Step by step, inch by inch, ........ slowly it happens!

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."  Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC)

At council's final meeting on Nov. 25, 2010, they took that step & passed the following amendment
"THAT Transportation Services staff, in collaboration with the Engineering Department, be directed to investigate the feasibility of widening Lakeshore Road from Burloak Drive to Downtown Burlington in order to accommodate on-road bike lanes and median refuge islands where possible while maintaining two narrowed travel lanes and a narrowed two-way left turn lane."

Its only 8 km from Brant to BurlOak.

With its left turn lanes and few traffic lights, Lakeshore Road encourages motorists to speed up.  The only east - west road in Burlington with fewer traffic lights than Lakeshore is the QEW!  This is a huge first step in making Lakeshore Road safer for everyone.  Thank you out-going council & mayor.

We're talking a distance of only 8km.  The impact will be dramatic!

To the new Transportation Services & Engineering Departments - let's make it happen so the new council enjoys what the old council started.  (Translation - let's do it in less than 4 years!).

Councillor Dennison was responsible for the amendment.  Thank you Mr. Dennison!!

As strong as the weakest link .... or leaving the most difficult til last!

Have you noticed?

Slowly the bike network is being expanded across Burlington.  6.5km of bike lanes were added in 2010.

Sharrows and paved hydro corridors as well.   Progress!

Brant St. now has fabulous bike lanes from Caroline almost to the QEW, disappearing for a block around busy Fairview St.  The Brant St. bike lanes also disappear just before you reach the QEW underpass.  The awesome, comfortable new bike lanes on Upper Middle from Sutton to BurlOak run to the QEW making cycling safer & enjoyable.  However, the bike lanes disappear at the overpass continuing on the other side of the QEW!

The disappearing bike lane phenomenon occurs so frequently approaching busy intersections, one would think that it's planned!

If car lanes were to suddenly STOP and the vehicle lanes disappear, even for half a kilometer, it would not be allowed.  Disappearing bike lanes shouldn't be tolerated either!

Bike lanes provide an element of safety.  Both the car driver & the cyclists benefit from bike lanes.  As a car driver, you know where the cyclist is going.

We need the city to put the bike lanes where they are needed (& often difficult to do) not where it is easy to put them!

1 mile of urban freeway or ........

   ...... ~300 miles of bike network, boulevards, trails!

Portland Mayor Sam Adams

In 2009, the Spec reported the HOV lane on the QEW would cost taxpayers $60 million - 2.5% of the $2.4 Billion Ontario earmarked for road spending.  Another article included bridge widening, bumping up the cost to $380 million.

The QEW is fully built out - its now 8 lanes wide.  We can't add any more vehicle lanes!  We're done! 

So what are the benefits?  What will taxpayers save as a result of the HOV lanes?  Will the commute be faster?  Worth $380+ million???  What do we do when its congested again?


Portland, Oregon took another approach.  Portland invested in their bike infrastructure.  
“The cost of the entire bike network we have today, if you picture all the bikelanes you can see, the trails, the bike boulevards – that whole thing, cost about $60 million to build. So if it all went up in smoke and we had to rebuild it – $60 million. That is the same cost as one mile of urban freeway.”

"For the cost of about one mile of freeway, $50 million, we've built a network of 275 miles of bikeways, that's one heck of a bang-for-your-buck investment."  -- Mia Birk, Alta Planning and Design


You can either spend money or invest it!
The photo on the right, from the Ont. Bike Summit, shows the ANNUAL dollar benefit Portland derives from its INVESTMENT in bike infrastructure.

The annual benefit is $2.6B, just about what Ontario spent on its roads.   Impressive!  Yet, Portland's cost benefit analysis doesn't include health benefits, environmental benefits, quality of life benefits, economic growth (Portland is now a bike industry hub) and that special feeling you get from living in a healthy, vibrant city.

We need more investment in cycling infrastructure & "bang-for-our-buck investing."  For the same investment in bike networks for 6 communities, we could save over $15B annually!

every bike is 1 less car

You can file this one under "Cycling is Good for ALL of us!"

Cycling at a reasonable clip on Brant Street, I was startled by the loud, long blast of a car horn.  Couldn't hear the driver, his windows were closed and I didn't catch his wild gestures.  Next time you get irritated by the person on his bike going 12 kph in your lane, or heaven forbid a bike lane, this article is for you!

I ride my bike to the library, to the grocery store, to the mall and even to visit my friends at city hall.  Studies show the quickest way to make a short journey of 3 km. is NOT by car, but by bike.  As you can tell from the pictures below, a number of other people do this as well

Bikes @Brant No Frills = more freed parking

Who bikes to Walmart?
Full bike rack @ Walmart!

Every bike you see, really means less congestion - extra parking spots and less vehicle traffic to deal with on the roads.


 
Of course there are other benefits few people consider: less wear and tear on the roads, bikes don't emit hydro carbons and cyclists will be less of a drain on our limited health care resources.  We also help our economy because we spend less on transportation costs leaving us more for other purchases.  


Maybe that's one of the reasons why cyclists are happier people!

Heresy, cyclists doing good for ALL of us!!!

Toronto Star columnist, Joe Fiorito doesn't have a bike and won't ride one!

I jokingly refer to those heretics who don't cycle, as embracing the dark side when they see the light.

In a great article in the Star, Joe writes, "I intend to die at home in bed, and not on a city street under the wheels of a big car driven by a jerk in a cheap suit with a cellphone, a cup of bad coffee and a vein busting out of his forehead." 


It's a thoughtful article recognizing the dangers of cycling in the city, and realizing the benefits of cycling.  


Its a very good read.  Cyclists doing good for ALL of us!


Thank you Joe Fiorito!

Cam's Kobayashi Maru and Canada's 3rd best place to live!

Why live anywhere else? 


In 2010, MoneySense magazine ranked Burlington as the 3rd best place to live out of 179 cities in Canada.  We moved up from number 4 in 2009.

Better still, Burlington wasn't even ranked in 2006.  It was lumped in with Hamilton.  According to Mayor Cam Jackson, he called the editors & asked why Burlington didn't have its own rank when several similar sized cities did.  Presto in 2008, Burlington had its own #8 ranking.  Jackson then pulled his "Kobayashi Maru" move straight out of Star Trek and took advantage of how the rankings are developed to plot Burlington's ascent.


With a bit more planning and effort from the new Transportation Service Department in Burlington, we can move up further.  One of the criteria is the number people who walk or bike to work.  Burlington ranks 156.  Lots of opportunity to improve this ranking and catch up to Kingston (12) and Ottawa-Gatineau (54).

You can click on the link and pictures for more details.

The sooner the bike lane network is completed, and overpasses made safer, more people will cycle.  The better our ranking will be in 2012!

Mayor Jackson  & Kobayashi Maru - thinking out of the box.  In the 2006 Sound of Music parade, Cam Jackson chose a bike rather than the ubiquitous parade convertible.

Letterman for a day, er blog.

Depending where you live in Burlington, you may not know what improvements have been made to our cycling infrastructure in the last 11 months of 2010.

The top  10 improvements brought to you by the new Transportation Services Department (TSD) at city hall, the BCC & others in Burlington:
 
10.  The BCC hosted the largest gathering of bike committees ever held in Ontario.  They came from KW, Guelph, Cambridge, Chatham, Niagara, Halton, Hamilton and Mississauga.  We shared plans, victories, failures and were energized, capping it off with a fabulous ride through Burlington. Thank you John H. & Barron.

10 b  Steve opened the Waterfront Trail Leisure Company, a fantastic addition to our downtown core.  Thanks Steve!

Leah was a workhorse!

John has the Guiness record for most installed bells.

9.  Bike Week.  Lids for Kids.  Kudos to Halton Regional police for organizing this event and fitting over 250 bike helmets.  The BCC installed bells, the Road Safety group gave out reflectors and Chris from Brant cycle gave his usual superman effort repairing many kid bikes.  Thanks to ALL who made a difference!

8.  Bike Week at Spenser Smith.  In spite of the rain & cold weather, MEC had a great bike event at Spenser Smith Park.  Thank you MEC gang for keeping this event going.  The new 2010 Burlington cycling map made its premiere at this event.  Thanks Dan for getting the map out ON TIME, as promised!

7.  New bike shelters at Tansley Woods & Brant Hills.

6.  Sharrows are here!  They really stand out!  Sharrows on alternative streets such as Dury Lane, Caroline St. Prospect. 

5.  Centennial and Headon hydro corridors have been paved.  Running across the city, these are a safe way to get across Burlington from Brant to Beswick in the north & just east of Appleby Line in the south.  Get out there & enjoy em!

4.  6.5km of new bike lanes!  Look for them at North Service Road, Maple, Harvester, Appleby Road.

3.  In Burlington, but considered part of Halton's domain, 3km of bike lanes were added on BurlOak from the QEW north onto Upper Middle then west.  Doesn't matter who gets credit as long as it's a new bike lane.  Now we need to work on the overpass.

2.  Completion of the new safer on ramp at Fairview & the QEW complete with coloured bike lanes & jug handles for the less intrepid sidewalk cyclist and a host of other safety measures.  Thank you Tom E., Vito & Dan at city hall.

1.  Burlington hosted the 2010 Ontario Bike Summit.  Our politicians heard about the benefits of cycling from luminaries such as Mayor Sam Adams (Portland), MTO's Kathleen Wynne, JF Courville of MFC and many others advocating safer cycling in Ontario. (View pictures from the Ride and the Ontario Bike Summit below.  For more details, click on the picture.)  Thank you Eleanor.
 

Thanks CoB, especially Dan, & the BCC team under Rob N. & Danielle for helping to make Burlington a safer place to cycle & a better place to live in!

If I've missed any, let me know.  Don't hesitate to forward this email to others in your network.  They need to know the great stuff happening in Burlington!  Thanks

No helmet, NO ride!

I admire the laissez faire attitude of the student cyclists in the previous blog, however, too many in the biking universe think nothing of cycling without a helmet. Especially adults!

Very early one Saturday morning (~ 6:30am), I hit an unexpected, very large, unleashed dog on the waterfront trail.  The dog ran directly in front of my bike.  As I lay there on the ground, wind knocked out and my helmet cracked, I heard the dog's owner berate his dog for running away from the leash.

A helmet is really your only protection against the unexpected.   In my case it worked.

The fabulous video below, of a passionate Burlington city hall associate & her family, was created in conjunction with the Burlington Road Safety Committee.  It effectively get's out a meaningful message!

Thank you for taking the time & effort to make this great video!!  And let's hope it goes viral.