Heather Deal - Vancouver councillor - "A couple of years ago we made the decision to close a lane of the Burrard Street bridge to cars and make it a bike lane. That was a game changer. That was the first time we took space away from cars. I was assigned the media, I thought this is the last time I’ll ever get elected because I’m going down over 1 km of 1 lane for traffic."
Burlington council missed a golden opportunity to choose leadership that would have impacted generations of citizens in a positive, healthy way by voting against putting bike lanes on Lakeshore Road.
Councillor Deal of Vancouver was re-elected and Vancouver embraced and benefited from its bike lanes.
Yesterday I polled 99 bike commuters -- friends and members of the Timbuk2 community -- to find out why they ride to work. I asked them for three reasons why they ride and pushed their responses to a word cloud. One might expect the cloud to contain words like sweaty, windblown, tired -- but look what pops. This is a happy, healthy group! One even said "euphoric." "
Yes, all of the words are positive ones. In addition to the commuter cyclists, all the other cyclists would agree!
It's what we need more of in Burlington and why a continuous bike lanes network is necessary.
It's common to see large numbers of runners at road races in Burlington. Hamilton hosts the oldest road race in North America, the Round the Bay Road Race. It started in 1894 and is sold out well in advance of race day.
Cycling rides, known as GranFondos, are increasing in frequency & popularity. The cycling "tourist" is 30-55 years old, professional, with a white collar job earning over $60,000. They spend more and stay longer than average tourists. The 3 year old Vancouver to Whistler GranFondo is a good example of what it brings to a city.
According to the CBC, the over 7,000 riders who participated, brought in over $20 million into the local economy. 20% of the riders were from outside of Canada, some from as far away as Brazil.
The Golden Horseshoe will host several rides in 2013 including GranFondos: GranFondo Niagara - As of Feb., the site boasts over 1,000 spots have been taken. Steve Bauer CanFondo - In support of the Milton Velodrome. Epic Tour Halton - starting from Kelso Quarry. Ride in Memory of Greg - Share the Road Ride in its 8th year.
Chip & Tar projects planned for Burlington
Burlington with a central location, scenic hills and routes, is ideally situated to take advantage of cycling tourism. Judging by the number of riders, there will be huge benefits to the local economy. Burlington should be doing more to encourage cycling visitors.
However, in addition to the lost opportunity to put bike lanes on Lakeshore Road, (without removing the centre turn lane), Burlington's rural road projects are deterrents to cyclists. Burlington has adopted a policy of applying chip and tar (C&T) surface treatments to it's rural roads. While these applications are cheaper by a factor of 5, they overlook the benefits of cycling tourism.
Cyclists do not like to ride on chip and tar roads and will avoid them at all costs! C&T roads are not smooth, have loose gravel from the edges of the roadway and cyclists are prone to flats on these roads.
Google "cyclists chip and tar" and you'll find a list similar to that on the left.
Cyclists hate C&T roads! Cycling clubs are posting chip & tar alerts on websites to enable cyclists to avoid C&T roads. Contrary to assurances from engineers, these roads are not cycle worthy, even after several years of ageing.
C&T is myopic rationalization that looks good on the surface but once you scratch underneath, the basis for applying C&T is without merit.
As a Burlington taxpayer, I applaud the cost savings, but in this case the economic benefits of cycling tourism far outweigh the additional costs. When we chip & tar, it's the same as hanging out banners telling cycling tourists to avoid Burlington.
We all know cycling is good for your health, our environment and economics. In a much earlier post, I observed that if the drug companies could put all the benefits of cycling into a pill, they would be fabulously wealthy.
The New England Journal of Medicine posted a video showing the dramatic influence of cycling on those with Parkinsons. The first portion of the video is incredibly difficult to watch, painful! The 58 year old man, suffers the classic symptoms known as "freezing gait," a shuffling unbalanced attempt at walking.
However, on his bicycle he shows no evidence of Parkinsons.
Quoting from the article in Atlantic Cities, "These experiments on bicycling and brain function, along with other studies about the connection between exercise, mood, and concentration, are clearly in their early stages. But they raise profound questions about the way our preferred mode of transportation affects our cognition and mood.
What effect has our dependence on the automobile had on our collective mental health? What role does passive transportation play in mood and attention disorders, especially for children? What therapeutic effects could a shift to more active transportation modes have for people who suffer from these disorders? What are the social costs of an environment that enforces auto dependence? Does cycling have special benefits that other exercise modes don’t?"
Not only does cycling help your physical health, it aids your mental health as well.
Of course, bike lanes on Lakeshore Road are not a panacea for health issues, but they were one vital step in building a connected bike network in Burlington that was lost when council rejected the proposal. Studies from around the world indicate, if you add bike lanes, more people use them. Maybe some of the people who live in the condos on LSR would get out on their bikes if they realised how good it is for them.
Despite over whelming evidence from multiple sources and speakers, Burlington council sided with anecdotal diatribes from residents fearing traffic delays, and voted against adding bike lanes to Lakeshore Road for a trail test period.
The NO voting councillors (Mead-Ward, Sharman, Taylor, Goldring) proclaimed they supported cycling! Look at the capital budget projects and and a new ActiveTransportation Master Plan as evidence they cried.
Sorry, but the evidence states otherwise. Below is Burlington's bike network after 15 years of councils that "supported cycling" in Burlington. This council squandered a golden opportunity to add to the network.
A bike lane here, a bike lane there. Nothing that you can conveniently take from point A to point B in a straightforward manner. You can see why cycling numbers are low in Burlington!
However, even with the lack of a safe, continuous network of bike lanes, more people cycle & walk than take the bus!Impossible you say! In one of the largest surveys in North America, Transportation Tomorrow contacted residents by letter and phone to understand their urban travel needs. The results below are for 3 years and show that more people cycle in Halton that ride buses.
In every year, in every measurement, more people made trips by cycling than by local transit.
Imagine the numbers if a fraction of the enormous annual funding given to transit was channelled to cycling infrastructure - and it would only be for 1 year, unlike the annual subsidy given to transit.
