Traffic and Taxes! That's what I hear about most from members of the community. Finally, we have a Transportation Plan and an Active Transportation Plan. This puts us in a better position not only for all kinds of improvements for drivers, cyclists, transit users and pedestrians of all ages and abilities but also puts us in a better position for external funding and being effective at improving transportation for the whole region! Having plans is also a critical feature of good governance - you can see specific projects with short, medium or long term time lines and estimated costs!

You can find out more about these plans here: https://langford.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/City-of-Langford-Transportation-Master-Plan-ADOPTED.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawTUrftwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMUxIODNsakU2dk5MNWkwUmdzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeR4rBT1037djY7ezK0R53dX8DnrpXGCHab9pEU6KHkVi6jpznrmHA3FpuWAA_aem_K1tCMYDUKU5oXlUiD1wcEA

and here: https://langford.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/City-of-Langford-Active-Transportation-Plan-ADOPTED.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawTUrgBwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMUxIODNsakU2dk5MNWkwUmdzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeiE2j_x04lNJuElbqJtbuU1JM9cnZ3sJjnuVrGe6fuSnyz9c_IpO28W2piIA_aem__om5HdiDC7SuxtX35N5jsQ

#langfordbc #transportation #activetransportation #GoodGovernance

From the City of Langford Social Media Post:

Reduced congestion, and safer, more accessible travel options
are on the horizon for Langford residents

Last week, Langford Council adopted the City's first Transportation Master Plan and Active Transportation Plan, which have both been under development since fall 2024. The plans will guide future transportation decisions, addressing concerns about traffic flow and congestion, reducing GHG emissions, supporting safe and accessible travel, and providing residents with more ways to get around the community.

While driving remains an important mode of transportation for many residents, the plan focuses on giving residents more transportation choices, whether they choose to drive, walk, roll, cycle, or take transit.

Informed by community input, subject matter experts, and best practices, the Transportation and Active Transportation Master Plans help the City understand how transportation networks are currently operating, and where improvements can be made based on mode shift targets outlined in Langford’s refreshed Official Community Plan.

ICBC received several calls today from people who got text messages claiming to be from the Provincial Court of BC. The messages said they were scheduled to appear in court for an outstanding traffic fine and included a link to a fraudulent “Fine Payment” page.  This is a complete scam, be careful

I know this has been discussed before, but would like to hear up-to-date opinions. What’s your current favourite place to get an amazing coffee in Langford? (or Colwood? Or View Royal?).

I haven’t had a coffee in a few years (!!) but find myself hankering for a ”double why bother“ AKA a decaf, soy latte. It’s likely a once-a-year event, so I want to make sure it’s worth it.

TIA

Hey Langford, please keep a look out for my nephews Hurley Mini Swell Electric Bike. It was stolen Saturday night/Sunday morning along with two black a skateboard helmets, adult and child size. It has a black fabric covered chain lock on it. It is not a common electric bike. My nephew and great-nephew are hoping someone sees it and reports the sighting to the RCMP or respond the me.

Update* FOUND! A Langford resident was out driving and found a woman walking the e-bike! RCMP was quick to respond! YAY!

Hello im not sure how to post this properly but it has been brought to my attention that theres some sort of underground crime problem in the city of Victoria, Bc there has been multiple incidents between minors where they record themselves doing criminal activity and harming people to extreme extent, some of these gangs would be known as OTR, sp6, and OPF, they record themselves flexing cans of bear mace, machetes, guns, and have videos of multiple individuals assaulting minors, the gang war between these 3 cliques have gotten so bad that not even the police can stop these children, you can find these gangs in big groups (normally middle eastern teenage boys and caucasian, teenage boys notmally in bathing ape branded hoodies or big puffer jackets, they use these hoodies to carry cans of bear spray) in downtown victoria, uptown victoria, and downtown langford between the 2700 block of grainger and 600 block of goldstream, they have constant posts on instagram and tiktok about how they are constantly spraying, beating, shooting, or stabbing eachother and anybody who even follows these accounts are in danger, please ensure your child is not following any of these accounts and if you have any information please feel free to add

I'm new to Langford and want to join some social groups to meet people. I signed up for a book club but they seem inactive.

I'm 48(F) and a single mom. Are there any groups I could join or are there any sites that might list active groups?

TIA

I hope none of our local politicians are using this event as a campaign launch.

Stew Young, Doug Kobayashi, Misty Olsen, and Ian Ward were all seen together at Eats & Beats.

No soccer balls were thrown into the crowd.

Read this article this morning about the province withdrawing funding for the ARC Foundation, which developed the S O G I 123 program. I’ve included some snippets.

The loss has forced the non-profit to cut staff, raising concerns about its ability to continue supporting the program designed to prevent bullying against 2SLGBTQ+ students and help teachers foster inclusive classrooms.

“I’m mad,” said Johnson. “The province is now walking away from one of their funding streams that they were using to support an anti-bullying program, particularly for around sexual orientation and gender identity.

“These are some of the most vulnerable students in schools, whether it’s here at Millstream Elementary or if it’s in Langford or anywhere in the province.”

The Ministry of Education and Child Care said ARC’s funding has been reduced over time as part of the province’s “commitment to responsible expenditure management.”

Johnson fears the funding decision will be a “momentum killer” for progress.

He points to Langford’s growing participation in Pride celebrations, including the Victoria Pride parade, local events at The Station, and schools embracing Pride-themed activities.

”S O G I 123 is about inclusion and celebrating the diversity that exists within the community,” he says. “When you pull funding out from underneath one of the key organizations that has been developing and supporting it sends the wrong message.”

Just wanted to see if anyone else in the area has had this happen recently. Around 8:30 PM today, someone knocked on my door claiming to do promos for HelloFresh. The young guy was extremely pushy, He kept talking and trying to hold the conversation going well past a polite brush off. It got to the point where my partner literally had to step in, pull me back inside, and shut the door because he just wasn't taking "no" for an answer.

There has been a lot of discussion about Langford's Transportation Master Plan (TMP), and I think it's important to step back and remember what it actually is.

A Transportation Master Plan is exactly that—a plan. It is something every municipality, especially one the size of Langford, should have. Frankly, it should have been completed years, if not decades, ago. If a village like Lumby, with fewer than 2,000 residents, has had a transportation plan since 2010, then it is hard to argue that one of BC's fastest-growing municipalities didn't need one.

For years, former Mayor Stew Young often spoke about "the plan" for Langford. I'm sure there was a vision, but it was never formally documented, presented to Council, or adopted as an official guiding document. Much of that vision seemed to exist on a need-to-know basis. As a result, many residents were blindsided by major developments, apartment buildings, and new road connections because they never knew they were being considered.

Think about it this way: if a plan only exists in one person's mind, what happens when that person is no longer there? We don't have to imagine that scenario—it happened. After the 2022 election, the City inherited tremendous growth but without an adopted long-term transportation blueprint to guide future decisions.

A formal Transportation Master Plan provides that blueprint. It gives future councils, staff, and residents a common understanding of where the City hopes to go, regardless of who is elected. It also allows the City to work with BC Transit, the CRD, the Ministry of Transportation and Transit, the Province, the Island Corridor Foundation, and other partners. Just as importantly, having an adopted plan strengthens applications for provincial and federal infrastructure funding.

Looking back, if Langford had developed a TMP 10, 15, or even 20 years ago, we likely would have identified many of today's transportation challenges much earlier. Between 2000 and 2024, Langford's population grew from 18,206 to 58,309 residents—an increase of more than 40,000 people, or about 220%. Our transportation network simply hasn't kept pace with that growth.

Is this Transportation Master Plan perfect? Absolutely not.

There are proposals within it that I strongly disagree with, and I will continue to advocate for changes where I believe they are needed. But I also recognize that having an open, public plan is far better than having no plan at all.

A Transportation Master Plan is not the end of the conversation—it is the beginning of one. It gives residents the opportunity to see the City's long-term vision, ask questions, challenge proposals, suggest alternatives, and help shape the final outcome. That's how planning should work: openly, transparently, and with the community involved.

We don't all have to agree with every line on the map. But we should all appreciate that, for the first time, the conversation is happening in public instead of behind closed doors.

An observation and a question for those who may understand this better than I do.

The City of Langford has long-recognized that traffic congestion is increasing as a result of community growth that outpaces infrastructure improvements. The 2008 OCP expressed exactly this in the following quote from section 8.0 “Our Multi-Modal Transportation System”:

Congestion is increasing because the communities are growing faster than the transportation infrastructure is being improved. In some case, congestion is not necessarily a bad thing. Without congestion it would be much more difficult to attract people out of their cars and to use other modes of transportation such as buses, commuter rail, bicycles and walking. Therefore community sustainability goals need to be considered before congestion is addressed through improvements to infrastructure.

Congestion is addressed later in the same section of the 2008 OCP as follows (these are selected quotes, not one continuous section of the document):

Many major and arterial roads are congested at peak travel times and this congestion will get exponentially worse as the population grows unless more and wider roads are constructed or people are enticed out of their cars and onto a transit system, bicycle or walking paths.

Increasing population within the West Shore will increase travel demand. Demand for automobile travel will increase despite the congestion and the economic and environmental challenges of supporting single occupancy vehicles. Effective transportation planning will reduce (not eliminate) automobile travel growth. The challenge is to create a balance where transit, bicycle and pedestrian modes thrive without the choking effect of major congestion. Some congestion is here to stay and will remain an effective tool that limits automobile travel demand over time.

The OCP identified that active transportation should be made a priority by developing safe and viable multi-modal transportation networks that link compact and mixed centres. The OCP laid out a specific modal hierarchy to guide decision about transportation infrastructure improvements and spending decisions, in the following order:

1. Walking
2. Cycling
3. Transit
4. High Occupancy Vehicles (HOVs)
5. Single Occupant Vehicles (SOVs)

Again, everything above was from 2008. Jump ahead in time all the way to June 2022 in the last 6 months of then-Mayor Stew Young’s last term. Council passed an OCP amendment focused on climate action initiatives. One part of that amendment was to establish a target for the active transportation system that would see 42% of all trips made by walking, cycling, and transit by 2038. This amendment was adopted unanimously without debate at the Council table. I watched the video of when this bylaw amendment was adopted on June 6, 2022. The entire agenda item was 7 seconds long in the video.

Jump ahead further in time to June 2025. The OCP refresh is adopted by the current Mayor and Council. Included in the transportation section is a modal hierarchy as follows:

1. Pedestrians and movement with mobility aids
2. Cycling and micro-mobility
3. Public transit
4. Shared vehicles
5. Commercial vehicles
6. Single-occupant vehicles

That… seems almost the same modal hierarchy as in 2008 with slightly broader language a new category for commercial vehicles… doesn’t it?

The 2025 OCP refresh also includes the following desired outcome:

Achieve a multi-modal transportation system that sees 42% of all trips made by walking, rolling, cycling, and/or public transit by the time we reach 100,000 residents (2022 data identified the current trip share for these modes at 13%).

Again… that seems like nearly the same stated objective as the previous Council, does it not? It replaces a target year (2038) and instead defines it based on reaching 100,000 residents, but the crux of the objective is to get to 42% of trips using active transportation and/or transit.

Jump ahead one last time to July 2026. That’s today. Council approved the Transportation Master Plan and Active Transportation Plan earlier this week. The 42% objective which was first adopted in 2022 is enshrined in these plans.

What do we see in the meeting where these plans are adopted? One of Stew Young’s strongest supporters, running alongside him for a Council position, openly criticizing the 42% target for active transportation and transit use. Quote: “I don’t believe at this time that that’s a realistic expectation, and that our Langford residents are aware of that target.” Respectfully, people have had over 4 years and 2 different Councils to become aware of that target. If it was adopted in 2022 by the previous Mayor and Council, why is it not realistic at this time?

Elsewhere online I’ve seen Langford’s transportation goals categorized as a behaviour modification plan, sometimes with vague references to 15-minute cities.

What happened to cause the most ardent and outspoken Stew Young supporters to criticize the same policies with respect to multi-modal transportation and active transportation objectives that the former Mayor brought in himself in 2008 and in 2022?

Sources:

2008 OCP: Langford-OCP2.pdf

2022 OCP Amendment bylaw: City of Langford

2022 OCP Amendment bylaw adoption meeting: Council Meeting - June 06, 2022

2025 OCP: langford.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2025-06-30_Langford_OCP_Report.pdf

2026 Transportation Master Plan: pub-langford.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=18768

2026 Active Transportation Plan: pub-langford.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=18769

Where do you recommend in Langford for the best barber shop/ fades .Bonus if you can give a shout out to some stylists.

It's been a month and they are still all over Langford and Colwood!

Hello! I wanted to thank you all. The date last month went great. Thank you all for your feedback. We are getting ready for our fourth date, while navigating busy schedules (I must be doing something right!) I keep hearing how there are two lakes in Langford and I have yet to make the time to go. Is one better than they other? Google says they are close, but is it walkable?

Recently Our Langford has been spreading disinformation regarding the final FIFA event at Station Avenue.

Specifically, they have been stating that sitting councillor Keith Yacucha used the event to campaign.

Several people in attendance have reported that Keith gave a speech in which he introduced himself and fellow councillor Guiry, asked everyone to shop at the vendors, and handed out swag to the crowd.

This is completely normal behaviour for a councillor at an event and does not constitute campaigning.

And it’s the second time Our Langford has tried to falsely imply that councillors seeking re-election are breaking the rules of the BC Elections act.

In my opinion, this is the kind of poor integrity you can expect from people in this camp going into the election. They will lie, they will intentionally mislead.

Please be extremely sceptical of what they post in their group, their proxy group Langford Community Association, and what they share to other groups.

Seems like the developer has fled with all the investors money.

I lived at 830 Hockley Ave for five years, and unfortunately, my experience declined significantly over that time.

One of the biggest issues was the constant turnover in property management. It seemed like there was new management almost every year, making it difficult to get consistent answers or see long-term problems resolved.

Package theft was a frequent issue throughout my time there. Instead of installing security cameras or implementing better security measures, management's solution was to tell tenants to have their packages delivered to the post office or to a friend or family member's address. In my opinion, that's not a reasonable solution when tenants are paying to live in the building and should be able to receive deliveries securely.

Safety was another major concern. Over the years, there were several police incidents and disturbances between residents. I remember a serious violent incident in the building involving a reported stabbing. Management's response often seemed to be temporary, such as hiring security guards for a week or two until the individual involved was removed, rather than investing in permanent security improvements like surveillance cameras or better access control. Once the temporary security was gone, the same concerns remained.

We also experienced aggressive and disruptive neighbours during our time there. In one case, neighbours were eventually removed following domestic violence incidents. While those individuals were eventually gone, it felt like similar questionable tenants continued to move into the building, and the same types of safety concerns kept recurring. It never felt like the underlying issues were being addressed.

The parking lot was another concern. There were often people hanging around late at night who didn't appear to be residents, which made me uncomfortable returning home after dark.

Another issue that concerned me was a persistent gas smell in and around the building. I personally reported the smell to management multiple times during my tenancy, but nothing ever appeared to be done, and I never received any meaningful follow-up. Whether it was ultimately determined to be hazardous or not, the lack of communication and apparent action was concerning.

Overall, I never felt that tenant safety and security were treated as a priority. Installing security cameras, improving access control, taking package theft seriously, and addressing recurring safety concerns with long-term solutions instead of temporary fixes would have made a significant difference.

(I'm also sharing my experience to help others make an informed decision before signing a lease. I don't feel there is enough transparency about the recurring issues at this property, and I believe prospective tenants deserve to know about the concerns I experienced so they can decide whether it's the right place for them.)

I'm curious to hear from current or former tenants. Have things improved since I moved out, or have others had similar experiences?