Squamish Councillor Patricia Heintzman is smitten for Boulder, Colorado, where the vision is green and the future serene.
Last weekend, Heintzman went to Kelowna to take part in the Building Sustainable Communities Conference. Planners Sabina FooFat and Chris Bishop joined her, and the three of them took in a slew of speakers from an array of disciplines, whether political, academic or otherwise.
Boulder was among the most impressive communities in attendance, said Heintzman. The county commissioner explained the area's transportation system, which was successfully revamped to augment bike lane infrastructure.
"One of the things they determined was that it was cheaper to get people out of their cars and onto bikes than it is to build new or maintain existing infrastructure," Heintzman said.
For example, setting up 100 parking stalls is a much more difficult task than setting up parking for 100 bikes. To that end, Boulder imagines itself as a community of families with no more than one car.
