The City’s Transportation Manager says its too soon to say what could happen to the proposed Lansdowne multi-use pathway, which was voted down by City Council last week.

Purvez Irani says those details regarding the final portion of the Kamloops North-South Active Transportation corridor which connects Aberdeen to Westsyde, will now be further ironed out by the City’s Active Transportation Engagement Group.

“We also have a consultant on board that is looking at these AT networks in our city, so I would let the process run and lets see what are some of the active transportation corridors that are identified by the AT group,” Irani said on NL Newsday.

In rejecting the pathway, some councillors raised concerns about potential traffic impacts and safety along Lansdowne Street.

“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 Councillor Bill 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?”

Ahead of the vote last Tuesday, Irani told Radio NL that Lansdowne Street was the preferred route as it would offer the most direct connection from the 6th Avenue Bike Lane – which opened in October – to Riverside Park, via the Lansdowne Transit Exchange.

“When you are riding a bike or even if you are walking, you want the most direct path to your destination,” Irani said. “You don’t have to go and make a turn anywhere else and then turn back to get to Riverside Park. This is a direct connection.”

“We could look at Seymour Street as an option [for this new pathway] but there is parking both sides so to fit that in, one side of parking would have to be go,” Irani added, noting he feels the City needs at least two east-west active transportation routes.

“St. Paul also has parking on both sides, that is why its a shared route right now because there is not enough space to put in a bike facility.”

Irani says it will be up to city council to decide when – and where – the project could go ahead in the future.

“If they identify this route or if the committee or Active Transportation Engagement Group feels that there is another more suitable corridor, then we will present it to council when we bring that engagement piece and report,” he said, noting his team has been looking at potential routes downtown over the past three years.

“We’ve been looking at conceptual designs, so we knew that we required an east-west corridor because St. Paul is just a shared route. It’s not an all ages and abilities facility, so we definitely needed another east-west route.”

He also rejected claims that city staff were trying to push the project forward by aiming to get work done in conjunction with a planned sewer main replacement along Lansdowne Street, which will begin in the spring.

“I wouldn’t stay this was a rushed decision,” Irani said. “When we heard that there were sanitary upgrades required, we thought this was a good cost effective measure to basically partner with our utility groups.”

“It takes decades to build your active transportation network. It took decades to build our highway systems so its not something that happens overnight, but what you tend to do is a couple of projects each year and try to build out at least a core route of your city.”