LETTER – Before Connectivity we must admit our mistakes

Re: FEATURED COMMENT – Issue isn’t need for bike lane, it’s need for connectivity

We screwed up and now we have to take our lumps, a simple mea culpa isn’t enough, it’s just the first step and we can’t even muster up the integrity to do that.  Yes the 6th Avenue bike path was a “boondoggle” and yes we as a collective in the Kamloops Cycling Association advocated for it and now we must take some responsibility for it.

We ought to take the high road and admit we were wrong, grossly wrong in pushing the incomprehensible narrative that it would be used; no one who regularly rides a bike thought this would be the case.  We should not act like the City and make up lies and prefabricated stories absent of truth to justify this white elephant.

There’s no argument that 5th Avenue is a much better choice than 6th ave, it ought to have been intuitively obvious to anyone who actually rides a bike that 6th Avenue had no redeeming qualities other than it was a larger roadway which would allow for a larger more expansive and thereby opulent bike path. In short, it allowed for more $’s to be spent. Debating 5th vs 6th is like debating if water is wet or not, it is, so can we please stop defending the indefensible.

Many of us in the biking community knew the City plan was far too much, far too expensive for far too little of a need.  We should have known it would blow up in our faces and stymie future growth but we had tunnel vision and in so doing we’ve sabotaged future bike path development.  Yes, your honour, I plead guilty as charged.

I’m on your side Rob, but I have to say you’re undermining your/our entire argument when you include BS statements like “cars are on average a foot wider than they were in 2013”, this is simply not true and by stating so you make yourself/ourselves look like fools.

Vehicles may indeed be a few centimetres wider than a decade ago but not a foot!  Moreover, the plans for Lansdowne street did not aim to “remove a few centimetres of width from the vehicle lanes” as you stated, but rather the aim was to reduce each lane by close to a foot, so unless you think 25 centimetres per lane is an accurate description of a few centimetres you’re misleading the reader. By misrepresenting facts and stating BS you lose credibility and make it easy for the audience to dismiss you/us.

If you’ll indulge me with a brief anecdote, during the building phase of this path two years ago I noticed 20 lamp posts installed along 6th Avenue; this stood out for me as they were oddly short . Last summer I noticed that these weren’t lamp posts but rather hanging basket posts. In the heat of the summer, each post had two large dying hanging baskets, 40 in total, as there is no shade in the area and they were in dire need of water, whilst Victoria Street had a total of zero hanging baskets.

I mention this because years ago I used to have a shop on Victoria Street and one of my fondest memories was the smell of fresh flowers in the morning which draped along the street lamps up and down the street. None of these baskets were ever in need of refreshments as merchants were at the ready to refuel them because the flowers helped beautify the street which was good for business. But today we’re indulging non existent bike riders with hanging baskets at the expense of shop keepers and customers, really, that’s our priorities?

Moving forward, convincing the average citizen/voter that bike paths are necessary is going to be difficult after we promised a Yellow Brick Road and delivered a White Elephant. The longer this money pit is operational the longer the memory and resentment will linger providing opponents with a weapon to beat us with.  I use the verb “operational” rather than something like “in use” because as we all know by now, this path isn’t used.

In my view we can’t rid ourselves from this “boondoggle” soon enough, it hasn’t just stunted growth but actually retarded the appetite for more bike paths. Sometimes in life one must step back before stepping forward, if this isn’t an example then I don’t know what one is.

Lastly as a public address reminder, the Kamloops Cycling Coalition is having our AGM at the Big Little Science Centre on June 10 @ 6:30 p.m.; hopefully there’ll be more than the dozen or so to show up like there was last year.

MAC GORDON