ROTHENBURGER – Where should City put its money getting us from A to B?
Barnhartvale Road. (Image: Margaret Langevin)
LET’S TALK, as the City of Kamloops likes to say. Specifically, let’s talk about transportation priorities, and then you can tell me if you think City council is being consistent and strategic in its approach to how our streets are used.
Vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists compete for space on the city’s streets, and, so far, the automobile continues to win. Millions of taxpayer dollars are spent every year trying to find the right balance, and the effort isn’t always successful.
At this week’s regular meeting, City councillors debated whether to forge ahead with upgrades to the McArthur Island ring road. Officially called the Island Parkway, it’s the skinny little piece of pavement that makes its way around the perimeter of the playing fields and provides a way to drive, walk or cycle the island.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
Councillors may not be unanimous on what’s the best way forward on transportation. Perhaps they don’t know enough, perhaps their perspectives are skewed, perhaps their philosophies on transportation are holding on to outdated paradigm. Perhaps, at least with some of them, is whatever the flavour of the day is…yesterday was less environmental impact today approving another drive-thru and tomorrow is endorsIng (as with this latest expenditure) more driving period! Yeah if we had four of five truly progressive councillors things would be different, vastly different but we don’t. So how do we get from A to B? How do we get from talking in an environmentally conscientious way to actually act in an environmentally conscientious way? Someone said tough decisions are not that tough if one has a strong and well-defined belief system in place. Paving or not to paving is then secondary.
Filling potholes is of course important. But money should be spent getting us from A to B so that we don’t get killed.