TRANSPORTATION MASTER PLAN ENGAGEMENT #1 WHAT WE HEARD

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated January 29, 2026 from the Director of Engineering titled “Transportation Master Plan Engagement #1 What We Heard” be received for information.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to summarize the engagement findings for “Survey 1” of the Transportation Master Plan (TMP). Survey 1 aimed to confirm the community’s level of agreement with previously identified challenges and to gather additional issues, ideas, or opportunities that residents feel should be addressed in the new Transportation Master Plan.

PARTICIPATION SUMMARY:

Online engagement was the champion in informing the public of the project and survey. Quickfacts on promotional impacts are summarized below:

• Engagement website: 1020 views from 697 visitors
• Instagram: 4423 unique accounts and viewed 7789 times
• Facebook: 329 unique accounts and 622 total views
• Community promotion: reddit

Figure 1: Question 28 of the Survey Identifying how Participants were Informed of the Survey

As a result:

• A total of 237 participants submitted survey responses
• 69% of respondents were identified to be in an equity deserving group
• Most respondents were residents of View Royal, while nearly half of these engaged in recreation or other activities in the Town
• 41% of respondents also identified travelling through View Royal to reach different destinations.
• 44% of respondents were identified as middle aged adults, while 28% identified as older adults and 28% identified as youth / young adults

Key Themes and Alignment with OCP and ATNP Values

Generally, the current transportation habits of participants were largely vehicle based, and most participants agreed that public transit and multi-modal transportation options should be a priority. These findings were consistent with the Official Community Plan (OCP) and Active Transportation Network Plan (ATNP) engagement findings, signalling to the Town that there is a unified, common interest in the need for the Town to invest resources to improve public transit and multi-modal corridors.

Key themes that arose from the survey are identified in the table below:

OCP VS: Official Community Plan Vision Surveys
OCP BMW: Official Community Plan Business Mixer Workshop
OCP WGC: OCP Western Gateway Community Corridor Engagement
OCP PR: OCP Policy Review Engagement
ATNP: Active Transportation Network Plan

Five corridors were identified to have reflected many of the key themes: Island Highway, Helmcken Road, Admirals Road, Burnside Road West, Watkiss Way.

Light Rail

Interest in light rail as a transportation option was high. Per the Council directed survey question, 76% of respondents indicated they are somewhat to very interested, with destinations centring around commuting between the Victoria Core area and the West Shore, Hwy 1 corridor, and the E&N rail alignment.

How Will This Engagement Data Be Used?

As the engagement findings are consistent with previous OCP engagement activities, the transportation master plan project team believe that there is a solid foundation regarding the day to day issues that impact View Royal residents during their travels. As a result, the engagement data will be used to inform the project team on priority transportation modes, planning directions and specific locations and issues that may then be subject to more in-depth analysis and consideration for priority improvement projects. The project team will also examine the feedback looking for points of agreement disagreement as this input often helps identify areas that require further study and mitigation analysis.

Staff have already forwarded the engagement findings regarding light rail to the Capital Regional District and the Province (Ministry of Transportation and Transit) as such a service is multi-jurisdictional that would require their consideration.

Next Engagement Phase

Round 2 engagement (February to March / April) will include the following:

• Outreach to neighbouring local governments, the province, and other jurisdictional partners (including First Nations)
• Outreach to interest groups (accessibility groups, local business community, School District / PAC)
• Three (3) community pop ups – bringing engagement directly to the community via sounding boards located in high traffic areas. The boards will provide updates on what has been heard, and to draw attention to Survey #2
• Survey #2 –Survey #2’s goal is to obtain input and buy-in of the TMP vision/mission, goals and objectives, setting the stage for Round 3 (drafting the TMP).

Council previously heard in the 2025 engagement primer that a public ideas fair was to be included in Round 2 (late February). This event will be shifted and best represented in Round 3 because:

• Engagement fatigue is a real issue and risk, given that the community and Council have been involved and consulted on OCP and transportation related topics several times over the last few months. Another February event can risk less participation as a result.
• The public ideas fair is best initiated once the OCP vision is solidified.
• Consistent OCP and TMP themes means that the TMP process is tracking better than expected. With both an ideas fair and open house event in Round 3, where more potential actions and refined analysis can be shared, the community has the opportunity to better represent themselves in the final TMP product.

ANALYSIS:

Impacts and implications can be summarized as follows:

ALIGNMENT:

The recommended option aligns with the Town’s following core guiding documents as follows:

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GOAL:

The desired level of public participation for the recommended option is:

[x] Inform [ ] Consult [ ] Involve [ ] Collaborate [ ] Empower
[ ] N/A

CONCURRENCE:

REVIEWED BY:

ATTACHMENTS:

• What We Heard Summary Report