Work on a multi-use pathway along Lansdowne Street won’t be going ahead this spring.

Following a lengthy discussion at Tuesday’s council meeting, Kamloops Council voted 6-3 to not move forward with the project at the same time as the sewer main replacement planned along Lansdowne that will get underway this spring.

The main concerns the council brought up surrounded safety – owing to the heavy truck traffic along Lansdowne Street – as well as uncertainty around cost differences, and questions around whether or not the route is the best option for the pathway.

Councillor Dale Bass is one of six who voted against the Lansdowne bike lane, explaining her reason was ultimately due to safety.

“I have been in accidents that have not been much fun and I did look up the ICBC statistics and between 1st and 6th (Avenues) last year there were 63 (crashes). The year before there were 48,” stated Bass

“That is an awful lot of accidents for me, and given the fact that I find myself quite often thinking the person in front of me does not know how to drive.”

Councillor Bill Sarai questioned why the bike lane isn’t set to go down St. Paul Street, saying it had been identified in the Transportation Master Plan in previous years.

“St. Paul Street is already there and that is a link that we have potentially to TRU and we have been talking about connecting all these pathways to get people downtown; so how does Lansdowne fit in?” questioned Sarai.

“If you are not going to support St. Paul Street no more and it’s sort of just a place we have identified, but not being invested in… How does Lansdowne fit into connecting to TRU?”

Transportation Manager Purvez Irani says it’s because there wouldn’t be enough East-West connections for cyclists, noting the distance between St. Paul Street and Lansdowne is a couple of blocks.

“That is what we saw on the North Shore as well, in the 2018 Transportation Master Plan – there was no East-West connection, so that is why we wanted it in the North Shore study and that is why we are identifying gaps like this in the Active Transportation Engagement Group,” Irani said.

Sarai also raised concerns about safety, noting he likes to bike away from traffic.

“For us to enjoy a bike ride is through McArthur Park, down Singh Street multi-use pathway, along the Royal Avenue down the seawall, over Overlander Bridge through Riverside Park,” he said.

“I do not think I would be able to talk my wife into going on a bike ride across a bridge and going along Lansdowne Street.”

Sarai also suggested the multi-use pathway along Lansdowne Street would bring too much confusion for Kamloopsians.

“Even if it is separated, we are fighting with so many different opportunities of conflict – so you have residents walking, strollers, a bus stop with people running off the bus, children there, and then you have the confusion of you being on a bike path, then you are on a shared multi-use path and then a bike path again, and then you are on the road on 6th Avenue,” Sarai said.

Councillor Nancy Bepple was one of three councilors who voted in favour of moving ahead with the multi-use pathway in the spring.

“To say it is not going to work… Well, first of all, I am not an engineer, I am definitely not a traffic engineer, but I do have confidence they want traffic to move through the downtown,” she said.

“It would be nice to get the 1st Avenue light may be adjusted, but, I don’t think changing the widths of the streets will be the thing that will hold up the traffic.”

Coucillor Katie Neustaeter says while all of council wants an active transportation system, she says the Lansdowne plan – as presented – is something that many of her colleagues aren’t able to get behind.

“The opportunity is what is driving this as a possible choice but if I don’t know the difference between the financial impact for it being somewhere else, or this being along Lansdowne – it makes it difficult for me to weigh those options,” Neustaeter said.

She also says City Council needs to see a cost comparison with the different locations to make an informed decision.

“I supposed we can’t have that right now, but I certainly want to know what are we saving when we look at this as an opportunity?” Neustaeter said.

“Not being an engineer and not understanding the difference between doing it while this other project is happening, or what is in my uneducated mind painting a row of something like Seymour and making those changes.”

City staff did say that if council decides to go with a different route for the multi-use pathway – the final portion of the Kamloops North-South Active Transportation corridor – it could delay the project by two years.