Merritt’s city council is taking the idea of creating bike lanes in the downtown seriously.

At its regular meeting last Tuesday, council heard from the group Active Transportation Merritt, which asked council to mandate a city staff member to work with them on a plan for human-powered transportation initiatives such as bike lanes.

The group wants a multi-use path that circles Merritt’s downtown.

“We would really like to start giving kids an easy and clear path to school. We would really like to have commuters with a direct route to downtown. It makes it very safe for them,” Lindsay Fehr of Active Transportation Merritt told council.

The bike lanes in the proposed route would link to established multi-use paths and be located along Coldwater Avenue, Granite Avenue, Main Street, Blair Street, Voght Street, Orme Road and Cleasby Street.

“Coldwater [Avenue] is a nice, wide street. It would be easy to paint a bike lane on that road,” Fehr said.

The group doesn’t think the cost to establish these lanes would be high because it envisions the lanes being incorporated into future sewer and waterline replacement projects.

“Even if for the first few years we only have two blocks [of bike lane] here, five blocks there, four blocks down there, they will eventually connect,” Fehr said.

The group would also like to see a bridge across the Nicola River connecting Rotary Park to Chapman Street.

Also on the group’s wish list are lighted crosswalks, lower speed limits in the downtown and coloured-in bike lanes around schools, playgrounds and busy roads.

Other long-term goals include a beginner level mountain bike path and a developed trail between Merritt and Spences Bridge.

Fehr said the number 1 reason she’s heard from people as to why they don’t ride their bikes is they don’t think it’s safe.

“And sometimes it isn’t, but if we have this infrastructure, bike ridership will increase,” she suggested.

She said getting started on some of this work could begin as early as this summer with the development of a plan.

Mayor Neil Menard said council will take her proposal into consideration.

Coun. Mike Goetz said he would discuss this initiative with planning and development manager Sean O’Flaherty.