With the change in seasons coming this weekend also comes an important municipal election where we have 4 candidates for mayor and 18 candidates for 6 positions for Town Council. We asked the candidates their opinions on 4 different bike-related topics (active transportation and pathways, trails and recreation, and bike park/amenities). Our municipal election begins with early voting on Saturday Oct 11, so please consider the promises/comments these candidates have offered as you consider how to cast your vote. With 1050+ members, we can absolutely have our voices heard – in the 2021 election, the difference between being elected and not being elected was only 80 votes!

We have ordered the candidates answers as the Town has done, based on their date of filing, and their answers are available in PDF format below.

Thank you for exercising your civic duty and for supporting Bike Cochrane’s mission of making Cochrane a more bike-friendly place to live!

Question 1

The last council's Strategic Priorities called out investing in multi-modal transportation options as noted here:

' We commit to bringing people together physically and socially by connecting neighbourhoods, investing in roadway and pathway infrastructure, and providing multi-modal transportation options.'

A huge highlight of the last council was its support of the federal Active Transportation Fund's funding of our Glenbow and Ranche pathway (grant written with Bike Cochrane and received ~$800,000 to do it).

Knowing that pathways support bikes, strollers, mobility scooters, walkers, hikers, dog-walkers, and all users to get around safely AND reduce traffic in Cochrane,

How would you continue this investment and ensure that our much-needed pathway investments continue? Which pathways would you advocate to fund first as a member of the incoming council? How would you ensure multi-year funding for protected pathways in Cochrane? For a list of possible projects, see Bike Cochrane's analysis of transportation gaps HERE.

Question 2

What do you think are the biggest barriers to increasing Cochrane’s proportion of trips taken by foot/bike/scooter (known as ‘mode share’ in active transportation circles and presently around 4% in Cochrane per the 2021 census)?

This can have a HUGE effect in reducing vehicular traffic if it’s a well-designed piece of the transportation plan for Cochrane. Specifically, in the work Bike Cochrane has done with encouraging ‘wheeling and walking to school’, we’ve heard from many parents with 91% of the respondents in our 2021 survey (~300 parents) telling us they WANT to bike/walk to school.

How would you reduce those barriers if you are successful in being elected to Council? What other challenges do you see to encouraging alternative transportation options in Cochrane?

Question 3

Bike Cochrane is the legal trail steward for the Town of Cochrane, Mount St Francis Retreat Centre, and the Cochrane and District Agricultural Society. See the 25+km of natural surface trails we steward HERE which serve mountain bikes, trail runners, walkers, on-leash pet-walkers, and bird-watchers too.

We consistently hear from our 1000+ members that they want more trails in Cochrane so they don't have to drive for recreation options in nature. In fact, in a 2020 survey Bike Cochrane did, more than half of our respondents said they LEFT Cochrane to ride their bike in the last week. Those are lost business opportunities for our local businesses where we'd prefer to see money spent IN Cochrane.

How would you expand Cochrane's trail network to better serve our growing population? How can we balance our desire to preserve our natural spaces, but also ensure that we give our residents the opportunity to recreate in their neighbourhoods without needing to drive somewhere?

Question 4

Bike Cochrane has planned, funded, and executed our Town's first paved pump track at the Launchpad, which is seeing hundreds of users a day (as of Aug 15, 2025). In order to fund this project, we raised ~$250,000 using provincial grant dollars, corporate sponsorships, and our membership dollars. The Town of Cochrane supported us with about 1% of these costs (through the Community Grant Program).

The Town of Cochrane has had multiple designs for their Horse Creek Sports Park, all of which have shown bike amenities on the plan. Bike Cochrane would, of course, like to see more bike amenities in this space as well. We are committed to contributing funds to a project like this which could include a perimeter pathway, natural surface trails, a skills park, jump park, and any number of other fun bike-related projects that benefit the whole community.

Do you support working with Bike Cochrane to jointly fund and construct more bike amenities in the Horse Creek Sports Park? Which amenities would you like to see in this once-in-a-generation project?