Do you want more public transit? Bike lanes? Safety improvements at dangerous intersections? More bike racks? More (or less) parking in the downtown area? A new bridge over the Illecillewaet or Columbia? Now is the time to provide your input.

The City of Revelstoke planning department will be putting together a transportation plan in the coming months that will guide transportation policy in the city over the next 20 years, and they want to hear your concerns and ideas.

The city held their first transportation meeting at the Revelstoke Community Centre on Sept. 22 where only about 20 people showed up. Subtract staff, consultants and councillors, and there were just over a dozen members of the public. However, those interested in providing their input still have time to have a say.

A transportation survey is available online on the city’s Web site, and also in paper form at city hall. The deadline to complete the form is Oct. 5. The written form contains 25 questions with both multiple choice and written answers. Many of the questions seek to assess the current situation, but there are also plenty of opportunities to voice what you’d like to see in the plan.

Revelstoke Director of Planning John Guenther said the plan will guide the city from an estimated current population of 8,200 to an anticipated future population of about 11,000 in around 2029.

Consultant Nadine King of Boulevard Transportation Group led the gathering through a series of slides showing the data the Victoria-based consulting firm had gathered so far. King says alternative modes of transportation -- from biking to cross country skiing -- are very much part of the plan. “A key part of our study is to look at active transportation as well as the greater city-wide transportation plan for all modes [of transportation].”

The survey information collected so far is preliminary, and will eventually include information from surveys completed by the Oct. 5 deadline. The consultant has spent a number of months in Revelstoke collecting data on traffic patterns including the numbers of cars, pedestrians and bicyclists. They also looked at traffic speeds, and competed a downtown parking survey.

The preliminary results show that the preferred method of transportation in the summer is the bicycle -- with 43 per cent of respondents saying they pedalled to work and school, while 31 per cent drove their cars or trucks. Winter changes the picture dramatically. Private vehicle ridership jumps to 51 per cent, while cycling drops to two per cent.

It seems that many trade the bicycle for two feet and a heartbeat in the winter. 14 per cent said they typically walked in the summer, but that number jumps to 31 per cent in the winter.

Respondents indicated four major barriers to the use of alternative transportation. 50 per cent said the lack of trails, sidewalks and bike lanes were a barrier. 29 per cent said bus times are not frequent enough, while 27 per cent said that bus times were not convenient. About 28 per cent said they simply lived too far from their destination.

Improvements to (or new) bike lanes, bike trails and sidewalks were all ranked high in terms of transportation infrastructure improvements.

Several problem spots were identified in the city, with a couple singled out more than once for special mention.

The intersection at Victoria and 4th Street was panned by motorists, cyclists and pedestrians for being dangerous and congested. The intersection also failed an empirical “syncro” test that found that the traffic volume was too high, leading to congestion.

Likewise, the Trans-Canada intersection and the roadways roughly between Petro-Canada and Tim Hortons were identified as being issues. Other problem spots include the Big Eddy Bridge, the Illecillewaet Bridge, and general access from Columbia Park, amongst others.

As of Sept. 22, the city had received 122 responses to their survey.

Guenther said that the information gathered so far did contain a lot of data gaps that will be filled in over the coming months. Traffic data from the winter months was given as an example.

The next public transportation plan meeting will be held on Nov. 25, where consultants will bring back the results of the survey and continued empirical surveys and then present options to the public. Guenther said that they hope to complete the plan by the end of January, 2010.