The head of the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association says he likes the proposal for a summer bike valet being put forward by City staff.

Howie Reimer says he’s also looking forward to the positive impacts that the four month long pilot from early May to Labour Day will have on downtown businesses.

“The more people you can get downtown and squeeze a bunch of bikes into an area and just to be totally transparent, they’re going to get their wallets out and hopefully enjoy some of the restaurants and shops downtown,” Reimer said, on NL Newsday.

“I felt bad that the Lansdowne multi-use pathway was voted down. We liked the project, but we just wanted to make sure that the businesses were on board and that was sort of the sticking point on that one. But this is something that we endorse.”

City staff are asking council to approve a six-day a week pilot that will run between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday. A location for the bike valet downtown has not yet been picked, but it will be adjacent to Victoria Street.

“I drove past both locations [Friday] and I know the concerns from the parking contingent is how many parking stalls are going to be lost. I counted five cars in the one spot and in the larger spot there were probably nine cars,” Reimer said.

“We know how popular the Juniper Ridge Bike Ranch is, and a lot of these mountain bikers might be more prone to actually ride on into town if there is a place where they can secure their very expensive bikes. And of course, now with a lot of people using e-bikes and so forth, we want to make sure they are secure.”

The Kamloops Cycling Coalition also said plans for the expanded bike valet service could help ease fears about bikes being stolen.

“A bike valet service is certainly one key solution that I think would be wonderful to have in this city. I’ve used bike valets in other communities and they do offer a lot of peace of mind,” Kamloops Cycling Coalition Co-Founder Deb Alore told Radio NL.

“When I take my bike out and I go on a trip, I do think very carefully about where I am going to stow my bike and will it be safe and how long will I go and so on and so forth. I think that is a concern that a lot of people have.”

Reimer says the proposal put forward by city staff – which is aiming to formalize the series of pop-up bike valets seen at community events last summer – “makes a lot of sense.”

“[Glen Cheetham, the City’s Climate and Sustainability Manager] has a well thought out structure of service,” Reimer said. “You need security of the bike storage and so forth, but I think what they are proposing makes a lot of sense.”

Cheetham previously told Radio NL that nearly 1,000 bike owners in Kamloops used the pop-up bike valets in the summer of 2023, noting the intent of the new pilot is to try and “target the communing crowd.”