Pedestrian Accessibility Study required for downtown Kamloops

victoria street in the spring
Originally uploaded by Spatial Mongrel.

Now that we've successfully pushed for and received a City Centre Plan review and a downtown traffic assessment, it's time to ask "What's next?"

My thoughts on the next steps are to build on what we've done so far, and ask ourselves this question - with all the development we're looking at happening in the City Centre Plan, and all the visioning statements we've looked at to make life more livable, how are we actually going to implement this?

We've done the study on how traffic moves in the downtown. Great, and very useful. We know now how we want the downtown to look over the next twenty years. Even better. But how are people going to INTERACT in the downtown core? How will they walk from these new developments, to access the goods and services they need? WHere will they sit, whil eenjoying their new City? What facilities do we need to provide to make sure our pedestrian facilities are up to snuff?

Kamloops needs a pedestrian study as the next step. The purpose of this study would be to look at where people are moving in the downtown. It would provide answers to the following questions:

• Where are people going, where are they coming from?
• Who are these people?
• What are they coming downtown for, and what do they do while they are there?
• Do they need to sit anywhere? Where? How often, and with what spacing?
• Do they need park space?
• What areas are priorities for pedestrian improvements?
• Where do we most need shade?
• What routes are most heavily used, and
• Do we need to prioritize certain crossing points?

Pedestrian-scaled design is about inclusiveness. It's about making sure everyone has an opportunity to enjoy a high-quality lifestyle, whether you're a young child to an elderly senior, whether you're able-bodied or with a disability. The City is for everyone, and downtown is the centre of the action.

A good pedestrian plan will helps us target our resources to making sure we're fitting the urban design to the needs of the people, and that we're ensuring accessibility for all.