Summer Streets in Burlington this summer - you'll love it.

They do it in Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, the Big Apple, San Francisco, Portland Oregon and even in Barrie Ontario.

We'd like to try it in Burlington and we are betting you'll love it!

Summer Streets is ....
- a way to promote a fun, healthy community
- a way to get people out of their cars & get physically moving
- a way to rediscover the joys of things we did as kids, like playing in the streets.

For examples of Summer Streets, go to Summer Streets NYC for a short 2 minute video or the 30 second promotion video.  It started in Bogota, Columbia as Ciclovia

Keep posted for more details.  If you would like to help out or your organization would like to participate, contact us.

Bike Lanes added in 2009

Another year has come & gone.  Time to make new resolutions and looks at how the old ones fared.  

Ever wondered how many bike lanes are added each year in Burlington?

In 2009, 4.46km of new bike lanes were added!  Let's round it up to 5km.  

Our Cycling Master Plan proposes the addition of 118km by 2015.  This is an average of 16.9km each year.

Hate starting behind, but there's time to catch up!

Wine with that vinegar? You decide.

In January 2010 the immovable Teutonic plates under MTO began to shift!

MTO will be re-instating the high speed channel ramp from Fairview St. west to the QEW.  They considered Burlington's requests for a ramp with a sharp right turn or a ramp with a smaller radius both of which forced drivers to slow down before entering the ramp.  Both options were rejected in favour of MTO gold plated standard Partial Cloverleaf ramp.  MTO admits motorists will probably drive at higher speeds than the city's option but the number of vehicle collisions will be fewer.  Unfortunately, because of the higher speed, the collisions may be more severe.
 
However, MTO has agreed to several quantum changes from their norm:

1.  1.5m bike lanes on Fairview St. under the overpass will be part of the design.
2.  the bike lanes will be coloured, probably chartreuse
3.  vehicle lanes will be narrower, promoting slower speeds
4.  the current speed limit will be lowered to 50kpm from the current 60kpm
5.  streetscaping will be added to encourage motorists to slow down in this area
6.  off road bike lanes & jug handles will be added for the less intrepid cyclist.
7.  ramp access speeds will be monitored to determine if speeds will be slower as expected.

From the city's point of view, if the calming measures work & collision rates stay low with the narrower lanes, the new Fairview interchange will set a precedent for other overpasses & underpasses in Burlington.  I can see the bike lanes on the QEW overpasses in the not to distant future!

Compromises rarely satisfy.  How's the wine taste?

Gene

UNMET NEEDS - What's important to YOU?

The new Cycling Master Plan lists all the projects for our complete bike network over the next 20 years. Many of these projects (but not all) are incorporated into the CoB year capital budget plan. The capital budget evolves and changes with funding priorities annually.

If a road reconstruction project is in the capital budget, bike lanes will be added automatically! (Unless the cost is prohibitive.)

However, if a CMP project is NOT in the capital budget plan, to be completed, it will have to be on the UNMET NEEDS spreadsheet. Listed below are the UNMET NEEDS projects presented to the cycling committee. We've been asked to rank them according to the priority in which they should be completed. Please feel free to let me know your preference. (You can click on the image to get a better picture.)

Thanks