The Regional Transportation Plan was developed in partnership with the City of Kelowna, City of West Kelowna, District of Lake Country, District of Peachland, Westbank First Nation and the Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO) and in collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) and BC Transit. Development of the plan was supported by a grant from the Strategic Priorities Fund under the Administrative Agreement on the Federal Gas Tax Fund (GTF) in British Columbia.

Working collaboratively across the region

This is the first region-wide transportation plan for the Central Okanagan. The long-range, high-level plan was developed following more than two-and-a-half years of technical studies, consultation, and unprecedented collaboration across the region.

The plan reflects the interests and values heard from people across the region and sets the direction for Central Okanagan governments to work together to:

• move people and goods more efficiently,
• achieve fast and reliable transit,
• create a safe and convenient regional bicycling and trails network, and
• incorporate new mobility options.

The Regional Transportation Plan and its supporting plans, the Regional Bicycling and Trails Master Plan and the Regional Disruptive Mobility Strategy, include recommendations designed to address each of these key directions.

Key features

Create a fast and reliable transit spine along the Highway 97 corridor

This feature would make transit faster and more reliable, increase the people-moving capacity of the corridor and make more efficient use of the existing road network. It would also get transit out of mixed traffic and begin proteciting space for potential future conversion to higher capacity transit, which may be possible in the long-term future as the population grows and technology brings down costs.

Harvey Avenue in Kelowna is the corridor with the best potential for reaching the population and employment densities needed to support bus rapid transit, light rail transit, or another form of higher capacity transit by the 2040 planning horizon. It's anticipated the plan features along the Provincial highway system will be looked at further as part of the next phase of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure's Central Okanagan Planning Study.

Other key features:

• Add 81 kilometres of regional bicycling and trail facilities
• Transportation improvements around UBC Okanagan and the Kelowna International Airport (the Okanagan Gateway area)
• New mobility hubs in Peachland and lake Country
• Recommendation to conduct a Regional goods Movement Study to guide the sustainable movement of goods as our region grows

In addition, the plan includes recommendations for policies, programs and services that will complement the infrastructure recommendations and help achieve the plan vision and goals through supportive land use policies, enhanced transit service, demand-responsive transit, and the incorporation of shared and new mobility options

Moving forward

The Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) aligns with the strategic direction of Provincial plans, including CleanBC and the BC Economic Framework. The RTP provides guidance on transportation projects, policies and programs that benefit the region and is intended to support and enhance planning by other levels of government.

Moving forward, Central Okanagan governments can use the plan as a framework of priorities over the next 20 years so that they can plan and seek funding together, as a unified region.