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Fleeing by car after disasters—a bad idea

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[The Times Colonist published the following commentary by my wife, Irene. With her permission, I've included it here, with the picture and resource links that were in her original submission, plus a couple of extra links.] The Tsunami Risk Map from The City of Victoria. The safe zone is in green.   Fleeing by car after disasters—a bad idea A commentary by Irene Allen, a resident of Vic West. After the traffic jams accompanying the recent Snowbirds show and David Foster concert, several letters and social media posts have expressed concerns about how people would ­evacuate Victoria by car in the event of a tsunami or earthquake. This assumption that everyone should jump in their car and drive away in the event of a tsunami or earthquake is not only wrong, but will likely get people killed.S A tsunami affecting Victoria due to distant, or even nearby, earthquakes is not going to be a huge wall of water wiping out large swaths of the city as you see in disaster movies. The t...
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The Long and Winding Road: How We Ended Up Not Owning a Car

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My wife and I decided to move to Victoria about a decade ago. We had retired, felt like an adventure, and were looking for a fun, walkable, city. Our move to Victoria has been all of those things, and it's been full of surprises!
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A Letter on Red Light and Speed Cameras

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A letter that I recently sent to the Honourable Nina Krieger, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. The letter advocates for more red light and speed cameras in the City of Victoria. This is a companion post to  A Well Documented Crash: Johnson Street Bridge, July 5, 2022.
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A Well Documented Crash: Johnson Street Bridge, July 5, 2022

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This post is a deep dive into the moments leading up to the driver of a semi-truck hitting a person on a bicycle back in July of 2022. Unusually, the crash was caught on a webcam. The events leading to the crash suggest a pressing need for red light and speed cameras in Victoria. This is a companion post to  A Letter on Red Light and Speed Cameras.
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Homes, History, and the OCP

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Built in 1978 Setting the Stage This evening, the Victoria BC Council will be holding the third, and hopefully the last, day of their public hearing for their 10-year OCP Update. In British Columbia, where I live, municipalities are required to adopt an  Official Community Plan,  or OCP.  According to the province: Official community plans describe the long-term vision of communities. They are a statement of objectives and policies that guide decisions on municipal and regional district planning and land use management. These decisions impact communities' sustainability and resilience. The province changed some of the rules around OCPs as part of their recent housing reforms. Among other things: They have to be updated every five years (down from every ten). They must be aligned with the municipality's Housing Needs Report (HNRs), which identify housing requirements over a 20-year period. They must designate enough land for development to meet the anticipated housing nee...
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Building Height, Livability, the Housing Crisis, and the City of Lights

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There's a building proposal for  205 Quebec Street, 507 Montreal Street, and 210-224 Kingston Street in Victoria's James Bay neighbourhood coming to the Committee of the Whole on Thursday, November 21. This proposal first came to council in July 2023 as a 17 storey tower. Council sent it back with "a modified proposal that is more contextual to the surroundings, while retaining the approximate proposed number of homes and floor space ratio." The applicant did that, and the proposal came back again in July 2024 as a 14 storey tower that staff concluded "generally fulfilled Council's direction." Council narrowly moved it…forward… sideways… "directing consultation on the proposed OCP amendment". I have always thought this proposal was fine and deserved support. I still do. As I said in another  letter to council on this project: At the same time, Council's previous decision has delayed this project by an entire year. Even worse, as we all kno...
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Location: Victoria, BC, Canada
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Comments on Saanich's Draft Quadra McKenzie Plan

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This is the letter I recently sent to Saanich Council regarding the Draft Quadra McKenzie Plan . It's been lightly edited, but the points haven't changed. Also, I have no idea why I can never see typos until after I hit the send button! The illustrations are all taken from the plan. Dear Mayor and Council, I just finished reading the entire Quadra McKenzie Plan and filling out the feedback survey. I very much appreciate the thoroughness and quality of the Draft Quadra McKenzie Plan document ; please pass on my appreciation to the staff who worked on it! Given that "pushback" has been in the news, I wanted to write to you directly as well. I live in Vic West, not Saanich, so I tend to reserve my land-use comments for City of Victoria issues. In this case, the Quadra Mckenzie plan is so central to the entire region, and I live so close to Saanich, that I wanted to respond. First, I am strongly in favour of the plan, including the shift of road space to transit and activ...
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