The vision for Campbell River’s sidewalks, bike lanes and transit may be left in the hands of a few hundred people.
The city says fewer than 500 people have taken part in their community outreach. That’s about 1.3 per cent of the Campbell River’s population.
Transportation Specialist Melissa Heidema says they did what they could to get the word out to the public.
“We tried to get as many people out. Of course you’re always going to get people, you’re always going to hear from people who are more opinionated about traffic and parking, which is fine, but this is what we’ll have to go on,” Heidema told Vista Radio. “So, we’ll take all of the responses that we’ve got and we’ll move forward from here.”
She still believes the community response was “very good” and the common themes were people wanting to see more of everything.
“(They) generally thought that the community wanted to see more walking and cycling infrastructure so building better and safer crosswalks, sidewalks, bike lanes and then, in terms of transit, the public felt that they wanted to see more frequency which would help them use the transit system more often,” Heidema said.
The public will still have two more times to comment on the plan before its passed by council, which is likely to happen in July. Most of the input now will be used in the “vision, goals and strategic directions” that are being written by the consultant. She says “if the public feels very differently” then there could be changes.
The city will spend $125,000 over two years on the master transportation plan and the Dogwood Street corridor study, which will come out as a separate plan.
