The Road Nobody Repaves: Rural BC Highways and the Active Transportation Gap

What rural road maintenance means for active transportation, and why it matters in BC communities where the highway is the only route.

A freshly "maintained" road shouldn't make a stroller unusable or shred a bike tire. But that's exactly what can happen when seal coating replaces repaving on rural BC highways.

Area Director Andy Davidoff of the Regional District of Central Kootenay joins us from the small hamlet of Thrums, BC to examine a problem hiding in plain sight: in rural and compact communities, the provincial highway is the active transportation corridor. It's the walking route, the school route, the only route for people who don't drive. When that surface deteriorates, it doesn't just inconvenience cyclists; it cuts off walkers, mobility device users, and anyone without a car.

From there, we move from problem to advocacy: a push to end a 2-tier approach to active transportation infrastructure funding and a UBCM resolution calling on the province to formally recognize rural highways as active transportation infrastructure.

Transcript

Peter Ladner 0:17

Welcome to Bike Sense, the BC Cycling Coalition's podcast, where we talk about all things related to active transportation advocacy in BC. I'm your host, Peter Ladner, Chair of the Board of the BC Cycling Coalition. I hope you enjoy the show. Our guest today wants to end what he calls a two-tier active transportation funding formula that favors urban over rural areas. Regional District of Central Kootney Area Director Andy Davidoff is speaking out on behalf of rural communities whose only roads are provincial highways and there's often no transit. If kids want to bike to school or people without cars need to walk, they have to use these highways. But the Ministry of Transportation and Transit says it's not responsible for active transportation on highways, and local governments say they don't have budgets or jurisdiction to step in. The result is that these highways are not safe for multimodal use. Here to tell us how to fix that is Andy Davidoff. Welcome, Andy. Thank you, Peter.

Andy Davidoff 1:34

Where exactly are you? Um I live in a small, I guess, a hamlet of Thrums, B.C., , which is located between Castlegar and Nelson, B.C. And I represent Electoral Area I, Sentinel Mountain, , where I have 2,670 constituents.

Peter Ladner 1:59

Are you a bike rider or have you personally experienced dangerous situations walking on these highways?

Andy Davidoff 2:05

I'm a casual bike rider.

What Seal Coating Changed Overnight

Peter Ladner 2:07

You've been a director for four terms, you said. Why is this area why is this issue suddenly flared up now? Because you've written an article that got widespread circulation through the interior of BC. Obviously, you've you've hit a nerve here. Um describe what happened that made it so pertinent right now.

Andy Davidoff 2:27

Well, what happened was all of our roads in my area, , including the roads serving densely populated pockets in our in our area, have been repaved. So for the first time, we had in a community of Shire Akers seal coating applied to the road surface instead of repaving. And that was a shock to our community. In rural BC, there are no parallel municipal streets, no separated bike networks, no sidewalks in most cases, and the provincially maintained highways, everything school route, cycling route, walking corridor, mobility device route, and emergency access. So, what happened when they went to seal coating? They severely impacted my constituents' ability to utilize what was a beautifully paved road with some potholes, and they degraded the surface of that paving. And let me tell you, the impact on the community has been immense.

Peter Ladner 3:36

So let me get this clear. When they seal coat, it's it's not the same as repaving, which would leave a very smooth surface. Seal coating seals it but leaves little b ps and and is difficult to walk on. Is that the issue?

Andy Davidoff 3:49

Little b ps would be okay, Peter. It's jagged rocks that rip bicycle tires apart.

Peter Ladner 3:56

Okay.

Andy Davidoff 3:57

It is a road surface that is so rough that seniors with mobility issues can't use a walker. And and m s and dads can't push a stroller on this surface.

Peter Ladner 4:10

Did they used to do that before the seal coating went on? Was it adequate for that purpose?

Andy Davidoff 4:15

Well, let me tell you a little story. So the story I call it when the highway is the sidewalk, and we're going to reference Shrirakers, BC. So in rural BC, the road is never just a road, it is everything: a sidewalk, a bike path, a school route, a lifeline, and sometimes a barrier. In Shrirakers, residents describe what their community used to feel like a place where children rode bikes, where neighbors met on evening walks, where strollers rolled easily down quiet roads. Then something changed. A surface treatment was applied to the roads. Technically, it was maintenance. But residents describe something very different. So here's some of the impacts comments from the impact statements that I've collected. We used to walk everywhere, now it's too dangerous. My child rides on the grass because the road is too rough. Our dog can't walk on it anymore. It hurts her paws. Loose stones, uneven surfaces, dust damage, and something less visible but just as important. A disappearance of everyday community life. So the province maintains these roads, and the province also has an active transportation strategy that aims to increase walking and cycling, improve safety, expand access, reduce emissions. But in places like Shiracers, residents say the reality is different. So if the highway is the only corridor, then it is the active transportation system. There is no separation in practice. And that's what's changed because they used to repay, but now they're saving money by seal coding, which costs a quarter of the price of repaying.

Peter Ladner 6:13

I can see their point, but obviously they are not aware of the implications for your community.

Andy Davidoff 6:19

Um I beg to differ on that point. Well, you've made them aware. They are keenly aware of the impact on our community. And what's happened is I think there's some backpedaling going on because when our residents spoke with local Ministry of Highways officials, the conversation was always about repaving. No one ever anticipated, and I never had any, like we were just told that the highway is going to be treated with seal coating. Until you see seal coating, until you walk on it. When I went there and the pictures, I wish we could show the pictures on the radio broadcast and a podcast, and we can't. But the key thing is that it is like it's not sandpaper. I mean, sandpaper we could maybe even live with, but it's it's like literally rocks sticking out of the pavement.

Why The Surface Becomes Unusable

Peter Ladner 7:22

So Andy, these rocks must have been there in the first place. And you say before the seal coating, people were happy enough to use these routes with their strollers and so on. Um, all the seal coating would do, I would guess, would be just to change the surface of it. But if it was okay before with the rocks on it, why is it not okay with the seal coating?

Andy Davidoff 7:42

Well, then you've obviously not driven in a seal-coated dry highway. Here's what they do to prepare the surface for seal coating. They grind grooves in the pavement. Oh, okay. So they have a grinding machine that literally grinds the whole the surface of the the paving and makes these really pronounced grooves in the pavement, and then they apply oil and gravel and and seal coat those those it goes into those grooves, but the grooves remain. And and then what the ministry said when I said, Okay, well, how long will this be like this? They said, Well, winter snow plowing blades eventually will even out the surface. Well, this year, Sharaikers roads were were snowplowed once. Oh boy. So using like I can see on a major highway, right, where you're snow plowing all the time, that the seal coating can work. But in a community like Shara's, and by the way, it's it's it's not a classification of road that even gets snow plowed. It's one of the last to get snow plowed right in because it's it's not classed to high priority.

Peter Ladner 9:07

So if is your issue just with the the seal coating, and if they were to pave it, you'd be happy again, or is there a bigger issue about wait a second, just even paved shoulders on highways are not adequately safe for the strollers and kids going to school?

Andy Davidoff 9:24

We don't have paved paved shoulders. We don't have shoulders in Shrakers.

Peter Ladner 9:28

Well, what is it that the seal coating is covering?

Andy Davidoff 9:30

Seal coating is covering the paved surface, which is the whole road surface. Oh, so this is the same road that the cars are going over? Yeah.

Peter Ladner 9:39

Oh, okay, I see.

Andy Davidoff 9:41

And so basically, what's happened is that and and and to have a ministry response from Minister Farmworth and and his staff that if you want to build an active transportation network in Sureacres, then you could local government needs to pay for that, and that would mean building a shoulder with us with a subsurface, building it and paving it. So I I I got two quotes. I really wanted to find out what does this cost? So I got two quotes from two two companies in the BC who do paving all over the province. And I says, how what would it cost for us to never mind build the sub substrata for for a bike lane? What would it cost for us to put a skin a meter and a half wide for one kilometer 50 millimeters deep? The cost was one quote $82,500, another one was $95,000. Because I was thinking about maybe raising money for this, community works grants, whatever. But I was also warned that if the local government paid for that, so that would cost us probably five hundred thousand dollars to you know for five kilometers of roadway to have a bike lane where people can walk and do everything, but it would be on the existing road surface. I was I was warned, they said, by the way, if you only do that section of the roadway and the snowplows come in the winter, they could rip up that paving because the road's not even all all the way across. So it's not even even if we did it, , what would happen is that it may get it may get ripped up by snowplows when they do snowplow.

Peter Ladner 11:38

Well, the ministry says that I've seen their response that that you shared with me, that if you want to build something separate, as you say, you can do it on the regional district's dime. And there are cases where regional districts do invest in active transportation. Um, the capital regional district in Victoria is one and Metro Vancouver is another, and I'm sure there are others. But in your case, you say you don't have that jurisdiction or you just don't have the money.

Andy Davidoff 12:08

We it would be cost prohibitive for us to do, and it would require if we wanted to build a bike lane, for example, and a you know, just say bike lane, but it would it could be used for everything. Sure. If we decided to do that, we're looking at millions of dollars that we do not have.

Peter Ladner 12:30

How much did they save on the seal coating versus repaving? Was it a significant amount of money? You said it's a quarter of the cost.

Andy Davidoff 12:40

What is that? The information I have, and I don't, and and the ministry we'd we'd have to get more information from them, but the feedback that I received from from diverse sources was that seal coating is a fraction of the cost of repaving, and it isn't 25-30 percent. Uh it's a saving of seven, you know, 70, 70 to 75 percent.

Peter Ladner 13:06

Sure, but are we talking about like a hundred thousand dollars, a million dollars, ten million dollars? I mean per kilometer? Well, the amount the the distance that they seal coated that you're concerned about.

Andy Davidoff 13:18

Well, it's hundreds, it it would be hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars if not if not more.

Peter Ladner 13:26

But that's what they used to do, surely. If you say they used to have a paved road that everybody could walk on.

The Seal Coat Games Pressure Plan

Andy Davidoff 13:33

Yep. They would what they would do, and what they've done in my community and other similar, densely populated kind of pods of of constituents, what they would do is that you know they have the system that they they grind the road, right? And then they take the ground pavement, and then they that's treated in a batch plant, and then they come back with that, plus the the treated recycled aggregate, and then that's what they use to repave the road. And it's beautiful, like it's it's perfect. So I have a community, Glade BC, serviced by a cable ferry. It's like a Gulf Island community here in my area. I love it, and all their roads were treated that way, ground up, aggregate recycled, added the asphalt, you know, components that they needed, and repaved it is night and day to what exists right now in Sure Acres. This would never ever happen on any street, on any urban street. The urban residents would go ballistic if this happened on an urban street. So did they talk to the community about this beforehand? Say, hey, we're gonna SEAL coat, and here's what it's gonna look like.

Peter Ladner 14:58

No, how do you get your residents to go ballistic? Because you are fighting back, right?

Andy Davidoff 15:11

Oh, yeah. And guess what? I got I have something in mind. Are you are you gonna share it with us? I'm gonna share it with you right now because I I I mentioned it briefly at our regional district meeting. First of all, we're going to UBCM, and we had a motion, and we'll talk about that in a sec. Uh, I I've crafted a motion, , it's called Provincial Responsibility for Rural Active Transportation Corridors. And basically, this is a motion that I asked the regional district board to support to go to UBCM, and we can talk about that in a second. But here's what I'd mentioned briefly at the board meeting, in open meetings. I says I want to invite the Minister of Transportation and Transit, the Minister of Rural Development, who happens to be the MLA for Nelson and area, our MLA, who happens to be a parliamentary secretary for this. I want them to come and not play us, but play each other, like get two of them on each side with the media there. Let's see them have a game of ball hockey. Let's see them try push a push a walker on this surface. Let's see them bounce a basketball like maybe 10 times in a row and see if it doesn't take off to one side. Um, we're gonna have what I call the SEAL code games. And and basically let's let's see this, , let's see these people try to do what was taken for granted by the community, and until you lose it, you don't know what you lost. And is it the mandate of govern of a senior order of government who's responsible for these highways? Is it their mandate to degrade active existing active transportation networks? Is that what they're all about? I mean, it it is it is negligence. You you take a beautiful active transportation surface and degrade it to the point where no one can use it. I would love to see them come and videotape them with the Sure Acre SEAL code games.

Peter Ladner 17:35

Well, Eddie, based on my cherished theory that 75% of decision making around transportation is based on the decision maker's personal experience. You could have a win there. But in the event that that doesn't happen, you have another approach. You're going to the UBCM, you've got the backing of your regional districts. Um, is there any pushback to this? Is it unanimous? And what's the case?

Province-Wide Pattern And UBCM Motion

Andy Davidoff 17:59

Well, what happened is what happened is that at the board table we have another situation that's getting a lot of play right now, and that is in around the our chair of the board, Amy Watson. She has a stretch of gravel road in her area, and and her area is around the Kaslow area and that whole whole area. I have never seen a picture of a gravel road with a pothole, like literally, there's like 10 potholes every meter of road where it's supposed to take like 15 minutes to travel in a vehicle there, and it takes 45 because of the potholes. You cannot ride a bike on this road, and this is a gravel road, it's not even getting graded. So that was discussed at our board meeting. But what's happening is I have interest from all over the province on this because we are tired of being treated as poor country cousins. And what happens, and and then for the for you for someone to come and degrade what we had, and then say, you want to fix it, local government, you want to turn this into an active transportation corridor? That's you on your nickel.

Peter Ladner 19:23

Is this happening other places in the province? You've been hearing from other people?

Andy Davidoff 19:27

It's not just here, seal coating's happening everywhere. So this is a province-wide issue, yeah. And this is the way they're saving money. No, seal coating does work on main highways. Uh, and I and I've traveled seal-coated highways throughout the interior of BC. The key thing that has to happen is that you have to have the a lot of snow plowing on it, it will eventually smooth out the surface and the rocks and everything else. But in a community where, like I said, this year, there, you know, according to all the reports I've received, the snow has been plowed, the road has been plowed once. What's it gonna take you, a hundred years to for a smooth surface? Give me a break.

Peter Ladner 20:11

So, what does your motion call for?

Andy Davidoff 20:13

Here's the motion.

Peter Ladner 20:15

You don't have to do all the whereas's.

Andy Davidoff 20:17

I'm not doing all the whereas. Okay. Here's the resolution. For all kinds of reasons that we've heard here, we're pressing UBCM to have the province of DC formally recognize that in rural and compact communities without alternate transportation corridors, provincially owned highways function as active transportation infrastructure. And where necessary, the province needs to adjust rural highway maintenance standards to reflect multimodal uses and ensure safe conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, mobility device users, and other vulnerable road users. And that the province collaborate with rural and regional district governments to develop practical, jurisdictionally appropriate solutions that ensure equitable transportation safety outcomes between urban and rural communities.

Peter Ladner 21:34

In our discussions about this, we found that the response of the ministry often varies according to who's running that particular area. Now, you've obviously had conversations with your local people, maybe higher ups in Victoria. What has their response been? And are are they listening? And do you think this is going to change regardless of your motion? Because these motions sometimes vanish into the ether.

Andy Davidoff 21:56

Well, yeah, they and we also know the state of the provincial. finances so I'm sure they're not gonna be j ping very quickly here to help. Um basically the look I I get along with well with the local ministry people but what they've done is they brought something up everything we have done an audit and everything has been done in accordance with the with the standards and my question is well who set the new standard the same people that authorized the work so so now all you gotta do is just adjust the standard and then the audit meets the current standard for SEAL coding and we're going okay but what about the degradation? How could how can you are you said you mentioned that you would involve the Minister of Rural what was it rural rural development development she oh yeah this this is her job and and and I've spoken with her and and she is put it this way she's sympathetic and it says well can you please maybe talk to the cabinet about or the the minister of finance or somebody to help us out here and because this isn't in her writing it is right her writing is right on the edge of this writing so our our MLA is Morrison but the key thing is that Brittany is the point on all of this for rural BC. Does this count as rural development yeah having these roads in better shape oh yeah like the her her portfolio is all about everything that happens in rural BC.

Do No Harm And Closing

Peter Ladner 23:40

Well it sounds like you like many other areas in the province and projects in the province are up against the province's very real financial problems. Yeah and it's on you and and on us to raise our voices and create enough political friction that this is one area that won't be ignored because obviously there are safety and and quality of life issues that are pretty serious.

Andy Davidoff 24:07

Yeah Peter the the key thing here for us is that we understand your financial situations fix the potholes and leave the paving pavement alone because you when you degrade it you've caused a harm and when our our my constituents have to leave their community to go bicycle riding and that's relevant to your coalition when you can't ride your bike because you're afraid of ripping your tires up on the seal coating something wrong with what was done.

Peter Ladner 24:41

So don't cause do no harm you got no money fix the potholes but do no harm don't degrade the the the active transportation network that exists already and it's beautiful was beautiful even with the potholes well Andy let's we're we're all here to support your yearning for the good old days and I just hope somebody's listening and this becomes a priority because clearly for you and and many other areas in the province it is and thanks for your good work we will follow this and hope that you can get some results and people in Shoreacres and well all over the province can not have to deal with the horrors of seal coating. Thank you Peter you've been listening to Bike Sense an original podcast from the BC Cycling Coalition if you like the podcast we'd be grateful if you could leave us a rating of whatever platform you use. You can also subscribe so you don't miss future episodes if you have comments or suggestions for future episodes email me at peter.ladner at bccycling.ta You can help us amplify BC Cycling Coalition's voice by simply becoming a free member at bccycling.da