City Council Oct 17th

In terms of the KCSC charter, there were a couple of items of interest

1. The Lansdowne bike lane project was postponed

It's first important to understand the context of the bike lane.

- There is already sewer work planned on Lansdowne which will happen regardless of the bike lane being approved

- There is a substantial cost associated with the bike lane project 2.7million

- There is pressure to approve the project to apply for a grant before October 27th (could be up to 500k, but could also be zero) 

- It appears to be the most reasonable solution to connect the 2 halves of the active transport network in Kamloops and will not do so at the expense of current traffic lanes and only 4 of 60+ parking stalls will be removed.

- The proposed bike lane will NOT reduce traffic capacity like what happened to 6th ave, but it will narrow the existing lanes

In the KCSC committees opinion, the main issues with this project are:

- Cost (2.2 to 2.7million dollars)

- Possible effects on parking lot and business access

Otherwise it does seem like a reasonable approach which supports active transportation AND vehicle travel.

The proposal to amend the Transportation Master Plan has been put off until there can be further community engagement. Motion tabled by Councillor Sarai to postpone passed, with Councillors Karpuk and Bepple voting against postponing the amendment.

You can watch the full presentation here @ starting at 1:55:00

https://kamloops.playfullscreen.com/?mediaid=555

BC Transit / UMO Universal transit database and payment method

UMO is a joint venture between BC Transit and a company called Cubic. It provides an AP as a way for riders to pay, as well as a rider card, and users can still pay with cash. The new system offers several features, like a maximum charge to $4/day, but also records data on riders and transit and stores it in a central data base owned by BC Transit.

As Councillor Neustader asked (paraphrased) "Why cant we just have a Credit Card swipe machine on the bus? Why do we need this ap?" Councillor Neustader is correct. This ap is not necessary to allow for contact-less payments on the bus. 

Since it is being rolled out by BC Transit, the city is just going along with it. Buses are provided in a partnership between the city, the operating company and BC Transit. 

KCSC was at council to ask questions regarding this new technology.

You can hear the response from the UMO representative starting at 3:08 here:

https://www.youtube.com/live/cSnDoyM9Pi0?si=eAJcKhpyjLLwZjBI&t=11362

Also of note:

The whole meeting was contentious between the mayor and council.

The a motion was passed to reorganize the committees. The Council appointed members to each committee but the mayor declined to take part. It is confusing as to why there are new committees being formed, but council did vote for this in August.

New Bylaw was adopted (Bylaw No. 59) which is an updated council procedure document. By in large, in terms of how the public interacts with council, these were no changes to note.

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