If you build it, they will ride

At January's Burlington Cycling Committee meeting, Mayor Goldring asked if Burlington's newly paved trails were being used by more people.  I sensed he was really asking if the city made a wise investment with taxpayer dollars.
Burlington does not take cyclists or pedestrian counts, so no hard data is available. However, everyone around the table intuitively felt the number of people using the trails had increased.

In London (see previous post) and now in Montreal, the hard data shows that bicycle use jumps where the city invests in paths & bike lanes!

According to an article in the Montreal Gazette, "bicycle use has increased by as much as 40 per cent since 2008 in areas of Montreal where the city has invested in bike paths or lanes."  This is based on research from a study done by McGill University students.

From johnchow.com

"Ridership at the five locations went up by 20 to 27 per cent from 2008 to 2009, and by 35 to 40 per cent in 2010 compared with 2008."  Mayor Tremblay made it his mission to make Montreal a leader in bike use.  From 2008 to 2010 the city invested $25 million and added 100km of bike lanes including physically separated cycle tracks, the envy of North America!

Montreal is not resting on its laurels.  By the end of 2013, an additional ~300km will be added to the bike network.
Where there's a champion at city hall, there is a way to get cycling infrastructure done!  Burlington needs those champions.

Field of Dreams

Cycling advocates have always recited the mantra, "If you build, it they will come."  
Skeptics retorted bike lanes take lanes away from cars, parking spaces from business, cost too much money and only a marginal few would use them.
Skeptics, we [you] have a problem!


Transport for London, (the agency in London, UK, governing all modes of transportation) built 2 "Cycle Superhighways" as a pilot.    In other parts of Europe these are also known as quasi-Cycle Tracks!    Despite their unwieldy name, the Barclays Cycle Superhighways are new, continuous cycle lanes into central London from outer London.  They are safer, direct, coloured blue bike lanes, sometimes protected from vehicles, often part of the regular road .  The number of cyclists using the 2 routes rose by 70% over the same unprotected routes a year earlier.  On some stretches, the number of trips made by bike doubled.  Even better, 34% of the users were non-cyclists.  Business likes it as well!

Cdn built London bike share.

You can check out the video on the NY Times website as well as links to articles touting the benefits to users and business.


Its working in London.  Mayor Boris Johnson, is pushing ahead with more cycle highways and additional safety improvements.  He has chosen to lead and doesn't hesitate to implement radical ideas with vision. A record £116m will be spent in 2010/11 on infrastructure, training, promotion and education.  
The press release can be found here.

Boris Johnson, the cycling mayor.

By comparison, Burlington's 2009, 20 year Cycling Master Plan, needs a boost because it's already in catch up mode.  The saying goes, "If you build it, they will come."  In London, they come because it's built!

Opportunities don't last forever

Some think it takes too long for things to get done in Burlington.
Comfort levels are difficult to leave, change is hard to accept.  We all know the bigger things are the harder they are to change.  Gigantic cruise ships don't turn on a dime.  767s require longer runways, hummers bigger garages.  Change by the bureaucracy in the Big Apple must move at a snail's pace. 
  
Surprise, surprise, surprise!  It's harder to get cycling infrastructure done in Burlington than it is in New York City.  Really!
How is this possible?  The answer lies in the questions champions ask.  From Portland's Mia Birk to NYC's Janette Sadik-Khan and the world's Gil Penalosa, champions are more concerned with opportunities to get it done rather than reasons why it can't be done!

NYC Summer Streets

Sadik-Khan (SK) is not hesitant to act, consequently things get done.  "When you use capital funds for a project, you need approval from a few different places, and it takes months, sometimes years. So she takes a bunch of guys already painting double lines and gets them to dot a bike lane with the extra paint."  SK is also big on pilots. With a pilot change, you don't necessarily need community permission, since the idea is that you may end up just taking it down.  Like Mikey in the cereal commercials, SK found, once exposed to change, they like it! A former NYC traffic commissioner remarked that SK "has done more in the past few years than anyone did in the past fifty."  You can read the article here.
According to Janette Sadik-Khan, "If you can do it here," she says with a smile, "you can do it anywhere."

Virtue Moir Olympic Gold

Contrast that with the 2007 proposed bike lanes between Lakeshore Road and New St. on Guelph, Walkers & Appleby Lines.  After public consultations, it was decided that a pilot project on Guelph Line was needed before the 2007 project could be considered.  Bike lanes will eventually be added but it shouldn't take 5 years!
  

Bilodeau reached for Gold

We need that going for Olympic Gold attitude in Burlington!  We need champions at all levels at city hall to actively seek out  opportunities to make things happen & Burlington even better than it already is.  
Opportunities don't last forever and they seldom come around again.    

Don't get no respect!

Cycling master plans, despite their widespread health benefits and proven economic payback, are the Rodney Dangerfields of municipal plans.  Building a safe bicycle network remains a low priority with municipal staffers across Ontario.

Toronto introduced its 10 year Cycling Master Plan in 2001.  The goal was to build a bike network of 1,004km.  As of Dec. 31, 2010 43% of that goal was reached.
Hamilton's 2007 cycling committee suspended meetings because the city kept delaying bike infrastructure projects citing a  lack of staff to implement them.
Burlington's 1997 Bikeways Network Plan prioritized streets and was extremely detailed.  The plan was crafted by the hardworking volunteers of the Bikeways Committee of that time.  After 8 years, of anemic progress it too lagged behind its objectives.  From 2005 to 2009, 42km of existing multi-use pathways were added boosting the totals to 87km.
The new & improved, consultant enhanced ($$$) Cycling Master Plan saw light in 2009.
Since the inception, 8.2 km of new bike lanes have been added.  The plan calls for an average of 15km of bike lanes annually.

I don't know if all the city's myriad of consultant designed plans have a similar success rate of under 50%.  One wonders why they spend $$$ on  plans if the objectives are so easily and consistently ignored.

Its been my experience that playing catch-up rarely results in reaching your targets.  Let's hope the 2011 capital budget remedies the shortfall!

On The Right Track

It's nice to know that Burlington's 2009 Cycling Master Plan is on the right track -  the cycle track.

European cycle tracks

Common in European cities, "cycle tracks are bike lanes separated from travel lanes, parking lanes and sidewalks by pavement markings, pavement colouring, bollards, curbs, raised medians, or a combination of these elements. They are used by cyclists only."  (Burlington CMP pg viii)
  

North American

Cycle tracks are slowly but surely making their way into North America.  New York City's 9th Ave. is a prime example.  BC, Montreal, and Cambridge MA are other examples.
  
Even Rob Ford, the Toronto mayor who gave us Don Cherry's rant about bike riding pinkos, is also getting into cycle tracks.  His administration "has proposed a connected network of physically separated bike lanes in the city core."
  
Burlington's 2009 cycling master plan calls for 10km of separated cycle tracks on Dundas St. across Burlington from Kerns Road to BurOak.  The $3 million cycle track would be developed and hopely funded by the Metrolinx proposed rapid transit corridor for Dundas.
  
The taxpayer in me cringes at the cost of the cycle track!.  However, numerous gooooogle searches confirm the many, many benefits of cycling.  A UK study states "people who cycle to work experienced a 39% lower rate of all-cause mortality compared to those who did not."  Economically a Danish cost/benefit study showed that a $1 investment in cycling infrastructure, results in $10 of reduced health care costs and other savings.  An AECOM report in Australia cites $4 in benefits for every dollar invested.   And they are safer!  The sooner Burlington starts, the sooner we save taxpayer $$$$.

Green line shows the proposed cycle track in Burlington.