Kamloops university students join push to connect city cycling, walking, bus routes
A group of Kamloops university students are appealing to the public to help identify missing links in cycling, walking and bus routes around the city.
Missing Links is a project and survey created by the Thompson Rivers University Students Union in May, in collaboration with the Kamloops Cycling Coalition.
“We hear from students that connections to the campus isn’t great so we’re putting some actual data into the system, finding out where the pinch points are,” said project coordinator Leif Douglass.
The project is part of a much broader scope that includes vehicle-free transportation for all Kamloops residents commuting to work places, schools and activities.
Delayed buses have been a point of frustration for commuters in recent years along with the lack of connecting bike lanes, specifically to the university and business districts.
“I think we have a lot of work to do in Kamloops to make the connections,” said Deb Alore, coordinator with Kamloops Cycling Coalition. “Over a long period of time the city has slowly built bike pathways. We have pieces but I can’t say we have connectivity. We are looking to connect the pathways we have.”
Both the students and the coalition have been reaching out to commuters and collecting data. The survey is just another tool to engage the public and add to the database.
The survey takes a few minutes to complete and simply asks the public to identify where the missing cycling, walking and bus links are. The project is running until the end of the summer with no specified end date yet.
The Kamloops Cycling Coalition is an advocacy group that works to create an active transportation culture that is safe and equitable for all users, not just recreational ones.
“The whole idea is to encourage people to adopt ways of travel than a car or truck,” Alore said. “I’m always excited when we can do things collaboratively. A handful of us are not going to change a culture on our own.”
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Results will be shared with the City and Alore hopes the collaboration with the students and engagement from the public will be a catalyst for change.
“We’ve built relationships with the city staff over the past year and a half, they have been amazing to work with,” she said. “A lot has changed in the last decade, we need to see what engineering designs need to be changed.”
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Go here to fill out the Missing Links survey.
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