Head up the Old Cariboo Road from Lillooet about 160 kilometres, and you’ll reach the District of 100 Mile House. 

The community of 2,000 people sits on the traditional territory of the Secwépemc (Shuswap) Nation, whose people have been living in the area for well over 4,000 years, thanks in part to its rich hunting and fishing grounds. In more recent times, 100 Mile House was known as the “handcrafted log home capital of North America.”

Today, it’s the community’s affordability, slower pace of life, and recreational splendour that has attracted people like Joanne Doddridge, the district’s Director of Economic Development and Planning.

“We like to fish and camp,” Doddridge says. “This area is surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of lakes, and the fishing and swimming is spectacular.”

When Doddridge arrived in 2004 to become the district’s first dedicated planner, there was a huge development and housing boom happening, one that has continued even with COVID-19. Wearing her economic development hat, Doddridge says that while she knows this development is great for the area, it can also make the her job as a planner somewhat difficult.

“The town has grown organically, so our biggest challenge is that our trail systems and pedestrian networks are not fully linked,” Doddridge says. “We have sidewalks, but the sidewalk may abruptly end at a street corner, then not resume again for five or six blocks.”

Doddridge often walks to get around town, and sees others doing the same, especially along Cariboo Trail Road, a paved section through town that runs parallel to Highway 97. During the Cariboo gold rush of the 1860s, the trail was a well-travelled route for prospectors and those who sought to share in their bounties. 

Today, the road is paved and lined by suburban homes, as well as an assisted living facility. In 2018, a delegation of citizens went to their local council to share how fearful they are of walking along Cariboo Trail Road; speeding was the primary concern, with accounts of drivers doubling the posted 50 km/hr limit.

“I find it very concerning to see someone who is 75 years old, wants to walk, but can’t because they’re too scared to,” said local resident Ted Shields in an interview with the 100 Mile Free Press at the time. “One day, [there was] a little girl across the street and she was just learning how to ride the bicycle and [a driver] went flying by. If he had to stop, he couldn’t have. There’s just no way —he would have killed that little girl.”

Over the past 20 years, residents like Shields have voiced their concerns to local officials about feeling unsafe along Cariboo Trail Road. And while their worries were shared by district council, the project seemed out of reach; 100 Mile House pulls in only around $2.6 million in annual tax revenue, and an effective solution was estimated to cost upwards of $1 million.

Flash forward to 2020, and 100 Mile House became one of 23 communities in BC to receive funding through the provincial Active Transportation Infrastructure Grant program, administered by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI).

The district received $500,000, a little less than half of the total project cost, to improve an 800-metre stretch of Cariboo Trail Road. The grant allowed the district to make a number of vital improvements to support active transportation, such as creating a sidewalk, adding pavement markings for crosswalks at intersections, and installing additional lighting along the corridor. 

Previously, only cycling projects were eligible for such funding, but as part of the development of the Active Transportation Strategy, MoTI came to realize not everyone can or will ride a bike, but other modes contribute equally to ‘CleanBC’ goals related to GHG emissions reductions, healthy living, and principles aimed at making provincial transportation networks and facilities more fair and equitable. (As a result, in 2020 the grant program was expanded to include projects that would support not just walking and jogging, but horseback riding and even paddling.)

“We see many people walking throughout the day,” Doddridge says. “Seniors, high school kids, families. So many people walk up and down it. But there’s quite a ditch along Cariboo Trail, and unfortunately we’ve had issues with speed. If a sidewalk was put in place, it would take away a lot of worries.”

Carefree Manor, an assisted living facility with 36 residents and 20 staff members, is on Cariboo Trail Road. Before COVID-19, Carefree Manor was buzzing with chatter in the hallway from visiting family members, volunteers, and friendly staff.

“[It] has definitely changed our roles,” says Cindy Parent, Carefree Manor’s manager and former care aid. “It has impacted our residents’ lives — not having volunteers and visiting with only one designated family member. It’s a different vibe here.”

Staff at Carefree welcomes the improvements along Cariboo Trail Road, hoping the safety concerns of residents, and everyone working with and caring for family members at the facility, should lessen. Construction begins in the spring of 2021, and is expected to be completed by March 2022. 

Doddridge, for one, is grateful that this project is getting the attention and resources it deserves.  She embraces the need to help improve active transportation in her community, one where looking out for one another matters. And she’s seen it in action over this past, difficult year. 

“100 Mile House is a tight-knit community,” Doddridge expresses. “In a time when people are more stressed, they are still reaching out to those who need help. There is always someone there to help.”