Added lighting, seating and more coming to trail system

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The city plans to start rolling out upgrades to the trail system, including lighting and more trash cans, after establishing a new priority system based on traffic.

Staff unveiled that priority system at a council committee meeting Thursday, which puts the north and south riverfront trails as well as the Bill Thorpe Walking Bridge at the top of the list.

City traffic engineer Tyson Aubie said those trails, collectively spanning 5.3 kilometres, were ranked highest because they see at least 800 people daily.

The crosstown trail, Lincoln trail, and sections of the north and south riverfront trails, totaling 11.8 kilometers, were placed in level two – meaning they get between 500 and 800 daily users.

Level three and four trails are defined as those seeing 250 to 500 and fewer than 250 daily users, respectively. There are more than 20 kilometers of trail in each of those lower categories.

Mike Walker, the city’s assistant director of engineering and operations, said staff hope to make amenities more “consistent and predictable” for trail users.

“The higher use of the trail, the more requirement there is to have those amenities on the trail to serve the public expectations,” he told councillors.

“Having that priority system for our trails, it does allow us to scale the service levels to ensure that the highest use trails receive the highest level of service.”

Walker said staff are working on making a map available online to show the distance to the next amenity, whether it be a bench or trash can, from different locations.

Trail lighting will be a priority for upgrades this year, Walker said, noting it can “sporadic” in some areas.

He said that work will begin with sections of the north and south side riverfront trails not already lit, as well as the Lincoln trail.

After the presentation, Coun. Jocelyn Pike asked when the entire north-side riverfront trail would be lit.

“A lot of it goes through backyards, and quite frankly a lot of residents consider that a highway for people that are breaking into houses and breaking into yards and stealing,” she said. “I’m just interested in knowing when we can get that trail lit up.”

Walker said that move is a priority, but that there isn’t enough funding in the budget this year to complete it.

“The section that we’re looking at doing this year is probably in the order of about $400,000 … we won’t be able to complete the entire thing with the current budget we have,” he said.

“But that is something that I would bring forward to future budget processes to continue the work.”

Seating options are also identified in a resident survey as inconsistent across the trail system, Walker noted.

“There’s areas where you could find many seating areas, and those areas where you could find none,” he said. “So we’re trying to again make something that the public would expect to see when they’re using our trail system.”

Trash cans and water fountains are also on the list of amenities to come, Walker said.

However, he added, it can be challenging to decide where to locate bins and not all trails have water access.