As part of the supplemental budget, Kamloops Council has approved an ask from the local cycling coalition to expedite the creation of cycling infrastructure.

It means that projects in the Transportation Master Plan will be sped up in a 10-year time frame rather than 15 years, with the city using $750,000 from its Community Climate Action plan in 2023 towards the projects.

KCC Co-Founder Deb Alore says this will help improve to active transportation infrastructure in the city.

“That includes infrastructure, not only for cycling but also for pedestrians. I just wanted to be clear that it’s not just for the KCC, this is for the entire community and it benefits everyone and will benefit generations going forward concerning actioning climate change.”

The City will also use $1 million from that Climate Action Plan fund in subsequent years towards those projects.

Alore says they will begin working with the city to look at the existing transportation infrastructure outlined in the master plan.

“We want to take a hard look at that. We want to make sure that the infrastructure that was identified to be built that it is in the right location. Is it taking people to the places they need to go to work to school to business areas, etc? Is it the appropriate infrastructure for that particular route? Because not all infrastructure has to be built the same.”

She says a priority for the coalition going forward will be to ensure all the gaps in the current Transportation Master Plan are identified.

“That’s something that’s been clearly identified by the general supporters of our group. There are a lot of gaps; suddenly, you’re split out into nowhere and you really don’t have a safe route to continue on your journey.”

On top of that, Alore says the 10-year plan makes a lot more sense in achieving targets with the community climate action plan.