A painted logo in downtown Kamloops indicates this as a preferred bike route into the downtown core.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

A local cycling advocate says a cyclist who was injured by a vehicle around one of Kamloops's most popular riding areas Thursday should be an "exclamation point" over cycling safety in the city.

"In the bike community, learning about somebody getting hit by a car, it's in your face," Deb Alore said. "It's not surprising, but it's still awful."

A man was taken to hospital on May 11 after colliding with a commercial truck on Highland Road, where a wide, separate multi-use path barricades cyclists from traffic from Valleyview Drive to the Juniper Ridge roundabout.

Police are still investigating the exact cause of the collision, but Kamloops RCMP spokesperson Const. Crystal Evelyn said it happened where a normally closed utility road meets the multi-use path. The concrete barricade separates for vehicle access and the blocked road is open for construction access.

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"As a member of the Kamloops Cycling Coalition, I'd like to know the circumstances because I would hope we can all learn from these things," Alore said.

While Alore is careful not to point the blame at any one person without knowing exactly what caused the collision, she said it points to a lack of cycling awareness in Kamloops. She's commuted by bike for decades in Kamloops and she's no stranger to close-calls with other vehicles and considers herself lucky not to have been injured. In her experience, drivers are hesitant at best to welcome cyclists to Kamloops streets.

"It's undeniable that we don't have a safe cycling culture in Kamloops. That's not to malign anybody or a specific agency — it's a fact," she said. "This (collision) can put an exclamation point on the lack of cycling awareness and culture in this city."

Finding out just how many cyclists are injured or killed in Kamloops can be difficult, however. ICBC reports data narrowed down to regions and, citing privacy reasons, does not provide data by cities.

In the Southern Interior, ICBC data reports 130 collisions in 2020 involving cyclists and 110 of those cyclists were injured. That's down from a five-year average of 180 collisions with 140 injuries. Among the hundreds of collisions it reports, there were no deaths in 2020 but it still records an average of one death per year.

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ICBC hasn't yet reported its collisions or deaths for 2021, but it will include at least one from Kamloops last year when a man died while riding his e-bike on Highway 1 between Valleyview and Dallas on an early September morning.

Meanwhile, Kamloops RCMP will collect that information in each police file, but does not categorize motor vehicle collisions with cyclists separately.

The Tournament Capital has a patchwork of bike lanes and multi-use pathways now and City planners are looking at connecting the several pieces around the city. But cycling advocate and former Kamloops transit planner Cheryl Fraser said there's a long way to go.

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"You can bike down Nicola Street with cars on both sides of the street and a painted logo. Is that enough? I don't think so," she said, pointing to the City's current preferred downtown bike route as insufficient. To her, the lack of safe options discourages people from riding, even in some of the flatter and easier to ride areas of the city.

The City has a map of current bike routes and multi-use paths, and some are in the process of being added.

Along 6 Avenue, a new protected pathway will connect riders coming from Peterson Creek and Xget'tem' trail to downtown, while another multi-use path on Summit Drive in Upper Sahali is under construction. The City is considering an overpass over Summit Drive near Thompson Rivers University, which hinges on a federal grant to help fund the project.

Connecting Juniper Ridge and Valleyview, the Highland Road multi-use path is a commonly used route, especially for mountain bikers where riders of all ages ride the Kamloops Bike Ranch. While it's not the only route to the top if a rider is heading up for a lap at the Ranch, it is the only route for road cyclists and commuters travelling between the two neighbourhoods.

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