The City of Kamloops’ Community Climate Action Plan calls for increasing the share of local trips made by “active transportation.” Helping more people feel comfortable to get around by bike is key. Two things are seen as necessary: safe routes and secure parking.
Opportunities to advocate for separated bike lanes are always on the radar, but this year we decided to focus on safe parking as well—we hear so often that fear of bike theft is a concern to many who would consider bicycle commuting. So Transition Kamloops teamed up with the Kamloops Cycling Coalition to (1) identify priority locations to install bike parking infrastructure and (2) create an action plan. A Climate Action Grant from the City of Kamloops covered the main costs of this project.
In March 2026 our action team leaders met for a planning meeting with cyclists, City staff, businesspeople and representatives from various agencies to get some very helpful feedback. We then sent an online survey to the cycling community, and organized a four-hour workshop on April 18, 2026 for participants to dig into the questions more deeply.
In the end, we were happy to see a strong consensus emerge:
- In Kamloops the public perception is that there is insufficient safe bike parking.
- A major factor influencing whether to go by bike is the availability of safe bike parking.
- Safe bike parking criteria:
- located in a highly visible, high-traffic area
- racks inspire confidence
- racks are appropriate for all types of bicycles (e.g., fat, cargo)
- racks are well secured to the ground
- two points of contact with the bike to keep it from falling
- does not have to be expensive or locker, inverted “U” rack is fine
- bike valets are the most preferred!
- Four locations were top priority to get safe bike parking infrastructure (but improved bike parking infrastructure across the city is desired):
- Victoria Street and the Downtown corridor
- Brock Shopping Centre
- Lower Sahali commercial area
- MacDonald Park area and Spirit Square
- We need a well-publicized, updated, central source showing where safe bike parking is located.
- Clear guidelines from the City to businesses on the process for installing safe bike parking near their businesses would be appreciated.
Recommendations
The survey and workshop gave very similar results—there is substantial public support for improving bike parking and cycling infrastructure in Kamloops. Investment in safe, visible, well-located bike parking—especially in commercial areas—as well as improved cycling infrastructure (e.g., safe, separated lanes) will significantly increase cycling participation here.
We recommend a two-pronged approach for next steps:
- Ask the City to Install a distributed network of safe bike parking infrastructure on City streets—particularly Downtown, North Shore, and in commercial areas
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- Use low-cost options like circles on parking posts and inverted U-racks
- Encourage businesses to attract cyclists by installing safe bike parking
- Explore whether car parks (e.g., Indigo, Impark) will add safe bike parking to their lots.
- Use Brock Shopping Centre as a pilot project for a grassroots campaign to install safe bike parking on private property
This exercise was extremely useful. It showed that many people are eager to cycle to more destinations, if they don’t have to worry about their bike being there when they are ready to go home!
