community where “most errands require a car.” At the other extreme is downtown Kelowna with a Walkscore score of 97, meaning “daily errands do not require a car.”

Downtown Westbank has a Walkscore of 69, South Pandosy’s rating is 87 and central Rutland’s is 86.

Central Winfield in Lake Country has a Walkscore of 47, meaning “most errands require a car.”

The total number of hours that public transit operates in greater Kelowna each year is said to be on par with the similarly-sized cities of Kingston, Ont., Moncton, N.B., and Guelph, Ont.

But transit is used by a somewhat lower percentage of commuters in Kelowna than elsewhere, less than four per cent compared to an average of 5.5 per cent for those other three communities.

An updated household travel survey will be conducted this fall by a research firm contracted by local governments. Among other things, randomly selected survey respondents will be asked how they make most of their trips, where they are going, and how long the journeys take.

The survey was last done in 2013.