A group of local cycling enthusiasts is hoping to gain some traction with city hall to improve bike and pedestrian traffic in Merritt.

Locals Travis and Lindsay Fehr, who own Breathe Bikes in Merritt, are part of the group known as “Bikes Belong in Merritt” on Facebook.

Their aim is to encourage bicycles and other forms of human-powered transportation in Merritt’s infrastructure planning.

To do so, the group plans to speak with city council about the possibility and feasibility of creating bikes lanes in Merritt’s downtown.

The lanes would be for bike and pedestrian use alike, and link with the multi-use trail that goes through Rotary Park and the river trail.

Fehr said she wants to see routes that connect Diamond Vale to downtown Merritt, and a connecting path from the river trail to downtown.

“The river trail, where it comes out on Voght Street, we would then just have a bike lane for that first little part of Voght Street,” Fehr said.

She said she envisions a bike lane along Coldwater Road and on Merritt Avenue.

The group has a map of the city that outlines where the proposed bike lanes circling Merritt’s downtown could go, with routes along Granite Avenue, Main Street, Cleasby Street and Coldwater Road.

“What we’re hoping for is that we will present our proposed route and our proposed changes to city council … and that they will then mandate someone in city hall to work with us to finalize routes, to finalize details [and] to do costing, so that it can go in to the next budget,” she said.

Fehr said she’ll be requesting these lanes along the side of the road be about the width of a car and consist of a solid painted lane in a bright red or green colour.

The city’s Official Community Plan states it is council policy to promote Merritt “as a healthy place to be as a result of its investment in bike and pedestrian trails, its abundance of self-propelled outdoor recreation options and its compact, walkable city form.”

Bike and pedestrian trails are also a part of the OCP’s 2030 vision for Merritt.

City of Merritt planning and development manager Sean O’Flaherty said it’s great to see support for alternative transportation methods.

The city doesn’t currently have a transportation master plan in place. A transportation master plan would help determine where corridors for biking would best be placed in the city, O’Flaherty said.

The city has master plans for areas such as sanitation and water, and a parks master plan is being put together this year.

However, the Official Community Plan does identify some preliminary multi-use pathways, O’Flaherty said.

One way to go about establishing these multi-use lanes is to have the city install bike lanes when repairing stretches of street they tear up to fix sewer and waterlines, Fehr said.

“When you’re done putting the road back on, put in a sidewalk and a bike lane. Even if it’s just a little standalone two-block bike lane just there for now, it’s a great start because eventually they will all tie together,” she said.

This idea is something the city is already considering.

O’Flaherty said the city is looking into adding a bike lane along the sides of Coldwater Road after it is torn up and replaced for water and sewer line maintenance work this spring.

“The conversations that we’re having in the absence of a transportation master plan is to continue an east-west bike lane on Coldwater [Avenue] from one end of the city to the other,” O’Flaherty said.

The city also has plans to create a path from the downtown to River Ranch Road, but that project was stalled when a property owner along the proposed route wouldn’t allow the trail to pass through the edge of their property.

This multi-use path would go up Voght Street, connect to Spring Bank Avenue and branch off to River Ranch Road.

Fehr said she wants to make a presentation to council by the end of the month.