Heard last night: 10++ reasons why bike lanes shouldn't be on Walkers & Appleby Line south of New St.

City staff is recommending road diets on Walkers & Appleby Lines south of New St. to Lakeshore.  The 4 vehicle lanes would be reduced to 2 vehicle lanes, a centre turn lane and  bike lanes - a mirror image of Guelph Line south of New St.

Important slides from the presentation last night:

Send your comments to Dan at City Hall.  OzimkovicD@burlington.ca

As strong as the weakest link .... or leaving the most difficult til last!

Have you noticed?

Slowly the bike network is being expanded across Burlington.  6.5km of bike lanes were added in 2010.

Sharrows and paved hydro corridors as well.   Progress!

Brant St. now has fabulous bike lanes from Caroline almost to the QEW, disappearing for a block around busy Fairview St.  The Brant St. bike lanes also disappear just before you reach the QEW underpass.  The awesome, comfortable new bike lanes on Upper Middle from Sutton to BurlOak run to the QEW making cycling safer & enjoyable.  However, the bike lanes disappear at the overpass continuing on the other side of the QEW!

The disappearing bike lane phenomenon occurs so frequently approaching busy intersections, one would think that it's planned!

If car lanes were to suddenly STOP and the vehicle lanes disappear, even for half a kilometer, it would not be allowed.  Disappearing bike lanes shouldn't be tolerated either!

Bike lanes provide an element of safety.  Both the car driver & the cyclists benefit from bike lanes.  As a car driver, you know where the cyclist is going.

We need the city to put the bike lanes where they are needed (& often difficult to do) not where it is easy to put them!

No helmet, NO ride!

I admire the laissez faire attitude of the student cyclists in the previous blog, however, too many in the biking universe think nothing of cycling without a helmet. Especially adults!

Very early one Saturday morning (~ 6:30am), I hit an unexpected, very large, unleashed dog on the waterfront trail.  The dog ran directly in front of my bike.  As I lay there on the ground, wind knocked out and my helmet cracked, I heard the dog's owner berate his dog for running away from the leash.

A helmet is really your only protection against the unexpected.   In my case it worked.

The fabulous video below, of a passionate Burlington city hall associate & her family, was created in conjunction with the Burlington Road Safety Committee.  It effectively get's out a meaningful message!

Thank you for taking the time & effort to make this great video!!  And let's hope it goes viral.

Boldly getting us to where NO OTHER MP has taken us before!

In good company, getting it done!

Thanks to the efforts of MP Mike Wallace, the government department that owns the liftbridge (Public Works Government Services Canada - PWGSC) will study the cost of adding a lakeside multipurpose path on the bridge.  The  lakeside path will make it safer to cross at the liftbridge, eliminating the need to use the too narrow current path.

An accident waiting to happen!

PWGSC has stated that the required over haul of the bridge mechanics and electronics must be completed before the path.  As a taxpayer, it makes sense to complete the 2 projects at the same time.

The multipurpose path is an investment.  Based on statistics from the Niagara Region & health data, the investment will be paid back in as few as 2-3 years in tourism dollars, health benefits from active living, improved quality of life and a better environment.  All this and increased safety!

Thanks Mike!  Make it so!

PS:  If PWGSC receives funding & decides to do both projects at the same time, we  are talking 2013 at the earliest.

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!

Fairview QEW - New Interchange to be built

June update: City hall staffers have not yet OK'd the interchange designs brought to them by MTO.

The purveyor of Lets Make it Better for Cars, our Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) has lifted the kimono on its cunning plans to add a new QEW ramp access for motorists traveling west on Fairview St.

A new channel lane will be added to Fairview allowing westbound motorists to access the QEW, magically eliminating purported back ups on Fairview.

However, this design is extremely dangerous for cyclists. Burlington will provided a curb cut so cyclists can travel on the sidewalk & cross the new ramp at the jug handles.

This underpass breaks the beautiful long stretch of bike lanes that run from Brant St. to the RGB in Hamilton. According to city hall engineering, MTO will not allow bike lanes on Fairview in the area of the overpass. Neither will they allow sharrows or wide traffic strips. However, the new lane will be 4.5m versus the standard 3.5m.

I'm an experienced but intrepid cyclist. When I get to these interchanges (there are many in Burlington) I get nervous. Image how the motorist feels. I must decide, do I hug the curb & cycle in the channellized access lane or do I ride on the traffic stripe?

Its dangerous! Two lives have already been lost at this interchange. Why risk any more lives?

MTO is not listening.