The City of Kamloops will run a four-month long bike valet pilot program this summer.

City staff say the goal of the pilot will be to target people who commute to work downtown, by giving them a secure space to leave their bikes while they are at work or running errands downtown.

“I love seeing pilot projects to see if its actually works, and if its something we want to continue with,” Councillor Mike O’Reilly said. “I think that is a really big thing.”

“Seeing the Chamber and [Tourism Kamloops] and the KCBIA involved, also is huge. that is statement, so I think it’ll be wildly successful.”

While a location for the bike valet has not yet been picked, staff say it will be adjacent to Victoria Street.

“I drove past both locations [on March 8] 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,” KCBIA Executive Director, Howie Reimer, told Radio NL while voicing his support for the bike valet.

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.”

The pilot will cost the City $75,300, with the majority of that – $69,500 – coming from the Climate Action Fund Reserve. The rest will come from the New Gold Community Investment Fund, a fund which helped expand the bike valet to the Saturday Kamloops Farmers Market last year.

Most of the money – $65,000 – will go towards staff wages, with about $5,800 going towards start-up capital costs like fencing, lighting, and signs.

Councillor Nancy Bepple says she is looking forward to using the bike valet, noting its a bargain compared to the amount of money spent on vehicle parking.

“The farmers market valet was wonderful to have last summer,” Bepple said.

She said a typical parking stall in Kamloops costs $15,000 to build, and $50,000 if the cost of land is included.

“We have to acknowledge that we’ve spent considerably more to provide amenities all through the city for parking for vehicles, and its fair to provide such a service for people with bicycles as well,” Bepple added

City staff say the pilot – which will run from early May until Labour Day – aims to formalize those pop-up bike valets that were also run at community events like Ribfest, Canada Day, and 2023 Memorial Cup.

“This service would provide that option for folks to park their bikes at the valet and then go to work,” Climate and Sustainability Manager Glen Cheetham said, noting the idea is to target commuters.

“Working with Tourism Kamloops and the Kamloops Central BIA, we would be looking to market that through to their members as well, and encourage their customers to do the same.”

Cheetham says if the pilot is successful, staff will look to expand it to other areas of Kamloops, including the North Shore.

“When we had one of our initial interest holders meeting, Jeremy Heighton [of the North Shore BIA] was in the meeting, which was great,” Cheetham said. “Right out of the gate we said, ‘for this pilot, we think we need to pick one location and we this location is the right one’ but absolutely the conversation included ‘where next?’ and ‘also how?’ because it may not necessarily be the same model were doing for the pilot.”

“It could be other groups and organizations even the private sector has indicated some interest in looking at the viability of this, based in part on the results of this pilot.”