Safer Cycling Tourism on SSI

On June 4, 2024, about 60 Salt Springers joined Minister of Tourism, Lana Popham and others for a bikeride and presentation about safer cycling tourism on Salt Spring Island. (photos by Christopher Roy)

Colleen MacDonald, author of the Let’s Go Biking blog and book series, provided this excellent presentation, titled “Safer Active Transportation on Salt Spring Island.”

Island Pathways Board Member, Steve New, chaired a meeting with local government, business, and non-profit representatives and the Minister and her staff to secure commitments to collaborate on safer, and regionally-connected infrastructure for cycling tourism, such as the Salish Sea Trail.

Board Member, Simon Rompre, summarized the great event in this article published in the Driftwood Newspaper, (full text provided below the image). It was a great way to celebrate GoByBikeBC Week!

On Tuesday June 4th, island Pathways hosted a ride, round table and presentation with Minister of Tourism Lana Popham. The event was well attended and representatives from the LCC, Island Trust, MLA and Ministry of Tourism office, CRD as well as Southern Gulf Island Tourism and BC Ferries  were present for a round table at the library where everyone invited discussed how we can make bicycle touring better on Salt Spring.

In 2016, the islands welcomed nearly a quarter million visitors, which accounted for over 20% of working-age adults’ employment, generated approximately $20 million in pre-tax income, and incurred an estimated 250,000 annual vehicle trips. Today, the Southern Gulf Islands see more than 800,000 visitors annually, the majority of which come between June and August, more than doubling BC Ferries’ passenger volumes on the routes that serve our islands. This seasonal influx of visitors leads to congestion, increased vehicle traffic, strains on existing infrastructure, and safety issues. To ensure a sustainable economy and to preserve the quality of life for residents, there’s a pressing need for infrastructure that promotes alternative, low-carbon transportation options, like cycling. Data shows that cyclists tend to spend more on accommodations, food, and local experiences. They foster a culture of fitness and community engagement.

The event’s host, Island Pathways has been around for 35 years and is now shifting focus to cycling. Many members of Island pathways and in the audience have been gathering  with MLA Adam Olsen for three years as part of the Salish Sea Trail Network Working Group (SSTNWG). The group meets monthly with various partners, including Elizabeth May, Island’s Trust, CRD, Ferry Advisory, IP, MoTI and CRD Regional Parks.The Salish Sea Trail loop once completed will connect the Lochside trail to the Galloping Goose through the Sooke Wilderness Trail into Shawnigan lake and into the Cowichan Valley trail up to Lake Cowichan and back to Crofton. The only missing link to this world class cycle tour is the section going through Salt Spring.

Many pointed out that we need dedicated separated bike lanes. Bike operators come to Salt Spring, try it for one year and then leave because of the lack of infrastructure. Other  international travelers rent bikes and do the loop (Salish Sea Trail), unfortunately,  because we don’t have the infrastructure on Salt Spring, they don’t stay long. Salt Spring could be more than just a Saturday market destination and be a multi day tour experience. We lose out, if we want more international travelers we need better infrastructure. Another well traveled participant was just in New Zealand and mentioned that if we do what New Zealand did, we will have a billion dollars industry.

In spite of its lack of safety on the busiest roads, Salt Spring island, with over 270 km of rural roads has a lot to offer to cycling tourists and islands in general make great cycling destinations because you can fit many more bikes than cars on ferries.

CRD director Gary Holman reminded us that MoTI has committed to repaving the Ganges Hill, which will be underway over the summer,  with 1.2m of bike lanes and will be advocating to keep doing bike lanes as the road gets repaved.

Participants from Minister Popham’s office, some of them strong cycling advocates, agreed that infrastructure is important. We need to define different types of infrastructure, some will appeal to different markets. For example, they mentioned looking into having proper signage like the blue signs along highways telling people where they can find attractions, services and anything linked to cycle touring experience. Promotion is also important, events like GoByBike as well as partners like Southern Vancouver Island tourism and Mainland tourism can help as well as tour operators.  Everything contributes to building on what we have here and  even though there are a lot of distinct aspects, we need to  look at the big picture. However, we need to build it like Lego, one block at a time. Because there is so much competition for funding, it is much easier for the ministry of tourism to go forward when the community comes together with a coherent plan and the community is  behind it. It is important to keep doing what we are doing so the ministry  of tourism can help.

Minister Popham mentioned that they had not started working on this file yet because all the levers are in other ministries. However when they start working on this they start working fast and now MoTI and BC parks  knows the work is underway. They have identified three routes they will be working on, the Okanagan route, Vancouver-Pemberton and Southern Vancouver Island to Comox which Gulf Islands is part of.

They are asking communities to come together to get routes established, identify pinch points, low, medium and high hanging fruit. The Ministry of Tourism’s work is identifying which ministry is responsible for what. This meeting is perfect for this. The connection to the environment is interesting and while tourism is very important for the economy, if we continue to invite people without concern for sustainability, we will get ourselves in a lot of trouble. Most tourism organizations are well aware of this already and this is very good for the ministry of tourism because it encourages low emission travel. Also, those travelers spend a lot of money because they need accommodation as well as food for energy, they see it as high value tourism. Ministry of Tourism is also talking with the minister of environment and looking into something they already do in the US where they save camping spots for low and zero emission travelers without needing to reserve. Sometimes when you are cycling, you are unable to reserve because you don’t know when you will get there. These campsites will also accommodate  ebikes. This is already happening on Hornby Island where they have some designated campsites for no and low emission arrivals.

Steve New on behalf of Island Pathways brought Minister Popham a few recommendations from  the organization. One of these recommendations is that the minister support the completion of the Salish sea Trail which she responded with an enthusiastic “let’s do it!” Minister Popham also agreed to work with cabinet colleagues on funding and talked about developing a cycling strategy around cycling. She reminded us that much of it is in the making and it will take a while to develop a province wide strategy for cycling and hiking but that she is working on it.

They are currently working with Destination BC, the ministry’s website, to have a more interactive and app based tool website so people can log onto the Destination BC website and have the wanted info come up. However Destination BC is not planning on reinventing the wheel and will be relying on community organizations and businesses to provide the information. “There is a couple years worth of work but this is where we are heading”, she said. 

They are looking at having the work done for the 2026 World Cup. Many visitors will come for soccer but may not be traveling with friends or family that are coming for soccer. They don’t want soccer to be the only thing people are coming for because there are many other activities like arts and culture along with sport tourism.

Randy Cunningham from the Southern Gulf Island Tourism Partnership reminded the audience of the need to disperse and downsize the amount of cars and would like to have more people come on bicycles. However no matter how much we market cycle tourism on the island, if there is no infrastructure, even the maintenance is a big issue.

Kelly Armstrong from the Harbour House noticed that at times their parking lot may look empty but the rooms are full because people come by bicycles. They have bike racks in the hotel and charging for ebikes. She thinks that if we can show Destination BC that we have some infrastructure in place it will help bring visitors and it usually takes about one year to get international tourists in.

Someone in the round table mentioned that the first tourist experience on any of the Gulf Islands will likely be on BC ferries. It is important to have a welcoming infrastructure and BC Ferries need to do more for cyclists.

It was agreed that better signage, increased speed limits and more frequent road shoulder sweeping are the low hanging fruits and minister Popham will be contacting MoTI on these issues, especially signage.

CRD director Gary Holman would like to see an inter agency group on the Salish Sea trail so there is continuation to this and minister Popham summed up the meeting with a few recommendations on how to go forward.

 “Break things down into smaller items, it allows us to do planning. The larger items have to be figured out with other ministries and that takes time. We are meeting with BC Ferries and are talking about many of the things that were brought up at the meeting. For example, as we approached Ganges today, I noticed that it is a pretty sketchy entrance and it was nerve racking, the pavement is uneven and there are holes. There is no welcoming sign and no indication of where you can go, how can we make cyclists feel welcome? We could have signs that provide QR codes for where accommodations are, where ebikes can be charged like at the library. As a community what can you do to move things? Maybe it is cool looking signs or artwork with bicycles that will welcome visitors.”

BIG THANKS to the SSI Library for sponsoring the event space; the Southern Gulf Islands Tourism Partnership (SGITP) for sponsoring the local lunch & snacks; and to Let’s Go Biking for sponsoring the presentation and gifted books. Thanks, too, to the Federal Active Transportation Fund for helping Island Pathways advance the concept of the Salish Sea Trail Network, to MLA Adam Olsen’s Office for taking and sharing notes; and to Christopher Roy Photography for capturing this beautiful day! (link here to his full gallery of images)