Welcome to Your Kamloops!

A Downtown Parking Shortage?

I am always puzzled when I hear people say we have a shortage of parking downtown. Perhaps, for employees, but as a frequent patron of downtown businesses, when I drive, I am never at a loss for a parking spot.

I prefer the bus , but still find a need to drive from time to time.

I usually have to walk a few block from where I park downtown, but I like the exercise and fresh air. I guess its a matter of perspective.

A quick comment on marketing transit: I still don't see enough marketing of transit to downtown employees. It may be happening, and I may have missed it. It sure would be good to find out if we can get people riding the bus, before building a whole bunch more parking downtown.

A Heineken at the Transit Exchange

I love travelling by transit. The last few months, I have been in my car way too much. How I missed letting someone else do the driving while I read, answered email, or socialized. How I missed the extra, no longer gas money in my pocket.

Early this month, I bought my bus pass. And I have been trying to schedule so riding the bus is workable with my busy life. .

Today, I went down to the transit exchange to catch a bus  to Sahali. As I walked by the bus shelter area,  someone from within a crowd of teenagers yelled out "hey, there's Arjun Singh!!!!". I craned my neck in an attempt to spot this enthusiastic person, but only caught a fleeting glimpse of what seemed a young man in amongst all the other people.

I walked to my bus stop on the exchange and sat on the nearest bench. The enthusiastic young man came over. He said, "you are Arjun Singh, aren't you, I've only seen you in the paper".  I confirmed that I was indeed me, and the young man shook my hand and sat down beside me.

It was then I noticed the large bottle of Heineken beer in his hand. And I became quite alarmed. 

Terry Lake May Have Been Right: Thoughts on the Delay of Transit Expansion...

This is a replay I of conversations I had with the former Mayor:

Me: "I am so happy that governments of all stripes are starting to take the environment and climate change more seriously"

Terry: "Me too, but once the economy dips, these concerns for the environment will basically evaporate. History tells us this. "

Me: "No way, times are different now. Glaciers are melting, polar bears are dying, Al Gore, yadda yadda"

Well, judging from the first real test of this, Terry may well have been right. The approved Transit expansion into Sahali and Aberdeen, that I am sure Terry lobbied for when he served on the BC Transit board, have been delayed, pending budgetary review from BC Transit. A potential victim of our seriously hobbled financial situation.

I hope that the expansion plans survive. We certainly need to trim budgets wherever we can, but not at the expense of our long term needs as a society.

My first thoughts on this one.

Concerned about Gas Prices? - My Solution...

The Province Announces New Transit Funding...

The announcement is here. Looks like a massive injection in capital into the Lower Mainland primarily, not too much in the interior of the province. Kelowna will be getting a rapid bus service on selected routes.

 

Still, great news!

I think we have to be also seriously looking at doing a much better job marketing transit. We don't even have to get too creative about it, even though it would help. Transit makes a lot of sense for a lot of people who don't currently take transit.

I live well within the boundaries of Kamloops, in Sahali, and for point to point travel, transit is cheaper and healthier. It may even save time, depending on parking situations, and how far parking is from the real destination.

Me, Peter Oswell, and the North Shore Plan...

Over the past year, I have been to many meeting with my friend Peter Oswell to work on a new community plan for the North Shore Kamloops. I like Peter a lot  - and we tend to agree on almost nothing. Yes, it is pretty rare to find Peter and I agreeing on a topic or an issue.

Ultimately, this is a good thing. And it is pretty indicative of how the North Shore plan community advisory committee works. We currently have a lot of people involved with North Shore Business Improvement Association on the committee. And although I am and have been a business person for a long time,  I think its important to state opinions from other North Shore interests. I try to do that when I can. Others do to. We have had some pretty animated discussions. What ultimately generally comes out of our discussions around the table is a pretty balanced view of where the North Shore is now, and where it could go.

Peter and I went for a drink after a committee meeting we had last Thursday evening. We continued a respectful, great conversation. Sometimes I find it hard to bite my tongue and just listen to what he has to say. But, I find listening to him almost always a rewarding thing.

I am beginning to think, through the many hours of meetings I have been to and the many hours of reading I have done, that the main issue on the North Shore is really one of perception. Statistics show the North Shore is really no more crime ridden than any other area of Kamloops, it is beautifully flat and enjoys some of the best weather. There are great deals to be had in real estate.

What we might want to focus on is changing people's perceptions. No street beautfication, no great condo or townhouse project will be able to do that alone. What we perhaps should do is showcase this part of town to the people we want to recognize its great value.

You can read a draft of the North Shore plan here.

More North Shore planning documents.

Free Transit Next Federal Election

It was not unanimous but Council today approved free transit for people who show their voting cards during the next federal election day. This will be a pilot project.

This proposal was brought to by the Kamloops Young Liberals association as a way to try to increase voter turnout. The Young Libs were represented by a high school student who is articulate well well (yes well X2) beyond his years and even has a blog - Emile Scheffel.

UBCM - Transit Forum

The BC Transit board and senior management held a transit forum this evening at UBCM. Very informative. At the end of the forum, we broke into smaller groups with BC Transit muckymucks and shared some ideas and concerns. There is a lot of demand, it seemed from the discussions, for expanded transit services, even in very rural parts of the province. I shared some of the concerns people in our community have shared with me - hours of service, optimization of scheduling so that buses are more staggered, for example.  I also brought up the idea of enhanced creative marketing of transit to people who currently don't use transit, but could benefit from doing so. The only time I see the bus promoted is on the bus itself. We need take transit promotion to the next level. This idea did not seem to take hold in my little group, but its one that I personally think is golden.

BC Transit managers gave mini reports on the current state of the organization. The Chair of the BC Transit board started by outlining 4 common points that British Columbians raise about transit:

1. How can we expand transit services?
2. How do we fund that expansion?
3. What are transit best practices?
4. How is transit becoming more environmentally friendly and/or transitioning to alternative fuels.

The Financial VP said:

• it costs, on average, $71.42 per hour to run a transit bus in Kamloops and other similar size communities.
• Future cost challenges include
  • maintenance
  • fuel contracts
  • labour costs

The fleet / technology VP said:

• supply of new buses is dwindling
• Hybrid bus experiment: preliminary results seem to point to hybrid being too expensive.
• biodiesel buses promising
• hydrogen buses promising

The customer service VP said:

• transit planning should support community planning
• Victoria transit service going for 30 - 35% increase in ridership, in part through enhancing overall quality of trips.
• Products include pro-pass, that allows companies to enroll in a payroll deduction program for interested employees to get a discount on transit passes, and developer-pass, through which parking requirements for new developments could be reduced if the developer agrees to pay for transit passes for their new residents.

Of course this wasn't all that was said, but these are the points that stood out and that I recorded.

Arjun's No Car Month - would you consider it too?

At today's council meeting,  I announced that I am going to park my car for a month. I am going to take the bus, I am going to carpool, I am going to walk.

Why?

Primarily because I believe I need to start taking relatively dramatic personal steps to reduce emissions, helping to prevent a global warming crisis, and generally live more sustainably.

A reduction in my month's gas bills will also be nice.

I want to pass on my experiences so others can see if they might be able to reduce their car usage.

I am really hoping I can see this through. I am so attached to my car. I am going to have to plan well and utilize time even more efficiently.

Taking Transit...

Day before yesterday, Tuesday, I went to Aberdeen Mall and bought a pack of 20 tickets for Kamloops Transit. I was going to go whole hog and buy a monthly bus pass, but my wife wisely advised me to try the service first before making a longer commitment. 20 tickets was $30, I believe.

I am really concerned about the high price of gas, am also interested in being easier on the environment, and also wanted to experience a service the City is involved with managing.

Yesterday, I took the bus from Sahali into downtown and from downtown to the North Shore. I was a little nervous waiting at my first bus service - was I on time? Had I got the wrong stop? I was very relieved when the bus showed up.

My first impressions:

• the bus drivers seem to drive quite fast - I am not sure if this is just feels like this because we are on a bus as opposed to a car.
• for the most part, the bus drivers and the passengers were very friendly - exhanging greetings and thank yous with each other.