Our new pathway project connects from Leisure Lane, near the turn-off to Long Harbour Road, to Merchant Mews. The completion should be in 2022, depending on funding.
Our 2020 pathway project extends the pathway along Lower Ganges Road from Baker Road to the Central intersection, by Portlock Park, a much-needed multi-use route. PCP received a $100,000 Shaw Family Community Fund grant, administered through the Salt Spring Island Foundation, to complete the Booth-Canal-to-Baker pathways, a most generous and much-appreciated contribution to our work. The Salt Spring Island Transportation Commission also contributed $200,000 toward this project. The Booth Canal Road to Baker Road section of pathway was completed in 2021, an SSI-CRD and Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure undertaking.
Partners Creating Pathways has a five-year plan, “Where Next? 2019 and Beyond”, laying out future pathway priorities. Click here or on the title to read. This was presented to the SSI Transportation Commission on 2019 Oct 28, as a handout and a PowerPoint slide show; it is part of the minutes of that meeting.
Cycling Salt Spring Island is our newest committee, by name, but the reason the organization began, back in the mid-1980s, around a kitchen table with cycling advocates and visionaries coming together to get a bikeway through the island. Activism of all sorts helped create the government interest and documents needed to get on with the work, while the $-millions in funding have remained elusive. Finally, however, the Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure is also seeing the need to widen and pave the main connector route between Fulford and Vesuvius, with $2-million now committed to upgrading Ganges Hill, from town to the top of it, to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. We continue to press for widening and repaving to Fulford, with solid reasons to expect it to happen.
Helmets for Life. a program Island Pathways ran for 20 years, is now part of our Cycling Salt Spring committee. We putting quality, good-fitting bicycle helmets on Salt Spring elementary school kids for $10 each, with the rest of the wholesale cost picked up by generous local donors such as the SSI Lions and SSI Firefighters — is now part of our Cycling Salt Spring committee. Salt Spring’s Outspokin’ Bike Shop offers a good selection of helmets at wholesale price, plus $5. Our “Bike Lady”, Margaretha Nordine, who has spearheaded this program since 2000, will help the newcomers to the program keep it going, sometimes partnering with the local RCMP to hold bike rodeos for the kids, always great fun while learning vital cycling skills.
In 2009, our Bicycle Working Group spun off from the SSI Transportation Commission, and now it has merged with the Salt Spring Bike Club, which spearhead the construction of a Salt Spring Island Family Bike Park, with a $150,000 grant from the local Lions club. This is a fantastic and much-needed facility for children and adults alike to learn cycling skills in a safe, fun way. The merging of our Helmets program, BWG, and the Bike Club is our new, larger, keen Cycling Salt Spring Island committee.
Island Pathways Maps
Click here for information about our maps and where to purchase them
Our walking & hiking map, “Salt Spring Island on Foot”, covers all of the public paths and trails on island, with great descriptions and photos.
Our new “Salt Spring Island on Wheels” cycling road map is a complete renewal of our old, award-winning “Heritage Map with Bike Routes”, with a much stronger cycling focus. It also has great descriptions and photos, plus important safety information.
“Salt Spring Island on Wheels” has a map of the Salish Sea Trail Network, which links Salt Spring to the main loop of muli-modal regional trails on Vancouver Island, of which Salt Spring is the last significant stretch to be completed, for cycling safety and enjoyment.