When Ontario Bikes, Ontario Benefits

Eleanor McMahon's Share the Road Cycling Coalition released its Green Paper at the Toronto Bike Show.  Its worthwhile reading that layouts out a framework for an Ontario Bike Policy.
Highlights include: Greater investment in cycling infrastructure, Education program for cyclists and motorists, Public Awareness & Promotion (cycling is beneficial for you) and Cycling Policy & Legislation. Once the new HST comes into effect, Ontario will reap $20 million in tax revenue from the sale of bikes & accessories.  The Green Paper asks that these funds be earmarked as an investment in cycling initiatives resulting in a better quality of life for Ontarians.

Healthier cities, see & learn how others are doing it!

This year the World Health Organization has recognized the significant contribution Car Free Sundays/Ciclovias can make to building healthy cities worldwide. For World Health Day 2010 it has called on one thousand cities around the world to open their streets to people and close them to cars in a campaign called 1000 Cities 1000 Lives.  8-80 Cities is pleased to partner with the World Health Organization on this campaign and is excited to introduce this wonderful and important endeavour on Tuesday February 2^nd, 2010.

Great Streets, Healthy Cities: Car Free Sundays Best Practices will highlight the best practices of planning and implementing Car Free Sundays from the foremost international program examples.  Three leading Car Free Sundays/Ciclovias experts will speak from their experiences in New York, San Francisco, Bogota and Guadalajara. Each will provide a unique perspective and a diversity of implementation tools and models. Following the presentations by each of the speakers, you will also have the opportunity to ask questions and share ideas.  

8-80 Cities will be holding an event open to the public in the evening of February 2^nd from 6:30-8:30pm at The George Ignatieff Theatre located at 15 Devonshire Pl., which you are most welcome to attend as well.   The Public Meeting – Great Streets, Healthy Cities information is included on the flyer. 

Summer Streets in Burlington this summer - you'll love it.

They do it in Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, the Big Apple, San Francisco, Portland Oregon and even in Barrie Ontario.

We'd like to try it in Burlington and we are betting you'll love it!

Summer Streets is ....
- a way to promote a fun, healthy community
- a way to get people out of their cars & get physically moving
- a way to rediscover the joys of things we did as kids, like playing in the streets.

For examples of Summer Streets, go to Summer Streets NYC for a short 2 minute video or the 30 second promotion video.  It started in Bogota, Columbia as Ciclovia

Keep posted for more details.  If you would like to help out or your organization would like to participate, contact us.

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!

Wine with that vinegar? You decide.

In January 2010 the immovable Teutonic plates under MTO began to shift!

MTO will be re-instating the high speed channel ramp from Fairview St. west to the QEW.  They considered Burlington's requests for a ramp with a sharp right turn or a ramp with a smaller radius both of which forced drivers to slow down before entering the ramp.  Both options were rejected in favour of MTO gold plated standard Partial Cloverleaf ramp.  MTO admits motorists will probably drive at higher speeds than the city's option but the number of vehicle collisions will be fewer.  Unfortunately, because of the higher speed, the collisions may be more severe.
 
However, MTO has agreed to several quantum changes from their norm:

1.  1.5m bike lanes on Fairview St. under the overpass will be part of the design.
2.  the bike lanes will be coloured, probably chartreuse
3.  vehicle lanes will be narrower, promoting slower speeds
4.  the current speed limit will be lowered to 50kpm from the current 60kpm
5.  streetscaping will be added to encourage motorists to slow down in this area
6.  off road bike lanes & jug handles will be added for the less intrepid cyclist.
7.  ramp access speeds will be monitored to determine if speeds will be slower as expected.

From the city's point of view, if the calming measures work & collision rates stay low with the narrower lanes, the new Fairview interchange will set a precedent for other overpasses & underpasses in Burlington.  I can see the bike lanes on the QEW overpasses in the not to distant future!

Compromises rarely satisfy.  How's the wine taste?

Gene

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

More exiciting than Rachael, Jamie, Holly, Joslyn etc, etc, showing up on Tiger's doorstep!

We'll be back at it again in Jan. as MTO promises us a design more exciting than all of Tiger's alleged showing up on his doorstep together.  A design that will meet our needs, making it safe and comfortable for vulnerable road users on Fairview at the QEW.

MTO is on the cusp of giving us bike lanes and even chartreuse coloured bike lanes on Fairview at the QEW.  However, they are hedging their bets on a sharp right turn lane that forces motorists to slow down on Fairview Street before entering a new on ramp to the QEW Niagara.

The sharp right turn works.  Since is was installed on the opposite side of Fairview, there have been no deaths or serious injuries in an eleven year span.  Contrast this with 2 deaths & 1 serious injury in 3 years under the old MTO standard.

Psst - Wanna a buy a used bridge, cheap? Can we give it to you?

If you listen to the party line from Public Works Government Services Canada (PWGSC) staffers, the fabulous, historical Burlington Canal Liftbridge is the orphan it never wanted, doesn't need but is forced to care for!

Burlington MP Mike Wallace held his long awaited round table for stakeholders affected by the Burlington Canal Liftbridge. This meeting was needed after it was determined that the Economic Action Plan funding for the bridge was maintenance spending for a scrape and paint job not really new infrastructure spending.

PWGSC presented 5 expensive options that provided a safer way for vulnerable road users to cross. Participants, including denizens from Burlington City Hall, Hamilton Waterfront Trust, MTO & the respective cycling committees easily narrowed the options to: #1. building a new path on the lake side of the bridge or #4 paving the bridge deck & establishing a multi-purpose lane for vulnerable road uses o the bridge. Guesstimated costs were in the $12 - $20 million dollar range.

Our group asked PWGSC to strip out the cost of relocating the control tower & using high tech video cameras instead. Based on an early Declan report, the tower relocation was over 80% of the cost.

Numerous studies have shown that the investment in the bridge will pay for itself in lower health costs, better quality of life, environmental improvements and tourism benefits. However, none of these factors are taken into account by PWGSC whose sole goal is to divest & maintain.

The saga continues in January 2010. Meanwhile cyclists & pedestrians continue to risk their lives crossing the bridge. One Sunday morning I encountered a group of confused cyclists that slowed down & stopped on Eastport Dr. They were unsure how they should cross. Note the large tanker truck that passed the cyclists. Luckily, he was able to move his rig into the unoccupied left lane.

Gene

Surprise, surprise, surprise

Gollllleeee! Our government loves the figure $85.00

I was SHOCKED & DUMBFOUNDED to read that riding your bike across a crosswalk is an $85 fine!

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/pubs/cycling-guide/section5.0.shtml
HTA 140(6)/144(29) - No riding in crosswalks

walk your bike when crossing at a crosswalk. Set fine: $85.00

HTA 75 (5) - Bell

a bike must have a bell or horn in good working order. Set fine: $85.

Hope you haven't broken any bad laws lately!

Groundhog Day Redux - again & again

What if they had a party & this time you weren't invited?

Cycling across the liftbridge today I noticed a bevy of white helmets marching in unison on the pier. Curiosity got the better of me. I interrupted my ride on a beautiful fall day to see what the fuss was about. To my surprise it was MP Mike Wallace & an entourage of PWGSC people with the ubiquitous media contingent.

While Mike talked to Jason, then CHCH, I passed time by talking to the PWGSC entourage at the liftbridge. Today, they announced the awarding of a ~$4 million contract to paint, scrape and rehabilitate the bridge. (2nd picture) Strangely, no one from either city was there. On March 09, it was standing room only, as Mike announced the bridge rehabilitation with media & municipal politicians from Hamilton & Burlington in attendance accompanied by senior city hall staffers. (top picture)

You learn a lot kibitzing with PWGSC. Pedestrians & cyclists shouldn't feel left out! PWGSC has come up with 5 options for making the bridge safer. This includes building a 2nd bridge, synced with the first and the scurrilous do nothing option. Mike Wallace added a few more options PWGSC didn't think of bringing the total to 9! Of course, it all depends on funding.

In the next week or two, Mike Wallace will invite cycling committees from Hamilton, Burlington & other stakeholders to a roundtable discussion to deliberate the merits of the various options.  Thanks Mike!  We'll look forward to the discussions.

Per PWGSC, its not the implementation that takes so long to get it done. Its the design & preparation before the work begins that takes time. A project such as the lakeside path would take 5 years!  Slow but true, given the bridge facelift announcement was originally posted in the Spec in Sept. 2008.


We've been told PWGSC is the obstacle behind getting a lakeside path. Not so, cried the woman from PWGSC! Its the funding. If we find a way to pay for it, PWGSC would be too happy to build it!

Isn't it time for that second round of stimulus funding?