Halton's one size fits all - short-sighted approach

Beautiful landscape, winding roads

Italy with its unique topography, landscape and winding routes is a mecca for cycling.  Cycling tourism is big, big business in Italy.

Italian roads lack basic safeguards needed to keep cyclists safe.  Wide paved shoulders are non-existent.  Many roads lack the centre dividing line.  Yet despite these shortfalls cycling tourism thrives, significantly boosting the economy of many hilltop towns.

Typical Italian road, no shoulder, uphill

Encountering many cyclists, I asked if they felt threatened on Italian  roads.  Unexpectedly, they believed Italian motorists were especially cautious on the roads, aware of cyclists.  As one of the motoring tourists, I really questioned this belief.

At home, cycling tourism has a tremendous positive impact in Niagara. ~ 5,000 jobs, $200 million in annual revenues.   While cycling our waterfront trail, I encountered a group of Penny Farthing cyclists from South Africa, Germany and New Zealand.  Cycling tourists spend more per day and stay longer in the area than other tourists.

Halton Region sometimes adds 1 metre paved shoulders to rural roads when they are resurfaced.  Numerous studies show the paved shoulder extends road life and provide other benefits making it worth the added cost.  It appears that Halton views the speeds vehicles travel on these roads as a secondary issue e.g. currently under resurfacing, Derry Road has a 1 metre shoulder (sometimes less) despite cars buzzing by at speeds well over 70kph.  Going forward after Derry Road, Halton is proposing 1.5m - if it can be easily done.  One size fits all is the Halton approach.

From Haliburton Cycling Master Plan

We'll never match Italy's topography but by adding wider paved shoulders to all of Halton's rural roads, wider than 1 meter, we will attract cycling tourists to our region generating returns far greater than the original investment.  Haliburton believes this and the paved shoulder width depends on vehicle speeds and traffic.   It will save lives too!