Cycling Update in Langley

Due to the recent creation of the Langley Area Cycling Coalition, some of us have been heading to the Langley Municipal Halls to hear about what our local governments are doing to improve cycling. While many of the details are being worked on, one item will be required: funding. Funding will be the key to improving cycling in our area. While finding funding can be challenging at times, we are lucky that cycling infrastructure is something that our local governments have direct control over. Because of that, I’m very positive that we will see better cycling in Langley.

Today we had a meeting with staff at the Township of Langley. There are a few things that I took away from that meeting. You would think that improving cycling in older neighborhoods like Brookswood and Aldergrove would be a major expense. Thought as both these neighborhoods are older, they are likely to be redeveloped over the next 20 -30 years. As redevelopment occurs, cycling infrastructure can be improved as part of the redevelopment process with something call DCCs (Developer Cost Charges). It turns out that the most costly areas to improve will be Walnut Grove and Murrayville. These areas were build out starting in the 1990’s and will not redeveloped for a long time. You basically have to retrofit cycling into these neighborhoods which has an expense.

Also interesting is that the new 202nd Street underpass for the new Langley Park and Ride will including cycling lanes and bike parking at the Park and Ride lot. Stay tuned!