Surrounded!

At the 2012 Ontario Bike Summit, a peloton of communities received awards designating them as Bicycle Friendly Communities.

To win the award, a community must complete an intensive questionnaire regarding the state of cycling and cycling infrastructure in their community.  It is not an easy application.  You are required to answer a comprehensive cycling centred inquiry focusing on engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation of cycling facilities in your community.

The completed application is reviewed by a panel of municipal planners, transportation engineers and bike experts.  Depending on the level of commitment in your community, your municipality will receive a platinum, gold, silver or bronze award.  It will also have in its possession a roadmap of strengths and weaknesses that must be fortified if the community wishes to advance its standing.

Bicycle Friendly Communities realise the benefits of cycling and have taken concrete steps to improve the quality of life in their municipalities.

Burlington is surrounded by Bicycle Friendly Communities!
        Hamilton - Silver
        Waterloo - Silver
        Guelph - Bronze
        London - Bronze
        Mississauga - Bronze
        Oakville - Bronze
        Oshawa - Bronze
        Welland - Bronze

             


Did I mention it's FREE!  And even if your community does not receive an award, it has a list of deficiencies, a roadmap outlining exactly what steps it must take to become Bicycle Friendly.

Come On Burlington!!!  Despite hosting the 2009 Ontario Bike Summit, Burlington has not yet submitted an application!  If Hamilton, Guelph, London, Mississauga, Oakville, Oshawa, Waterloo and even Welland can put in the time, effort and resources to become Bicycle Friendly, what are we waiting for????

Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, the age of wisdom, the spring of hope.  It's 2012 and Burlington ranks as Canada's second best city to live.  


Burlington's impressive standing was despite ranking 163 out of 190 in the Walk/Bike to Work Category.

Can Burlington continue its ascent up the rankings or even maintain its lofty position?





At the 2012 Ontario Bike Summit we learned that Richmond, B.C. fell from number 62 on the list to number 100 in 2012.  As the article to the right points out, some feel the lack of cycling options in Richmond, helped to lower its ranking.

It is said the Chinese character for Crisis consists of two characters representing Danger and Opportunity.

The danger in Richmond's lack of focus may have contributed to its fall from 62 down to 100 in the bottom half of the 50 percentile.

Burlington's 2009 Cycling Master Plan targeted an average 6.2km of new bike lanes each year from 2012 to 2015.

In 2012 Burlington's Roadways Capital Projects report is forecasting only 1.5km of new bike lanes in 2012 followed by 1.8km of new bike lanes in 2013.

We should learn from Richmond, B.C.  Some will see the danger in Burlington's rank in the Walk/Bike to Work category.  The more prescient ones will take it as an opportunity to move up the rank and take action to get more cycling infrastructure done to solidify our position as Canada's 2nd best place to live.

(With apologies to C. Dickens.)

Go on a walk.

Or ride a bike instead.

"Jane’s Walk is a series of free neighbourhood walking tours that helps put people in touch with their environment and with each other, by bridging social and geographic gaps and creating a space for cities to discover themselves.  Since its inception in 2007, Jane’s Walk has happened in cities across North America, and is growing internationally.


Jane’s Walk honours the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs who championed the interests of local residents and pedestrians over a car-centered approach to planning. Jane’s Walk helps knit people together into a strong and resourceful community, instilling belonging and encouraging civic leadership."

Beautiful Burlington Jane’s Ride           Guided by Kevin Love

Date:  Sunday, May 6, 2012                       Start Time:  2:00 pm          Est. Duration:  1.5 hours

Here's a better link.   The route details are here.

Doubting Thomas - Built it and they will come!

To the Doubting Thomases on Burlington Council goes the award!

In Feb., after a tedious 90 minutes debate at the Committee level, new bike lanes for Appleby and Walkers, an investment of $45,000, were approved with a provision to re-examine the efficacy of the bike lanes in 2 years.  

The bike lanes will go ahead but not before the ugly debate reared it head again at the Council level and was narrowly defeated by a 4-3 vote.  To those 3 councillors goes the Doubting Thomas award.

Studies have shown that if you build it, cyclists will use it.  The better you build it the greater the number of cyclists that will use it.  

"Rutgers researcher John Pucher - he studies what seems like common sense in transportation, and then makes it sound good.

Studying bike lanes in 90 or the 100 largest American cities, Pucher and collaborater Ralph Buehl used Pearson’s correlation, bivariate quartile analysis, and two different types of regressions to measure the relationship between more and longer bike lanes and quantity of cyclists.

Their conclusion: cities with a greater supply of bike lanes have more bike commuters. And according to the researchers, that correlation exists even when controlling for things like land use, climate, socioeconomics, gas prices, public transport supply, and cycling safety."

A 2009 study found that bike lanes work.  In Portland, Oregon Professor Dill found that although only 8% of the city streets have bike lanes, 51% of the trips were taken on them.

Bike lanes on Walkers and Appleby were first discussed in 2007.  It shouldn't take 5 years to pass a $45,000 investment that will result in traffic calming, slower speeds and safer roads for cyclists and pedestrians. Let's get them done already.  

Thank you to Mayor Golding and councillors Dennison, Craven and Lancaster for realising the logic in staff's recommendation and getting the original proposal passed!