People are already walking to the Langley Bypass. Let’s make it a walkable corridor.

Over the last year, I’ve done significantly more walking throughout Langley City. One of the areas that I walk to regularly is the Langley Bypass area. The Langley Bypass isn’t a pedestrian-friendly area. In some respects, the design of the corridor actively discourages walking and other active forms of transportation. Yet, whenever I go to the Langley Bypass, there are always people on the sidewalks.

People waiting to cross at 200th Street and the Langley Bypass. Select image to enlarge.

Langley City is a compact community. It is only about 1 kilometre between the Langley Bypass/Willowbrook Mall area and Downtown Langley. For most people, that is a 10-minute walk.

Research suggests that most people will choose to walk to a destination if it is a 10-minute or less walk away.

Langley City is in the process of updating our official community plan. This is the document that will guide the development of our community over the coming decade. One of the big focuses of the new official community plan is to prepare for the arrival of SkyTrain.

With SkyTrain, the goal is to make it safe and inviting for people to walk or cycle to a SkyTrain station. This means that our streets need to be great places to walk and cycle.

This summer, the City posted a draft land-use concept plan online. The land-use concept proposes to add green space to the northwest section of our community. The SkyTrain guideway will run down Industrial Avenue. Part of the guideway construction could include creating a linear park similar to the BC Parkway in Burnaby for example.

This would create a pleasant walking and cycling corridor for people to get to shops and services along the Langley Bypass and Willowbrook Mall.

As our community grows, people must have transportation choices to get out of congestion. People are already choosing to walk to a place in our community that is not the most pedestrian-friendly. The updated official community plan will allow the City to embrace the walking that is already occurring in the Langley Bypass area. An area that traditionally would not be considered a walkable corridor.