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.

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!

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.

Conquering Burlington's Great Continental Divide

Divided by the highways!

Burlington is a city divided.  Divided by its highways.  Living north of the QEW, rarely did I cycle the waterfront.  When we  moved to the downtown core, all my cycling was on the waterfront or around the bay through Hamilton.  Burlington's Great Divide impacts all Burlingtonians.  If you live south of the QEW, you can bike to the nearest GO Station.  However, live north of the QEW & you wouldn't consider biking to the GO Station because it means crossing the QEW overpasses. 

The QEW, 403 and 407 are monumental barriers to safe cycling.  The Burlington Road Safety Committee had determined that a cyclist has a 33x greater risk of collision when they cross an overpass.  Overpasses are governed by the Ministry of Transport of Ontario (MTO).

What can we do, quickly & cost effectively, to make these collision magnets safer?

Walker Line Blue Lane

Burlington's north / south sub-committee has asked city staff to work with MTO to begin implementing the positive changes MTO accepted at the Fairview QEW interchange to other overpasses:

1. narrower vehicle lanes - it slows motorists down & allows a bike lane to be added
2. slower posted speed limits & enforcement
3. a coloured bike lane where possible or sharrows.  A coloured bike lanes reminds motorists daily that cyclists also use the road.

The sooner MTO approves these changes, the sooner we conquer our Great Divide.  The Ontario Bike Summit, would be a great time for MTO to show it really is cycling friendly and announce these changes!