Last week our blog subjected you to my incredibly verbose ramblings about Victoria’s weather. This week, I answer questions from my honest opinion about transportation. Please note that I have no official qualifications to talk about transportation whatsoever; I am simply a person with an opinion and a platform.
Is the e-bike worth the hype?
We tout Victoria as easy to get around by bike and public transportation as being great. But how realistic is it to live in Victoria without a car?
The short answer is very. Our dean relies on public transportation to get to work. Many staff and faculty members bike, walk, or bus to work. So do students. We have a system of dedicated bike paths and multi-use paths (MUPs) designed to make that easier.
The long answer, however, is that it completely depends on where you live. It also depends on what perspective you move to Victoria with and what your comfort level is. It depends on what your mobility and family needs are.
If you were to place yourself on the UVic campus, you could walk 20 minutes and get to the grocery store, sushi, coffee, or any other shopping you need. There is a gym on campus, two mountains within walking distance of campus, and the ocean down the hill. If you don’t find what you need there, you can bike or bus to nearly anything in a short period of time. Living anywhere close to campus (i.e. Gordon Head or Shelbourne) will look like this.
There are, in fact, a variety of areas where you can live and not even think about wanting a car. There are other areas that are less accessible. This is where looking at a map is your friend. You can usually see what’s around an area by just zooming in.
How realistic is using the bus? The bus is perfectly adequate public transportation. It runs regularly, and it is reliable. Victoria doesn’t have the population that larger cities have to support a Sky Train or a TTC. However, I know many adult residents of Victoria who don’t drive, don’t own a car, and do just fine. Some of them rely on car sharing services occasionally, so keep that in mind as an option. Reminder: a bus pass comes with your tuition fees.
If you live further away from campus (like Sidney or Duncan), a bus commute can take an hour or two each way. Some people find that preferrable to fighting traffic and find that they can sleep or do homework on the bus. Others find the bus a more stressful way to travel and opt to drive.
How realistic is cycling? Again, it depends on where you live and what your comfort level is. There is a network of MUPs (like the Goose), and many roads have bike lanes. However, there are big hills some places. There are also occasional narrower roads that don’t have bike lanes, and cycling them frankly feels like taking a big gamble with safety. Like with public transit and walkability, you can look up where each of these are. If you are a cyclist (or an e-cyclist) you will get used to a route that feels safe and isn’t on a steep hill.
E-bikes are, for what it’s worth, a very popular choice in Victoria. People I know who own them say they are 100% worth the hype.
But I still feel like I need my car
And some people do. We have students with mobility issues, family responsibilities, immunity issues, etc. who choose to drive their cars. Yet others live further away from campus – again, for a variety of reasons – and are simply not up for a 60km cycling commute every day. Ultimately, life is about choices and making the ones that work for you.
I, personally, made the choice to live up island so that I could afford more living space. I commute to campus by offsetting my schedule from rush hour (i.e. I leave my home at 6am and return before rush hour starts). It’s a 45 minute drive each way during off peak times. It’s not without its issues, but it’s a generally lovely drive and a nice quiet time to decompress. I drive an EV, which I charge at home and again on campus. I pay a monthly parking fee. Those are the choices that have worked for me.
One thing that I find as an EV driver is that, like public transportation, the EV infrastructure is adequate. Once you know where the chargers are, it’s not tough to charge your car. However, the infrastructure isn’t as robust as I would like, and you have to be flexible with issues like unavailable and broken chargers. EVs are also gaining in popularity (have you SEEN the price of gas?) faster than the infrastructure is being built. I still find it workable and even enjoyable.
The long and winding road
One question we got during our housing webinar was about the roads in Victoria. They heard they were windy and narrow. While there are places that have windy and/or narrow roads, generally the roads in Victoria are normal city roads. The highways in Victoria are lower speed (80-90 km/hr), but they have 2-3 lanes per direction. Many main or busy roads have been updated and have bike lanes. Older or less busy residential roads in town may be narrower, but they aren’t like old-European-roads narrow or taking-your-life-into-your-own-hands narrow. There may be on-street parking and/or no bike lane, maybe no sidewalks. There are roads that I don’t feel safe riding a bike on. I honestly don’t find this different from places in other cities.
If you leave Victoria and travel the Malahat (a small but mighty mountain pass the connects Victoria to mid-island), you might find it windy, but it’s a proper highway with mostly twinned lanes and dividers.
If you travel to Sooke, around Shawnigan Lake, or to Tofino, you will find roads that are windy and sometimes narrow. However, people who live on Vancouver Island come to appreciate that those narrow, windy roads often hide the gems and the hard-to-find beauties of our home.
If you go hiking, in search of snow at higher elevation, down logging roads, or to other rural places on Vancouver Island, everything I have said is irrelevant and all bets are off. You might be driving down roads that will make you motion sick even if you are driving. Dirt or gravel roads are definitely a thing outside the city. And potholes (which are a reality when the seasons change) don’t get fixed as quickly in remote areas. My advice is that you head into remote areas here or anywhere prepared. In fact, please head into ALL areas prepared for whatever you might find there. Stay hydrated. Carry a blanket. Eat your veggies. Get a good night’s sleep. It’s just a good idea.
Next week we talk about crime and wildlife encounters