Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss - F. Scott Fitzgerald

North Service Road at King Road

It's just a small, insignificant stretch of roadway in an isolated part of the city.

Probably no more that 200 meters, maybe less. The North Service Road at the King Road intersection was resurfaced but bike lanes or paved shoulders weren't added.  They weren't even considered.  According to the city, the contractor forgot to put down the edge line but according to mavens at city hall, this will be rectified - soon.
You might say it doesn't really matter.  It won't make cycling safer in Burlington.  It won't add appreciably to the bike lane total in Burlington.  It won't impact the demand for cycling infrastructure in Burlington. And bike lanes on out-of-the-way North Service Road have nothing to do with bike lanes on important streets such as Lakeshore Road, Walkers, Guelph Line, etc.

Or do they????

Debased subway cars, ailing city

I first visited New York City in the late seventies to catch an inexpensive flight to Europe after graduation.  The New York that greeted me was an unnerving place.  Buildings were abandoned and boarded up.  Subways were strewn with graffiti - on their windows, ceilings, seats and floors.  When you rode the subways, the lights kept going off randomly for indeterminate periods.  You could forget visiting Central Park even in the daylight.  It was eye opening and I thought I'd never go back.  In the seventies a million people left New York City and it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

We've been back at least 10 times in the past 5 years!  Today's New York is exhilarating, vibrant and exciting.  The reason for the dramatic renaissance can be found in Malcolm Gladwell's thought provoking piece in the Tipping Point on the "broken window hypothesis."   Gladwell tells us the small things matter!  A policy of benign neglect in an isolated part of the city has adverse implications for the entire city.  In New York, the simple act of keeping subway cars clean, encouraged people to care about their city and this small transformation eventually led to reduced crime rates and a higher quality of life.

The little things count!

In 2011, Burlington missed opportunities, choosing not to include paved shoulders on North Shore Boulevard through LaSalle Park and on resurfaced sections of the North Service Road as well.  When questioned, the response was that bike lanes "were not there originally."  Another time worn excuse was that it "wasn't in the cycling master plan."  In 2013, foregoing bike lanes on Townsend Road is another example.

As Gladwell and the data points out, despite the political rhetoric, if you can't be bothered to fix the broken windows, you won't improve the city.  If you can be bothered to put bike lanes on smaller stretches of roadway, then the bigger more important roads such as Lakeshore Road won't get done as well!

The small things really do matter!

The Sharrows are coming, the Sharrows are coming

Introduced in 2011, as a pilot, sharrows will become a familiar sight on Burlington roads.  285 sharrows will be added to city streets as part of the city's Cycling Master Plan.


"The sharrow's main purpose is to give bicyclists freedom to move further to the left within travel lane, rather than brave the door zone, squeezed between moving and parked cars. Without such markings, bicyclists might seek refuge on the sidewalk or travel in the wrong direction. The overall goals are: to improve the position of bicyclists and motorists on roads without bike lanes, reduce aggressive motorist behavior, encourage correct bicycling behavior and increase the comfort of (and therefore the number of) bicyclists on shared roads [Streetswiki].
Roads with sharrows constitute Class III bike routes, a “step down” from Class II routes with designated bike lanes. These city streets can be part of a bicycle network, but may have higher motorist traffic than bicycle boulevards."

A list of streets can be found in this Burlington Post article.  A variety of people have noticed more cyclists on Burlington streets this summer.  The cycling revolution found in cities around the world is continuing in Burlington!

Old questions, need new answers!

A reader posted a comment suggesting we check out Halton Region's 2011 - 2014 Draft Action Plan.  Active Transportation is mentioned twice in the document.  (excerpt below, click to enlarge)

Bike lanes and pedestrian walkways for new and reconstruction projects are "Key Actions."  A good first step, but is it enough?

Despite letters to MTO from Burlington Council and the Chief Medical Officer requesting safer ways for cyclists and pedestrians to get over the QEW, there is no mention of safer passage in the draft document.
Another Key Action is to "Complete a plan for Dundas Street and Trafalgar Road Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects in cooperation with Oakville, Burlington and Metrolinx."  Burlington's Cycling Master Plan also touted innovative cycle tracks along the entirety of Dundas Street.  Is Halton aware of this?  Both of these items should be specifically mentioned in the plan as Key Actions: 2012 - 2014.

They're spending your tax dollars!  Shouldn't you be providing your input into how your tax dollars will be spent by Halton Region?   Halton is asking for your answers.

Playing catch up - its virtually impossible

Whether it's sports, business or your RRSP, playing catch-up is always the hardest way to win or meet your targets.  In sports, breaking, then recovering from a losing streak is a gargantuan task.  As the Maple Leafs have shown, time and time again, meaningful recovery from a losing streak is insurmountable.

Burlington's 20 year Cycling Master Plan is already behind the eight ball and we are only 2+ years into a plan that averages ~15km of bike lanes annually.  By the end of 2011, Burlington should have ~37km of new bike lanes.  If the City of Burlington meets its 2011 target we will have 16km.

Unfortunately, according to the chart below, which adds the bike lane & path projects from the 2010 - 2019 Road Capital Budget and Forecast, it doesn't get any better by year 2012 & 2013.

Target = total new CMP bike lanes/years.
* No its not a mistake, only 1km of new bike lanes expected in 2012

Recently, the city has called for public input into it's strategic plan and asked for feedback from its citizens.  Here's my 2 cents:  get the $80,000 cycling master plan back on track.  Its good for residents and Burlington.  The sooner its done, the sooner we reap the benefits!

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!

Bike Lanes added in 2009

Another year has come & gone.  Time to make new resolutions and looks at how the old ones fared.  

Ever wondered how many bike lanes are added each year in Burlington?

In 2009, 4.46km of new bike lanes were added!  Let's round it up to 5km.  

Our Cycling Master Plan proposes the addition of 118km by 2015.  This is an average of 16.9km each year.

Hate starting behind, but there's time to catch up!

UNMET NEEDS - What's important to YOU?

The new Cycling Master Plan lists all the projects for our complete bike network over the next 20 years. Many of these projects (but not all) are incorporated into the CoB year capital budget plan. The capital budget evolves and changes with funding priorities annually.

If a road reconstruction project is in the capital budget, bike lanes will be added automatically! (Unless the cost is prohibitive.)

However, if a CMP project is NOT in the capital budget plan, to be completed, it will have to be on the UNMET NEEDS spreadsheet. Listed below are the UNMET NEEDS projects presented to the cycling committee. We've been asked to rank them according to the priority in which they should be completed. Please feel free to let me know your preference. (You can click on the image to get a better picture.)

Thanks

Its official! Our cycling master plan passed at council!

A thank you note to all who made it happen!

Many nameless heroes were instrumental in the city's new CMP.  From Bron, Doug, Jack & past BCC members who kept the embers glowing for years to Eleanor & Gary who ignited the recent fires and finally Leo & Tom's great team at city hall who pulled it all together.

Its an ambitious plan, visionary in scope and when implemented will position Burlington as one of Canada's most bicycle friendly cities.

Thanks, on behalf of current & future generations that will benefit from a healthier lifestyle, better quality of life, less congestion (as more opt to cycle or use active transport rather than cars) a better environment and much safer cycling in Burlington.

CMP passed at Committee - Questions & some answers

Great news! Our cycling master plan (CMP) was passed in committee.

Thanks to Leo DeLoyde who stickhandled councillor's questions. Special thanks to Tom Eichenbaum & his team at city hall that assisted in the creation of the cycling master plan.

During the question & answer session, several councillors asked very illuminating questions that merited explanations. Here's my attempt.

Q: Safety. "Its not safe to cycle on busy roads. Cycling on sidewalks or paths adjacent to the road is safer."

A: Numbers count. Studies from around the world have concluded that its a circle. The more people cycle, the safer cycling is. The safer cycling is, the more people cycle.

Portland State University research has concluded that bike infrastructure i.e. bike lanes & routes encourage people to get out of their cars & steers them to safer streets.

According to http://www.midmeac.org/bikelanes.htm “Why can’t cyclists just ride on the sidewalk?” Although you may think sidewalks are safest, national studies show that bicyclists are much safer on the street.
Roads with striped bike lanes decrease bicycle accidents by 38%. Why? A big reason is that when bicyclists are in bike lanes they are always visible to cars, instead of darting on and off the sidewalk, behind trees and parked cars, and out of the view of motorists. In addition, the most common accident for bicyclists is cars turning into them, not cars hitting them from behind. When a bicyclist is on the sidewalk, they must cross many driveways that drivers turn into not expecting to see a bicyclist on the sidewalk.

This was confirmed in a 10 year Toronto collision study. Over 40% of all cyclist collisions occurred at the point where a cyclist entered the roadway from an adjacent path.

Q: Cost. "We could build 3 community centres for the same money."
1. Gil Penalosa of www.cycleandwalkforlife.org has repeatedly stated that more people use trails than ALL of the arenas, baseball fields, soccer fields, and recreation centres COMBINED. Paved trails are part of the CMP.

2. Bike lanes encourage cycling & active lifestyles. Healthier, slimmer people create less demand on our limited health resources. The Ont. Medical Ass. stated that air pollution and inactivity costs the Ont. economy approximately $2 BILLION annually in emergency room visits, hospital stays and lost productivity. Stats Canada states each Cdn takes 2,000 car trips annually under 2km in length. Short car trips are the biggest contributors to air pollution.

3. Other benefits. Cycling provides additional benefits in the form of tourism, quality of life, less congestion & less infrastructure spending e.g. fewer parking spaces needed at the GO Station. Every cyclist you see on the road & every bike at a bike rack represents ONE LESS CAR on the road.

From 1950 to 1975, cycling in Europe actually declined as increasing road capacity for cars was the focus. In 1975, the Netherlands, Denmark & Germany started to promote cycling & public transport. It took 25 years for the changes and now they are reaping the rewards of healthier people, lifestyles and quality of life. The sooner we start in Burlington, the sooner future generations will benefit.

Lets pass the CMP & start on the road to future benefits! Council votes on July 6th. Let your councillor know, you favour the CMP. Thanks!