The City of Kamloops is working on plans to bring back a bike valet next year after a successful four-month long pilot this year.

Climate and Sustainability Manager Glen Cheetham says the bike valet, which was available between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday in the parking lot at Kelson Hall at 330 St. Paul Street, got busier as the summer progressed.

“More than 2,000 bikes were parked during this pilot program period,” Cheetham told the City’s Livability and Sustainability Select Committee Monday morning.

“Saturday was definitely the most popular, not surprising the farmers market was a very popular draw for the bike valet. Week after week we saw increasing numbers of users using the bike valet which was fantastic.”

He told the committee that city staff were set to go through the results of a survey of users of the bike valet, which will also be compiled and shared with City Council.

“We just today, this morning actually, received the results of the bike valet user survey,” Cheetham said. “We had over 100 respondents of the about 160 people that were invited to do it. These were specially from users themselves. It was very positive feedback.”

While final figures are not known yet, the pilot was expected to cost the City $75,300, with the majority of that – $69,500 – coming from the Climate Action Fund Reserve. The rest came from the New Gold Community Investment Fund which helped expand the bike valet to the Saturday Kamloops Farmers Market last year.

Cheetham also told the committee that funding from the BC Cycling Coalition means the bike valet will still be offered on Saturdays until the Farmers Market wraps up its outdoor season at the end of October.

“The BC Cycling Coalition (BCCC) provided a grant of $20,000 earlier this spring to support the bike valet service, and we are able to use some of that funding to fund bike valet service for the remaining eight Kamloops Farmers Markets on Saturday, I guess seven now, with the first one happening this weekend,” Cheetham said, noting the BCCC grant helped offset some of the costs on the City’s Climate Action Fund Reserve, though a final total has not yet been tallied.

He also notes a business case to bring back the bike valet back next summer is working its way through City Hall, before it is presented to City Councillors for input.

Asked by Councillor Bill Sarai if the bike valet will be set up in “a more central area” like on Victoria Street on Lansdowne Street, Cheetham said those discussions were being looked at.

“It was one of the questions in the survey, and we got a lot of feedback and there was a mixed feeling. Generally positive,” Cheetham said. “People liked that location [at Kelson Hall] but a lot of folks suggested Riverside Park as well.”

“As far as for 2025 planning, we’ve had some preliminary discussions with Tourism Kamloops. They are looking to further activate some space in Riverside Park for 2025, so there is some early discussions about integrating their plans with this bike valet plan.”

Councillor Nancy Bepple, who chairs the committee, said she noted a number of people who work at Royal Inland Hospital were using the bike valet “because it was in a good location for hospital staff to park their bikes and then walk up.”

“It depends on who you are wanting to serve, but for the hospital people, they felt it was a good location. And of course, for the farmers market, its a fantastic location.”

Cheetham previously told Radio NL that if the pilot was successful, city 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 in March. “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 we are 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.”