Welcome to Your Kamloops!

Information on Pedestrian Safety, Transit, Parks Planning, and the Ajax Mine coming up...

This coming city council meeting will cover a lot of pretty interesting stuff. The agenda provides some insight into city staff see pedestrian safety, transit promotion, parks planning, and the proposed Ajax mine's costs and benefits. Here is the complete agenda in a viewer:

 

Kamloops City Council Workshop Agenda - June 21st 2011

One Reason Why Council Should Have Waited to Raise Transit Fares...

 

Shortly after City Council made their initial decision to raise transit fares this week, someone loaned me their paper copy of the Kamloops transit schedule. I started to flip through the pages with a very specific purpose. When I served on Council, there was some discussion about offering advertising space in the schedule and, if memory serves, there was some energy around that idea. But, no ads in the present schedule. In fact, lots of empty white space.

I then got on the bus for a short ride home. On the inside of most buses, there are ad spaces on the walls above the seats. A bit better news here - some ads. But, certainly lots of empty spaces.

One last piece of "data" (maybe its just slightly informed speculation): I ride quite a few buses where there are a lot of empty seats. I wonder if BC Transit understands where there are underutilized times and routes on our system. I also wonder if they engage in targeted marketing to better fill those specific times and routes.

This is all to say that I think it is important for Council to explore other opportunities to increase revenue before it increases fares. Maybe there was a way not to go against vocal public opinion and to create more of a win/win for the community.

City Hall's stalwart transit coordinator Erin Felker has done a great job working on enhancing transit service. I felt for her, being on the hot seat the past couple of weeks. BC Transit has been generous in offering Kamloops new hours and fare products.

I think that transit could be marketed and companies could market through transit a lot more effectively. I might be wrong here. I might be missing something. The Council and community discussion did not really go into these areas.

Council Unanimous on Desire for More Public Input on Proposed Transit Fare Hike...

Kamloops City Council today agreed to postpone a decision on a proposed transit fare increase so that it could hear more public input. Anne Grube and Matt Greenwood were given time in today's meeting to ask for a postponement so that a group of Kamloops citizens could prepare a presentation supporting keeping transit fares at their present levels.

Kudos to Mayor Milobar for allowing Ms Grube and Mr Greenwood the opportunity to make a last minute delegation to council. The transit fare increase proposal was discussed a couple of weeks ago at a council budget meeting a few weeks ago, but this past Friday was the first opportunity for the public to find out that a formal recommendation to increase fares was on today's agenda.

Council seems to be hearing a lot of opposition to this proposal. There were several letters in the council documents package today. Ms Grube and Mr Greenwood and their colleagues in this effort will make a presentation to council next week - Feb 8th. And then Council will make a decision. Sounds like a reasonable approach.

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.