It all started with the sudden appearance of yellow bicycles, seemingly on every bend in the road, in our small hamlet. What are they for, people wondered? An art exhibit? A memorial for deceased riders? Advertising an upcoming bike race? The Yellow Point Community Facebook page lit up with speculations.

The truth was that someone had an idea that a 26 km circular trail could be built around a beautiful stretch of treelined, rural roads in mid-Vancouver Island.  And what better way to solicit feedback about the idea of the Yellow Point Trail than by using old yellow bicycles as an artistic way to ask some questions.

The questions were:

Do we need a dedicated path along the road that would connect the Nanaimo Airport with the Duke Point Ferry?

And connect the TransCanada Trail with the Nanaimo Parkway Trail?

And connect the two areas of indigenous territories that are now divided by a major highway and an 8-km harbour?

And connect the community of Cedar with the community of Yellow Point that shared common roads but separate regional districts?

The answer came back a resounding YES! 

Now, three years and a lot of work later, surveying of part of the trail is going ahead thanks to a federal gas tax grant. A promise from the airport to dedicate part of its land to the project has secured another part of the route. And MoTI (Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure) has created a widened shoulder on 7 Kms of the route with the promise of 3 Kms more sometime soon.

There’s more to do but we are tickled yellow with what has been done so far. Every kilometer of the road that is tackled means that children are safer coming or going to school; cyclists are in less danger; walkers, horseback riders, and mobility scooters are not in as much danger from fast cars on narrow roads; more tourists will be attracted to the area; and more residents will make the choice to leave their cars at home.

Text and photos by Pamela Walker, Yellow Point Ecological Society

For more information on the project, contact

Pamela Walker Project Coordinator at 250 245-9155 or visit our website at yellowpointecologicalsociety.ca, and look under “our activities” for Yellow Point Trail.

YES Facebook page: http://www.tinyurl.com/YellowPoint

RDN Area A Director Jessica Stanley: mailto: jessica.stanley@RDN.ca

CVRD: Parks@CVRD.bc.ca or CVRD Area H Director Ben Maartman ben.maartman@cvrd.ca

The BCCC is proud to support and collaborate with cycling and active transportation groups and coalitions around the province. Here is a another great story of a community working to decide how best to use their resources to facilitate active travel for locals and visitors while maintaining relationships with all stakeholders. many thanks to Pamela Walker for text and photo files.