Victoria City Council Decisions
Community Voices Matter gives residents of Victoria, British Columbia, a way to share their views on decisions made by Victoria City Council and to see how other residents feel about those decisions.
Each survey takes only a few minutes. You’ll receive a short overview of one Council decision, answer a handful of questions, and then see how other residents responded and how councillors voted.
Registration is free. Your individual responses remain confidential: they are never published, shared with others, or attributed to you. Survey results are reported only as combined totals.
Bike lanes and road changes: was the money well spent?
Estimated time: 3 minutes (4 questions)
Since 2016, Victoria has been building an “all ages and abilities” cycling network: protected bike lanes separated from traffic by concrete curbs and barriers, along with intersection changes, signals, and repaved streets. The network spans more than 33 kilometres of routes across the city, with protected lanes on streets including Pandora, Fort, Wharf, Humboldt, Vancouver, Government, and Richardson.
The work began under a previous Victoria Council and was continued and completed under the current one. In 2016 the City estimated the network would cost $37.1 million to build 25.1 kilometres to a permanent standard. City figures reported in 2024 put the cost at approximately $65.5 million, nearly double that estimate. The City attributes the difference to three things: the network grew to more than 33 kilometres, construction costs rose sharply over the decade, and the bike lane work was bundled with other work that was not in the original scope, including sidewalk and crosswalk upgrades, new traffic signals, and underground utility replacement. Of the more than 33 kilometres, about 17.5 kilometres are protected bike lanes and 15.5 kilometres are slow shared streets.
Part of the cost has been covered by grants and other levels of government. The City has not published a breakdown of its own share. To date, nobody outside of City Hall can verify what the bike network has cost Victoria taxpayers, because the City has never published it in a form that permits the calculation.
Supporters point out that the network was built for safety and to give residents a realistic alternative to driving, that cycling counts on the main corridors have increased, and that the sharp increase in the network costs was global during those years and not just on bike lane construction.
Critics point to the final price, to lost parking and driving lanes, and to congestion on some streets, and question whether the number of people served by the bike lanes justifies the cost.
In July 2022, Council directed staff to report back by the end of that year on next steps and proposed priority routes for the cycling network. The report was never delivered. The network did not return to a council committee agenda until March 2026, and then only because a council member put forward a motion.
The 2025 City of Victoria budget included cuts to street projects that support cycling, walking, and transit. An amendment to restore funding for these items was defeated 2 to 6, leaving the cuts in place.
In the 2026 budget debate, Council voted 8 to 1 to delay an $8.55 million “multi-modal corridors” project (the budget program that pays for rebuilding streets with bike lanes, pedestrian crossings, and intersection upgrades) into the 2027 budget to relieve pressure on the tax increase.
Vote record will be shown after survey completion.
Primary sources: Special Committee of the Whole Minutes, March 3, 2025 and November 21, 2025 • City of Victoria cycling network cost figures, May 2024 (as reported by CHEK News) • Bike Master Plan delivery presentation, July 7, 2022 • City of Victoria cycling network pages
In August 2026 a resident asked the City, under freedom of information legislation, for its records of what the network cost and how it was funded. The City did not release the records, and instead quoted a fee of $360 to produce them and placed the request on hold until the fee is paid.
This survey is a summary only. We encourage you to follow the links provided in the survey for a more comprehensive understanding of the issue and any voting history.
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