The Nanaimo Moutain Bike Club hopes an ongoing survey fills knowledge gaps on the economic benefit the growing sport has in the area. About 900 responses to the survey had been made as of Monday, Aug 16. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

next level

Survey aims to improve mountain biking amenities in Nanaimo

Aug 16, 2021 | 5:29 AM

NANAIMO — With mountain biking in a boom period, local stewards are trying to capture the economic impact the fast-growing sport is having in Nanaimo.

Nanaimo Mountain Bike Club partnered with several agencies to stage an active online survey featuring roughly questioned geared toward everybody who mountain bikes on the many trails in the area.

NMBC president Dana Wacker said their volunteer run organization needs to know the economic footprint the sport has locally in order to obtain valuable funding.

“Because that number is really going to help us when we approach municipalities like the City of Nanaimo and the regional district with looking for support financially to help us maintain the trials,” Wacker told NanaimoNewsNOW.

Questions include how much money people spend on equipment, hotels and food tied to mountain biking in Nanaimo.

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NMBC currently maintains 50 kilometers of trail in Nanaimo, which Wacker said is manageable, but grueling, labour intensive work for an organization run entirely by volunteers.

“This community really needs us to take on more and we want to take on more,” Wacker said. “There’s more trails in Nanaimo that need to be adopted and managed — for us to grow we need the support to help us do that.”

She pointed to thriving mountain bike communities like Cumberland and the Cowichan Valley benefiting from paid staff advancing trail maintenance and building initiatives.

The NMBC Bike Trail Survey could be extended beyond the end of August in order to capture more tourists.

NMBC member and VIU instructor Matt Bowes launched the survey with the support of several funding partners.

He said their quest has several intended outcomes, including relationship building with key partners and finding out more about what’s important to the mountain biking community.

“There’s some well-being factors we’re really interested in, we’ve got a couple COVID questions in terms of increased ridings. We’re also interested in motivations and the leisure aspect…How important it is to their lives.”

Bowes expected the survey to be extended beyond the end of August in order to capture more tourists.

There are hundreds of mountain bike trails in the Nanaimo area amounting to more than 250 kilometers on public and private land.

All but a select few mountain bike trails in the Nanaimo region are multi-use pathways.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes

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