The City's Glen Cheetham (R) and Tourism Kamloops' Lisa White speak at a ceremony to mark the opening of the 2025 bike valet program. (Image Credit: Nancy Bepple)

By Victor Kaisar

Bike Valet Returns

‘Bigger and better’ Kamloops bike valet returns for second summer

May 10, 2025 | 9:00 AM

KAMLOOPS — A “bigger and better” Kamloops bike valet is back for its second year, though it will be set up in a new downtown location this summer.

Climate and Sustainability Manager Glen Cheetham says the City has once again partnered with Tourism Kamloops to offer this free service, after a successful pilot last year.

“We’re actually co-delivering the service, so at any given time there will be one city bike valet ambassador and a Tourism Kamloops destination roam ambassador at the bike valet,” Cheetham said.

“It’s sort of serving two really important functions – secure bike parking for visitors and residents but also a visitor centre with information about destinations in Kamloops and things you can do.”

Cheetham said the bike valet will be set up seven days a week at the Sandman Centre West Plaza at 300 Lorne Street from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday to Saturday, as well as from noon to 7:00 p.m. on Sundays until the end of August.

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“Probably the most important piece for the change in venue was that with Build Kamloops, there is going to be more activity around the Kelson Hall, where the bike valet was last year,” Cheetham said. “The other driver was our partnership with Tourism Kamloops and their vision has long been to have a more sustained presence at Riverside Park.”

A secondary bike valet will also operate in the 200-block of St. Paul Street on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. until the end of October, in conjunction with the Saturday Farmers’ Market.

“When we started to work on a plan to co-deliver this program, it became quite clear that Riverside Park was the best location,” Cheetham said. “Its perhaps slightly further away from the heart of downtown than our St. Paul Street location was, but its only about 50 or a 100 metre more of a walk away.”

“There is no one perfect location in our downtown, but we felt that Riverside Park was a great location. Of course having the farmers’ market parklet helps that user group who has demonstrated that they love riding to the market.”

Partnership will lead to efficiencies: City

Cheetham said while funding to operate the bike valet will come from the City’s Climate Action Fund Reserve, it will cost less than initially expected because of the partnership with Tourism Kamloops.

“Its has enabled some cost efficiencies as well which is how we’ve been able to extend the service to Sundays as well as fund the Farmers’ Market bike valet parklet,” Cheetham said.

“A majority of the costs are personnel related around hiring students to be our bike valet ambassadors, but by co-delivering the service with Tourism Kamloops, we are expecting to realize a ton of savings compared to the business case approved by council.”

He also said the City has applied for a $20,000 grant from the BC Cycling Coalition to help offset some of the costs. An application for a similar amount of money last year was successful.

“Any grants we get will further reduce the impact on the climate reserve,” Cheetham added.

While the bike valet will be free once again, Cheetham said a number of respondents to a survey last year indicated they would be in favour of paying to use the service.

“That is certainly not off the table, but I think the idea now is we’re really trying to establish a user case for the service, but as we move forward, the delivery model could continue to evolve and it may well be that a fee-for-use will make sense,” Cheetham said.

“But in these early days and with the help of grants and partners, we want to reduce barriers and make this a very convenient and attractive option for people to use.”

You can find more details about the Kamloops Bike Valet here.