Toronto’s Bikeway plans
The IbikeTO blog posted an update on the meeting at Metro Hall Monday night where city staff reveal a politically ambitious bikeway plan.
We remind all mayoral candidates that it is time to implement solutions to the city’s gridlock and air quality crises, not simply use hack political judgement, satiating automobile driving voters temporarily to “uptick” your poll results.
A coherent, connected plan serves both bicycling and driver communities. From the post:
These politicians need to get with the times. The types of folk who bike are not some fringe group of white males who bike because they want a rush. A wide range of people bike, particularly in downtown where the percentage of bike commuters is above 13% in some parts. Before you whip up the hate-on, Rossi, take a look at these people and try to explain to them why they don’t exist and why you think they should just buy a car.
Survey of Toronto Cycling 1999 compared to 2009
Blog TO has posted on the recently released Ipsos Reid survey on Toronto Cycling.
Since lack of bike lanes and safety concerns appear frequently as barriers to bicycle use, one wonders how different the results of the survey would be had the city met its bike lane targets as articulated in 2001.
Bike sharing coming to a city near you?
On Pedalaround, Kirk added a post on bike sharing. There are some interesting links about bike sharing in the US, including a very interesting presentation by B Cycle.
Here’s some info on Montreal’s Bixis from NY’s Green Inc., and some more from I Bike T.O.
Lot’s of fascinating proposals are here where you can download pdfs of all the entries from Copenhagen’s bike share competition.
Air Canada – you’re not quite getting it
It’s time to reconsider your policy, just like Jet Blue as reported by BikePortland.
The corporation is just too big to apply common sense, to properly communicate within, and is indifferent to what travellers really think. It’s not the issue that bicycles are green transport and as such, should be encouraged and welcomed. Air Canada is missing the key point here. They have a policy, appropriate for conventional bicycles that requires the passenger to pay a $50 fee to cover the cost of handling that unwieldly bicycle. When it comes to bikes which fold up smaller than a snowboard, that do not require any special handling, the fee should simply not apply. Indeed, it often does not.
I have traveled on Air Canada with my Strida folding bike many times. Customarily I pay no fee, drop my Strida’s carry bag on the belt and pick it off the carousel on the other end, much like I do for many other items. Occasionally, when I have been told there is a charge for bicycles, I have had a discussion with the ticket agent in which I compare the Strida folding bike to many other items Air Canada accepts from me and thousands of others every day without a fee. Each time so far, I have not had to pay the fee.
A few weeks ago Yvonne Bambrick, Executive Director of the Toronto Cyclist’s Union, took a Strida folding bike to San Francisco on Air Canada. There was no fee requested on the flight down, but the $50 fee was insisted upon on the return flight.
Read some of the details of Toronto writer Lloyd Alter’s experience with, and impression of Air Canada’s policy in this Financial Post article. Lloyd Alter has stitched together a summary of the saga.
Interestingly while typing this post, I received two email messages from Air Canada offering me 15,000 bonus miles as part of a current marketing campaign to keep us all flying with them.
What Women Want
As “an ‘indicator species’ for bike-friendly cities” – women being more risk averse than men – perhaps planners should consider what women find important.
Until women feel it is safe and easy to jump on a bike and head through town, the North American ratio of men: women cyclists (now 2:1), isn’t going to inch towards Europe’s ratio (1:1) anytime soon. As the lack of women riders generally indicates relative safety, this is a big part of the reason why North American statistics for trips by bicycle are also so poor compared to those of Europe. Less than 2% of trips are by bicycle in North America, while many European cities are well into double digits.
Have a look at this article from Scientific American.
Thanks to a feed via Momentum Magazine for sourcing this article.
Cycling in the rain
Fall brings some of the best weather for bicycling: no muddiness of spring, no heat of summer, and without the bugs of both; just wonderful crisp, sunny days.
Oh, and some rain.
Here’s a primer on rainy day cycling with some great post, post discussions from one of our favourite blogs: Let’s Go Ride a Bike. For those of you thinking, I really should go beyond the occasional fair weather recreational ride: you should. And this blog can help you to do just that in so many ways, particularly if you are a woman.
Raise a glass to Cycling in Toronto
Don’t miss the Toronto Cyclist’s Union Fundraiser Cocktail & Masquerade, Oct 28th at Steamwhistle’s Roundhouse.
This is an important event where you can meet change-makers and others with an affinity for bicycling in Toronto, join in a celebration of some wonderful progress to date and most importantly, your presence there will help ensure that the work continues.
Details on the event are right here
Please invite everyone you know who wants to see more cyclists, on safer streets in Toronto.
Lane envy
From Bicycle Queensland, a posting with an image of a “Copenhagen” style bike lane.
Segregated two way bike lanes are a very safe and efficient way to enhance bicycle travel. Talk about adding to quality of place. Brisbane has a population of almost 2 million and has evolved a great bicycle culture; even a website that reports on bike lane closures and news.
This posting, while having me think wouldn’t it be nice, had me checking out Copenhagenize.com, and they commented on the same post. What a nice feeling of pride…
Also from Copenhagenize.com is a post on
cycling around New York City with some lovely images of bicycle lanes in that city.
Toronto is where I do most of my bicycle commuting. As I think about my ride home tonight, I think it’d be best if quit looking at bike lanes in other cities.
How to get 50,000 new commuters on bicycles…
I think it’s beneficial to remind people every so often of progressive ideas/policies that would benefit us here in North America.
In order to decrease the number of autos in UK cities, alleviating a significant source of carbon emissions and improve the health and well-being of it’s citizens, the UK government introduced a Cycle To Work initiative a few years ago.
The plan allows employers to “loan” bicycles to employees, who then pay the employer back for the value of the bike (up to £1,000, $1700 CDA) using pre-tax salary. In addition to all the benefits of bicycle commuting, both to the individual and the community, this can result in a 50% saving on the cost of the bicycle. Since 2005, there are some 100,000 who have taken advantage of the initiative with some 50,000 NEW bicycle commuters. Great program! Something to think about here, particularly in Ontario Canada when tax harmonization likely eliminates the <$1000 PST exemption on bicycle purchases.
From the UK Department of Transport website, excerpts below:
Cycle to work
The Finance Act 1999 and the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 provided
a tax exemption to allow employers to loan cycles and cyclist safety equipment to
their employees to cycle to work. In 2005 the Government assisted the cycle industry
in promoting the scheme by providing implementation guidance. It also asked the
Office of Fair Trading to issue a group consumer credit licence to allow all UK
businesses to offer cycle packages to each member of staff of up to £1,000 in order
to cycle to work. This dispensed with the need to apply for an individual licence.
Since 2005 we estimate that nearly 100,000 employees are now benefiting from the
use of new bikes to cycle to work. Half of these are new or returning cyclists.Value for Money
Economic modeling carried out for Cycling England3 shows that increasing cycling
levels by 20 per cent by 2015 has the potential to save £107 million in reducing
premature deaths, £52 million in NHS costs and £87 million in reduced absence from
work.
There are also quantifiable benefits in terms of reduced congestion and pollution.
The SQW work quoting a 20% increase in cycling delivering congestion benefits of
£207m and pollution benefits of £71m. Overall, it is estimated that investing in cycling
gives very good value for money, with benefits estimated to be 3.2 times the costs.
Regular cyclists are also likely to live a healthier, longer life.
The Hong Kong of Active Communities
A thought provoking post at Freakonomics; really a Q&A on so called “Charter Cities” such as Hong Kong where a special economic, “better” rules zone, attracted economic growth. Can/should this be considered for developing countries?
If the charter specifies good rules (or in our professional jargon, good institutions) millions of people will come together to build a new city.
People will be attracted there because of the benefits of interacting with everyone else.
In addition to the charter city as a special economic zone, why not consider the potential growth in population, quality of life, culture and therefore attraction of investment and economic development of a special environmental zone. One where the “good rules” for the city are built around people instead of automobiles. It would seem many would choose to live, work and invest in a city where the percentage of cars used to commute is the same as bicycles are now: some .5%, and bicycles and other active transportation methods take the current place of cars at some 90%.
The entire design of the charter city would not be auto-centric: much less hard space, roads, highways, bridges, overpasses, parking lots/garages etc. And, the huge city budget dollars going to supporting the auto-infrastructure would be redirected to people. Sounds wonderful, new types of innovation around quality of place for people and better preservation of the environment.
There is a thoughtful quote contained in the article relating to barriers to change:
I think we’d do our jobs better if we just said what’s true without trying to be amateur politicians.
