Bold ideas are welcomed - needed!

Mayor Dave in Mississauga

Madison, Wisconsin
We share the same latitude and the same cold, snowy winter (actually Burlington has warmer winter highs, fewer snowy days & less snow) but we are miles apart in attitudes towards cycling. 

This week, former Madison Wisconsin mayor, Dave Cieslewicz spoke at the Share the Road cycling summit in Kingston.  Mayor Dave reminded the crowd, cycling friendly cities attract a creative class.  He also said the ciclovia event and the resultant culture of cycling was the most popular thing he ever did!

At a similar event in Mississauga, Cieslewicz warned his audience to expect controversy, saying, "People will imagine all kinds of horrible things, like the end of the free world, just because you're installing a bike lane or a bike box and it will be very controversial. But the truth is once you install these things, people love them. You need to get over that initial political hump."   Not content to rest on its laurels as a gold rated bike friendly city, Madison will be implementing a 100 recommendation plan, spending millions over 5 years to improve existing cycling infrastructure!

The cycling mayor, Boris Johnson

London, UK

Meanwhile in London, England, the mayor announced his cycling vision promoting a plan to spend $1.4 billion over 10 years.  “Cycling will be treated not as niche, marginal, or an but as what it is: an integral part of the transport network, with the capital spending, road space and traffic planners’ attention befitting that role.”  Boris Johnson, Mayor of London.

New York City

In New York city, Mayor Bloomberg's vision is similar - "Cyclists and pedestrians and bus riders are as important, if not, I would argue more important, than automobile riders."  During his tenure, under the guidance of transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. bike lanes and a bike sharing program has bloomed, along with the necessary angst from motorists.

Chicago

18 months into his first term as mayor, Rahm Emanuel introduced a protected, bi-directional bike lane running directly through the heart of its downtown.  Chicago choose a high profile street because of the message it sends to its citizens - cycling is important, cycling matters!  In Chicago, the committee advising city council is  known as the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Council.  Overnight, Chicago  has become the envy of cycling friendly cities such as Seattle, New York and even Portland.

Toronto

Finally, in Toronto, even on blustery winter days, nearly a third of travel in downtown Toronto is now by bicycle or on foot. Chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat wants to make the streets safer for cyclists.  “It’s a much more cost-effective way to move,” Ms. Keesmaat said. “Does it mean every trip will be on bike? Absolutely not. But some trips will, and that wouldn’t be a bad thing, if more trips were.”

Does the rest of the world know something we don't?  If Burlington aspires to be a true cycling friendly city, Burlington needs more boldness.  We need to get over the political hump Mayor Cieslewicz referred to. We need a council that heeds the well researched, advice of its hard working citizen's cycling committee.  The cycling committee must be more than just window dressing.

Why Do People Bike Commute?

Copied from the Atlantic.

"By Lizzy Bennett

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. 

Cycling ... therapy for the mind. LSR an opportunity lost!

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.

It's time we began connecting all the dots............ especially the difficult dots!

It's a recurring sight in Burlington - the ubiquitous Bike Lane Ends sign.  Sometimes there's no sign at all, the bike lane just disappears!

Like a chain, the bike network is as strong as its weakest links and there are too many weak links in Burlington.  Bike lanes end at the QEW over/under passes on Lakeshore, Brant St., Guelph Line, and Appleby.  On Walker's Line, there is an edge line, not a bike lane.

Disappearing bike lane Brant @ QEW

Northshore Road for example from Maple Ave. to west of the QEW is a prime candidate.  This forlorn stretch of roadway breaks the continuous bike lane from Aldershot into our downtown core.  It's a prime candidate for connecting dots!

Bike lanes also disappear when they approach major intersections especially when the bike lane gives way to channelized turn lanes, the exclusive vehicle right hand turn lane. Bike lanes are beneficial for both cyclists & drivers.  They provide motorists with a level of comfort knowing where the cyclist is going.

It's time to connect the dots, fill in the gaps.  It won't be easy.  It will take time.  We need our city engineers and planners to "fill in" one difficult gap each year.  From Amsterdam to Vancouver, from Australia to Europe, planners realize that 60% of the population would cycle if it were safer and comfortable.  This is the Interested but Concerned group who will come if you build it.  It's time Burlington started filling in the gaps.

1 mile of urban freeway or ........

   ...... ~300 miles of bike network, boulevards, trails!

Portland Mayor Sam Adams

In 2009, the Spec reported the HOV lane on the QEW would cost taxpayers $60 million - 2.5% of the $2.4 Billion Ontario earmarked for road spending.  Another article included bridge widening, bumping up the cost to $380 million.

The QEW is fully built out - its now 8 lanes wide.  We can't add any more vehicle lanes!  We're done! 

So what are the benefits?  What will taxpayers save as a result of the HOV lanes?  Will the commute be faster?  Worth $380+ million???  What do we do when its congested again?


Portland, Oregon took another approach.  Portland invested in their bike infrastructure.  
“The cost of the entire bike network we have today, if you picture all the bikelanes you can see, the trails, the bike boulevards – that whole thing, cost about $60 million to build. So if it all went up in smoke and we had to rebuild it – $60 million. That is the same cost as one mile of urban freeway.”

"For the cost of about one mile of freeway, $50 million, we've built a network of 275 miles of bikeways, that's one heck of a bang-for-your-buck investment."  -- Mia Birk, Alta Planning and Design


You can either spend money or invest it!
The photo on the right, from the Ont. Bike Summit, shows the ANNUAL dollar benefit Portland derives from its INVESTMENT in bike infrastructure.

The annual benefit is $2.6B, just about what Ontario spent on its roads.   Impressive!  Yet, Portland's cost benefit analysis doesn't include health benefits, environmental benefits, quality of life benefits, economic growth (Portland is now a bike industry hub) and that special feeling you get from living in a healthy, vibrant city.

We need more investment in cycling infrastructure & "bang-for-our-buck investing."  For the same investment in bike networks for 6 communities, we could save over $15B annually!

Cam's Kobayashi Maru and Canada's 3rd best place to live!

Why live anywhere else? 


In 2010, MoneySense magazine ranked Burlington as the 3rd best place to live out of 179 cities in Canada.  We moved up from number 4 in 2009.

Better still, Burlington wasn't even ranked in 2006.  It was lumped in with Hamilton.  According to Mayor Cam Jackson, he called the editors & asked why Burlington didn't have its own rank when several similar sized cities did.  Presto in 2008, Burlington had its own #8 ranking.  Jackson then pulled his "Kobayashi Maru" move straight out of Star Trek and took advantage of how the rankings are developed to plot Burlington's ascent.


With a bit more planning and effort from the new Transportation Service Department in Burlington, we can move up further.  One of the criteria is the number people who walk or bike to work.  Burlington ranks 156.  Lots of opportunity to improve this ranking and catch up to Kingston (12) and Ottawa-Gatineau (54).

You can click on the link and pictures for more details.

The sooner the bike lane network is completed, and overpasses made safer, more people will cycle.  The better our ranking will be in 2012!

Mayor Jackson  & Kobayashi Maru - thinking out of the box.  In the 2006 Sound of Music parade, Cam Jackson chose a bike rather than the ubiquitous parade convertible.