Building Bike Lanes, Bus Lanes, and Sidewalks to Reduce Congestion in Langley City

One of the questions I get asked by folks occasionally is why Langley City has been changing some general travel lanes into, or building new, bike lanes, bus lanes, and sidewalks.

Langley City has been doing this for decades. The first project was the Fraser Highway One-Way, which, up until the 1980s, was a two-way road.

One of the facts about Langley City is that our community has limited space for transportation, so we have to make the most efficient use of the space available. The following chart is from the National Association of City Transportation Officials. It shows that sidewalks, bike lanes, and bus lanes carry an order of magnitude more people per hour than general travel lanes.

From Transit Street Design Guide, Designing to Move People. People per hour by lane type. Select the graphic to enlarge.

Langley City is an extremely walkable, bikeable, and transit-accessible community (even without SkyTrain.) Giving people safe travel options means we can reduce congestion as our community grows. This congestion reduction is only possible when a community has safe and convenient walking and cycling infrastructure and fast, frequent transit service.

The report from the Canadian Automobile Association titled “Breaking the Bottlenecks: Congestion Solutions for Canada” also supports building walking and cycling infrastructure to reduce congestion.

Experience in other countries shows that building segregated bike lanes that makes cycling commuters feel safe and secure can be a relatively low-cost way to reduce urban congestion. Policymakers should also consider better integrating bike sharing with transit systems as a true “last mile” solution.

While it is counterintuitive, the transportation investments that Langley City is making will ensure that our community keeps moving, freeing up road space for commercial traffic and people with no choice but to drive.