Transportation For All
Edmontonians should have a choice of how they move around our city — choices like personal vehicles, public transportation or active transportation networks that allow for walking, biking and use of scooters.
Building communities that support active transportation is an important part of developing transportation infrastructure. It facilitates affordable transportation choices, reduces traffic congestion, and encourages recreation and healthy lifestyles.
The Benefits of Active Transportation
Active transportation infrastructure includes multi use paths, sidewalks, and bike lanes. Different types of infrastructure that let people move around safely.
Active transportation also provides a low cost transportation option. Nationally, spending on transportation is the second highest household expense after housing. The Alberta Motor Association estimates the annual cost for operating a mid-size car can be $10,000 per year, compared with approximately $250 to $550 for biking. Transportation infrastructure that adds in other ways to travel gives residents options for navigating the city.
Active transportation also supports vibrant urban spaces and local businesses as well as provides accessibility for residents to enjoy outdoor recreation pursuits such as walking, biking or rollerblading.
Active Transportation Today
Today, Edmonton has a thriving and growing active transportation network. We’re seeing the results of investments at work.
The City of Edmonton’s Daily Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts Graph demonstrates incredible growth in users of the active transportation network — yes, even in the winter. Twenty five percent of Edmonton cyclists bike all year round.
Active Pathways Current Usage
The data collected by the City of Edmonton provides an insight into the growth and use of the active transportation pathways that guide council’s decisions.
Here are some examples:
Residential Pathways
The 102 Avenue shared pathway in Glenora is part of a residential community. This past winter (November 1 2023 — January 31, 2024), 102 Avenue pathway saw 11,700 pedestrians and 12,500 cyclists. Compared with the same time period in 2022–2023 this pathway saw almost 7,700 pedestrians and over 7,000 cyclists.
Scooters
Another example of Edmontonians using alternative transportation is through the e-scooter program. In the first 24 hours of e-scooters being back on the streets this June, Edmontonians rode 5,847 km, which is equivalent to riding across the country.
The Downtown bike network is growing. In 2017 the City of Edmonton introduced Edmonton’s first dedicated bike network that provided seven kilometres of separated lanes for cyclists.
After installation of the downtown bike network, ridership more than doubled from 2,796 daily trips in June 2017 to 6,501 daily trips in June 2018.
In June 2023, riders made more than 50,991 bike trips in the downtown active transportation network. We saw more activity on one route in June 2023 than the entirety of the network in June 2018!
Growing The Network
As Edmonton grows to a city of two million people, the way we move around our city needs to evolve. To remain a welcoming and inclusive city, we need to ensure an integrated transportation system with a variety of transportation and mobility options is available to all residents.
Since 2022, 100,000 people have moved to Edmonton. That’s 65,000 more cars on our roads. That’s enough cars to fit into West Edmonton Mall parking lot three and a quarter times.
Budget
In 2022 Council approved a $100 million active transportation expansion in the Capital Budget. This amount equates to 2% of the $5 billion Capital Budget for transportation projects, including roads and bridges over 4 years.
The plan project focuses on completing missing links in the network, approximately 72 km over 52 routes.
Of course the City of Edmonton continues to support all infrastructure that helps people move around the city. Current capital projects include the investment in the Yellowhead freeway, Missing and Enhanced sidewalk project and the Low Level Bridge rehabilitation.
We are investing in our future infrastructure and a safe way to move around our city, which is an investment in the quality of life for Edmontonians.
Many people say that Edmonton is a winter city, and we shouldn’t have active transportation, but I don’t see it that way. We have the data. More Edmontonians will bike more if we have appropriate infrastructure, which is safe, reliable, and connected.
Building transportation infrastructure that works for the needs of all Edmontonians is vital for a growing city, and is part of our strategic plan for building a strong and thoughtful city for 2 million people.
