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.

The gift that keeping on giving - in a good way!

IKEA walks the talk.  

After finding that 20% of its Danish customers biked to IKEA, the world's biggest put-it-together-yourself furniture chain, provided bike trailers to enable their Danish customers to get the household products home!

Here in North America, IKEA USA really does believe that Change Begins at Home!  Each of its 12,400 U.S. employees were given bikes for Christmas.


No assembly required!!!!!!
"IKEA notes that riding a bicycle 30 minutes a day can burn a number of calories equivalent to an individual shedding 30 lbs. Cycling just 30km a week can help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 50%. Riding a bike versus owning and driving a car can also save an individual $8,000 annually in automobile-related costs (gasoline, general car maintenance, and insurance costs)."  It's the gift that keeps on giving in a good way!  Healthier employees, also take less time off, lower the company's health costs and are happier!


Sadly, Canadian employees didn’t get bikes.  However, IKEA Canada commissioned Canadian artists to produce 5,000 unique pieces, one-of-a-kind art for their annual co-worker holiday gift, supporting Canadian talent and artists.   

No Assembly!

Let's hope, the bike, as a company Christmas gift is a prelude of great things to come!  Hopefully other retailers, and companies jump on the bandwagon and offer their employees bikes sweetened with a uniquely Canadian 1 year free service program at MEC.  It would require confident, forward thinking CEOs and management to embrace this idea.  I'll wager that an Return on Investment analysis would show the company would recoup its investment many times over.
Thanks for your comments and emails.
Merry Christmas to all!  

Beijing out of its haze - Back to the Future

No longer a common sight

"Twenty years ago, four out of five residents in the Chinese capital pedalled to work through  one of the world’s best systems of bicycle lanes."   Beijing's 9 million bicycles are being crowded out & disappearing.  Bike lanes are blocked by parked cars & frustrated motorists seeking to avoid traffic jams.  It is now "The most congested city on earth." 


The number of cars in Beijing has doubled since 2005 & 2,000 more cars are added daily.  4.7 million cars in 2010!  Pending car regulations, have spiked sales to 3,000 per day in Dec.

The Globe's Wheels section points out the fallacy of the auto-centric planning mentality.  According to Zhang Yu, a senior engineer with the Urban Transport Center under the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, “Before 1990 the government was building more and more roads but that was fine because there was a need for those roadways,” she said. “But after that, the more roads they built, the more serious the traffic jams became. So building new roads does not solve traffic jams.”

Avg Speed 20kph!
4miles in 2 hours.

"Zhang suggested different classes of tickets on public transportation to attract better-off customers, better bus and bike lanes, and more space for pedestrians. Building more roads was not the answer, she said." 
During the Olympics traffic congestion was reduced.  Cars were banned from roads on alternate days based on an even / odd system and the license plate number.   At some time, the only option is to ban cars or ironically, to make the cost so prohibitive, only the rich of this socialist country will be able to drive.  

Are there any clear days left to see
Beijing?

"[Chinese].... studies show that 60 per cent of the time, people's destinations are less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from their homes."  Its 57% in Canada!
 
Drowning in cars, bumper to bumper gridlock and a sickening pall of air pollution blocking the sun, Chinese leaders are now drafting regulations to "encouraging people in the former land of bicycles to revert to pedal power."  The state's next 5 year plan targets boosting  the number of cyclists by 25%.
The haze in Burlington is also lifting as it slowly moves back to the future.  Bike lanes help everyone, including drivers!  Why shouldn't there be bike lanes on Lakeshore Road?  The sooner, the better!

Halton's one size fits all - short-sighted approach

Beautiful landscape, winding roads

Italy with its unique topography, landscape and winding routes is a mecca for cycling.  Cycling tourism is big, big business in Italy.

Italian roads lack basic safeguards needed to keep cyclists safe.  Wide paved shoulders are non-existent.  Many roads lack the centre dividing line.  Yet despite these shortfalls cycling tourism thrives, significantly boosting the economy of many hilltop towns.

Typical Italian road, no shoulder, uphill

Encountering many cyclists, I asked if they felt threatened on Italian  roads.  Unexpectedly, they believed Italian motorists were especially cautious on the roads, aware of cyclists.  As one of the motoring tourists, I really questioned this belief.

At home, cycling tourism has a tremendous positive impact in Niagara. ~ 5,000 jobs, $200 million in annual revenues.   While cycling our waterfront trail, I encountered a group of Penny Farthing cyclists from South Africa, Germany and New Zealand.  Cycling tourists spend more per day and stay longer in the area than other tourists.

Halton Region sometimes adds 1 metre paved shoulders to rural roads when they are resurfaced.  Numerous studies show the paved shoulder extends road life and provide other benefits making it worth the added cost.  It appears that Halton views the speeds vehicles travel on these roads as a secondary issue e.g. currently under resurfacing, Derry Road has a 1 metre shoulder (sometimes less) despite cars buzzing by at speeds well over 70kph.  Going forward after Derry Road, Halton is proposing 1.5m - if it can be easily done.  One size fits all is the Halton approach.

From Haliburton Cycling Master Plan

We'll never match Italy's topography but by adding wider paved shoulders to all of Halton's rural roads, wider than 1 meter, we will attract cycling tourists to our region generating returns far greater than the original investment.  Haliburton believes this and the paved shoulder width depends on vehicle speeds and traffic.   It will save lives too!

Early Christmas gift for cyclists and all others too!

Confucius had it half right.  The picture map below is worthy of a million words - all of them grand.

Bronte Creek Prov. Park  to City Hall - by bike!

A year ago, Google Maps gave us the transit option.  You could get from point A to your destination using public transit without having to decipher Burlington's Einsteinian bus schedule.

This year Google added bike routes as a travel option and said it would be rolled out soon to a town near you.

It works in Burlington!

It displays our hydro corridor trail!

The maps show a bike route from Bronte Creek Provincial Park to Burlington City Hall.  Yes, you cycle Burloak Drive over the QEW but then Google maps suggests you get onto the Centennial Bike Trail all the way to Dynes Road.  That's the new & improved, safe, recently paved hydro corridor.

Thank you Google.  It's still in Beta mode and has bugs.  It doesn't display the Headon hydro corridor and it may take you on a road without a bike lane but its a start!  Expect it to improve over time as more data is added & routes are refined. 

The city & Halton Region repaved Burloak with fabulous, wide, comfortable bike lanes but the bike lanes stop at the QEW overpass.  Maybe  Google has the solution for MTO to make it safer for cyclists to get over the QEW.

Step by step, inch by inch, ........ slowly it happens!

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."  Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC)

At council's final meeting on Nov. 25, 2010, they took that step & passed the following amendment
"THAT Transportation Services staff, in collaboration with the Engineering Department, be directed to investigate the feasibility of widening Lakeshore Road from Burloak Drive to Downtown Burlington in order to accommodate on-road bike lanes and median refuge islands where possible while maintaining two narrowed travel lanes and a narrowed two-way left turn lane."

Its only 8 km from Brant to BurlOak.

With its left turn lanes and few traffic lights, Lakeshore Road encourages motorists to speed up.  The only east - west road in Burlington with fewer traffic lights than Lakeshore is the QEW!  This is a huge first step in making Lakeshore Road safer for everyone.  Thank you out-going council & mayor.

We're talking a distance of only 8km.  The impact will be dramatic!

To the new Transportation Services & Engineering Departments - let's make it happen so the new council enjoys what the old council started.  (Translation - let's do it in less than 4 years!).

Councillor Dennison was responsible for the amendment.  Thank you Mr. Dennison!!