Courtenay Transportation Plan

Client City of Courtenay
Location Courtenay | British Columbia | Canada

The City of Courtenay is a residential community located on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The Courtenay Transportation Plan sets strategic direction for accommodating anticipated population growth while achieving the City’s vision of a sustainable, accessible and livable city. O2’s planners and urban designers are working in a collaborative team with transportation engineering consultants and the client to develop a plan that responds to user needs and meets city-wide goals. 

Through comprehensive public engagement and knowledge of transportation and community planning processes, O2 successfully identified core user needs and developed integrated planning, design and mobility policies. Specifically, a complete streets approach to transportation planning was adopted for the project to improve mode choice, and transition the road network to a multi-modal system. O2 prepared a complete streets policy, conceptual cross-sections for roadway retrofits and new roadway development, and land use and design guidelines to support the creation of active public realms.

Public engagement activities for this project included a qualitative survey of transportation system user preferences, the preparation of material for display boards and presentations, and the communication of technical findings in a clear and accessible way. Using “before and after” imagery of city streets, O2 enabled elected officials and members of the public to visualize planning concepts and policy recommendations. O2’s approach to engagement is helping to build support for the project, and is working toward resolving conflict between prioritization of vehicles, pedestrian and cycling modes on city streets.