Take the Lane

Kitchener's Bike Fest: bring your bike and park it

Some of the details are coming together for Kitchener's BikeFest on Sunday, May 26.

Here's the Facebook page, and here's the City of Kitchener website.

There's a certain amount of weirdness in a bicycle event that is contained to a space (in this case, the Kitchener Civic Square). But I suppose it is no different than going to an air show and looking at planes on the ground.

The event lineup includes bike tuneups (don't knock free mechanicals!), free food, live music, cycling skills training, bike polo and more.

 

CAA wants to hear from cyclists about Ontario's Worst Roads

I may have missed this in previous years, but it appears that the Canadian Autombile Association is asking cyclists to nominate Ontario's worst roads.

CAA Ontario has a Worst Roads campaign every year, mostly to shame the provincial government into doing something about the network of potholes and washboard we sometimes mistake for a highway network.

This year, the invitation letter I got at home read, "Whether the issue is traffic congestion, potholes, timing of traffic lights, road signs or pedestrian and cycling safety, we want to hear from you." The word "cycling" was not highlighted in the letter, but certainly in my mind.

In Waterloo Region, so much material to work with: the junction from Park Street to the Laurel Trail; the Iron Horse Trail crossing on Victoria Street, the washboard on Ottawa Street under the Expressway, the bike lanes that dead-end on busy and crowded Westmount Road . . . I could go on.

Have your turn by participating. You can go here to vote for the Worst Roads in Ontario.

You might want to gloss over the fact that your participation includes you in a draw for a daily draw on a $50 Petro-Canada gift card and a final draw for a prize of gas for a year. Perhaps "fuel" for a year could have been a gift card to Swiss Chalet...

What about a "Jane's Ride" of our dowtowns?

My partner and I went on a Jane's Walk on the past weekend, the Sunday walk hosted by Grand River Car Share, looking at travel alternatives in downtown Kitchener.

I wonder about next year, hosting a bicycle "Jane's Ride" of Kitchener (and Waterloo?), looking at the ways bicycles have worked in the urban core in the past, present, and likely, future.

There would be a lot to include from the present: the varieties of bike security (ring and post, bike lockers at the Charles Street station, the bike cage on Charles), bike lanes and signage, bike travel extensions (the racks on the GRT buses) and so on. It would be interesting to talk about how bikes were used to deliver tings in the downtown in the "olden days" and how they are still used by couriers, how street people use bikes for their bottle picking, the dynamic between pedestrians and cyclists, and cyclists and motorists, the bike shops that are still downtown (I do miss Braun's). And then thee's the future: more bikes, the LRT involvement. I foresee a friendlier future for cyclists.

Think there would be any interest?

Annual ride will remember the lost and promote safe cycling

The turnout for the memorial ride for Barrie Conrod last year was so encouraging, that the people involved with that ride are thinking about having an annual event to remember those who have been lost to cycling accidents, and to show the larger community that cyclists are users of our regional and city roads.

There's an organizational meeting planned for next Thursday, May 9 at the Seven Shores Urban Market in Waterloo at 7 a.m. It'll be short and sweet -- just a chance for people to talk about the when and the where, who will ride and who will help with the organizational details.

Vy Waller, who was the prime mover behind last year's memorial ride, hopes a good turnout will help develop and demonstrate that we have a strong and safe cycling community. Scott Nevin, a member of the Waterloo Cycling Club and director of policy development for the City of Waterloo, is also involved in the project.

No reason not to ride this May

Here's a shoutout to our American cycling friends, who are celebrating National Bike Month this month, unlike we northerners who wait until the somewhat more predictable weather of June to do our national biking thing.

With the weather this week, there's no reason not to get a jump on Bike Month here -- just ride! Wednesday, May 8 is Bike to School Day in the United States. Based on the forecast, no reason not to encourage your kids to ride to school on Monday, and if you have the time, you can join them.

In the U.S., National Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 17, but there may be fewer of us riding in conjunction with them. It's the Friday before the Victoria Day long weekend, and the migration out of town begins that day. The roads will be jammed with people eager to leave the city -- not the best of circumstances for the occasional rider.

Still, there should be fewer cars in the city that weekend -- ideal conditions for cyclists. Take the lane.

Region launching its own Bike Month

If you (in Waterloo Region) were ever envious of the plethora of cycling events in Toronto's annual Bike Month, you need be envious no longer.

The Region of Waterloo is promoting the month of June as Bike Month. This commitment involves a change in loyalties: the Region is basically withdrawing its investment of time and staff in the National Commuter Challenge, the one-week effort to promote commuting alternatives to the one-person/one-car approach.

If you have been a workplace co-ordinator for the Commuter Challenge in years past, you probably already got the email this week, inviting you to continue your efforts and pointing you to the Commuter Challenge website for materials or online support. But there won't be a regional co-ordinator or local training sessions for workplace co-ordinators.

The shift to promoting the whole month as Bike Month ties in to the regional efforts to get more people walking, biking or busing as an alternative to driving. It's all part of the Region's Active Transportation Master Plan. So, the Region is asking residents, if not to bike in June, to walk, car-pool or take the bus and to commit to these alternatives via its online Pledge webpage.The Region is also planning to sponsor a Bus and Bike photo contest and a Leadership Bike to Work Challenge during the month.

As well, the Region is hoping to link to other cycling events in the area, including the Kitchener Bikefest on Sunday, May 26; the Cambridge Tour de Grand on Sunday, June 9; the Commuter Challenge, Sunday, June 2 to Saturday, June 8; and the Tour de Waterloo on Sunday, June 23.

It doesn't exactly fill your daybook for June, but it is a framework for other events to join in, such as Waterloo's Open Streets festival on Sunday, June 16; and the Iron Horse Trail Animate the Trail event on Sunday, June 2.

You have to start somewhere.

Related articles

Biking dropped from Bike and Hike for Heart

We all are traffic

This video, Brussels Express: Bike Messengers, is really about more than bicycle messengers. It's about urban roadways, who uses them and how they can be used.

I like the notion of taking all the people who use Grand River Transit, all the people who walk or jog or push their baby strollers, and putting them, one person per car, into cars. Push those additional cars out into King Street or the Conestoga Parkway, and then ask yourself: what's the answer to urban gridlock? (If you think the answer is bigger roads, than just tear down every building lining King Street on either side, from Stirling Avenue to University Avenue, and you'll have all the pavement you'll need in our lifetimes. There will be nothing to do but drive up and down the street, but by George, you'll have your bigger road!)

I also like the video's notion that because a roadway is a shared facility, we all -- cyclists, motorists, peds, scooters, skateboards, inline skaters, delivery people -- we all are traffic.

 

 

Do you give three feet?

When I'm motoring, I notice that I get a lot of "tee-hee" responses from the occupants of vehicles that pass to my left.

It could be because of "i Give 3 Feet" bumper sticker that I've had on my car since 2010.

It was a marketing idea from the Florida Three Feet Please campaign, which used to sell sticks and jerseys, but found that there were more cyclists willing to wear jerseys, than there were motorists willing to mess up their cars with stickers.

I suppose there could be some indecorous references one might draw from such a bumper sticker, hence the tee-heeing (and perhaps the reason why this particular sticker design was dropped).

Nonetheless, the message is loud and proud: when driving, I do give three feet (or one metre) when passing cyclists or other vulernable road users. It does amaze me how many motorists feel it is necessary to stay as close to the curb as possible (with its potholes, sewer grates, puddles, flattened catalytic converters and other detritus) when they could just as easily be using the dotted line or centreline as their landmark, and confidently travel in their lane.

And, in fact, Ontario motorists should get used to landmarking on the centreline. The three-foot passing law is on the books in 18 U.S. states, with Arizona slated to join the pack this month. A one-metre (three-foot) passing law is part of the recommendations from last year's coroner's report on cycling deaths in Ontario. And there has already been an attempt to put a private member's bill on the subject before the legislature.

It's only a matter of time.

And while you're waiting, you might invest in a three-foot cycling jersey.

Here's one, from Share the Damn Road. They have other, more pointed jerseys, if you think this one isn't clear enough... (is it possible a motorist will think that the cyclist HAS three feet?) Ah well...

 

 

Bike lane striper for Cambridge, or April Fooling?

If this is an April Fool's Day prank, it's believeable: Don Pavey, of the Cambridge Tour de Grand committee, sent out a news release today saying that the Tour has purchased a striping machine for adding bike lane lines to Cambridge streets.

First up will be Grand Avenue in Cambridge later this month, the release said.

The release contains a link to this video about the True Line Lane Striper, which is a legit product.

The lines in the news release, referring to the need for volunteers who can walk a straight line and operate a snow blower, the need for donations of leftover white paint, and the reference to the simplicity of the machine being valued because so few Tour de Grand committee members can operate machinery, tip me to thinking that the news release is a prank.

However, if you do have any leftover white paint, you might leave it with Don Pavey, or send it to your local council member as a reminder that those promised bicycle lanes should appear.

 

 

 

Why should cyclists pay for "free" parking lots

If Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has her way, perhaps cyclists will stop having to pay for motorists' infrastructure.

The story is this one, which is floating around the various print and electronic media. Wynne, when she was running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party, floated out the idea of tolls and other "revenue tools" to generate money to pay for transit and transportation infrastructure. That test issue seems to be gathering more strength.

On the KW CBC radio station today, University of Waterloo enviro prof Jeff Casello was talking about how consumers pay the hidden costs of motoring infrastrucuture. The "free" parking lots at Conestoga Mall, for instance, are the hidden overhead costs of doing business there, and every shopper winds up paying higher prices to cover the cost of the free parking, whether they drove to themall, walked there, took the bus or cycled.

If Wynne wins the argument and the support of the opposition, the costs of those infrastructure goodies will be carried by those who use them most. And that won't be pedestrians and cyclists, my friends.