Kelowna and its highways

Kelowna is a growing city. You can tell when you look around, everything looks like its in transition. Something that was there yesterday, will be built bigger and better the next day. Or that’s what I felt when I visited the city on my way to the Kelowna office. I use to live in Kelowna for four months doing research (in sustainable transportation). While living there I found the city as one formed on the edge of a highway. Downtown Kelown has a large highway going right through the middle and waterfront is at the footsteps to the bridge. The streets of Kelowna are not inviting to pedestrian or cyclists. The highways intimated those on the sidewalk and I didn’t really find many people out for an evening stroll. I found the streets to be without character and lacking any charm. Kelowna is a commuter city. The pictures I took from the plane were a shocking testimony to this fact. Suburb like centers are forming and with so many highway exits, its not a surprise to anyone that the city is incredibly automobile dependent. I find this quite sad because I feel that a growing city has a chance to explore more sustainable transportation options than a city with a more established road network.