Take the Lane

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...

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...

 

 

Crap, I hate when a deadline sneaks up on me

When I posted back in December on the Ontario call for submissions on its proposed cycling draft policy, I thought I had a lot of time to respond.

Then there was Christmas (busy, busy), got sick (oh great), went on holidays (yeah, Mexico), got sick again (some flu shot that was) and just looked up to realize that TODAY (Tuesday, Jan. 29) is the deadline for filing.

Yes, between drinking tea and chewing on Vitamin C tabs and popping zinc pills, I am scribbling out some thoughts on bike lanes, Idaho stops and helmet laws. You still have time to respond, too, if you feel so inclined. To all of you who have already responded, thank you, and I feel rightly ashamed.

Ontario wants your input on its draft cycling strategy

If you want to say anything about the Ontario Ministry of Transportation draft cycling strategy, you've got 60 days to do so.

The Ministry is among several provincial agencies that has had something to say about cycling in Ontario. The office of the Chief Coroner this summer released a cycling death review that had a lot to say to various ministries and governments about cycling safety. The Ontario Medical Association weighed in last year with its Enhancing Cycling Safety in Ontario, and various agencies of public health have contributed their thoughts about active lifestyles.

But this is the big one. The Ministry of Transportation actually designates money that builds things: whether that's paved, segregated bicycle lanes or bicycle storage at public transit facilities. And the ministry sets the tone for every new driver who is licensed in Ontario. If you want Ontario drivers to be trained to share the road, you have to have the Ministry of Transportation on side.

So really, you should read the draft strategy and offer your comments. And don't delay. Sixty days have a way of running out. In fact, if you are reading this on Saturday: only 59 days left.

You've probably read something about the draft strategy elsewhere. To recap, the strategy is looking at: better cycling infrastructure through a provincial cycling network, and through provincial support (cash, advice, policy) of municipally authorized cycling networks; better cycling safety, through education for cyclists and drivers and updates to the (incredibly outdated) Highway Traffic Act; and better overwatch, through monitoring and co-ordination (which sounds like a bonanza for consultants, but really does have a bearing on how improvements are made).

It is interesting that two recommendations of the Chief Coroner's report, made specifically to the Ministry of Transportation, are not in any way addressed in the draft strategy:

First, no mention of mandatory bicycle helmet legislation -- which really stirred up the beehive when it was suggested back in June of this year.

Second, no mention of the one-metre/three-foot passing law, which has been the subject of one private member's bill and many lobbying attempts. It appears that it continues to go nowhere fast.

Neither does the draft cycling strategy address the question of e-bikes. There has been a lot of energy generated about e-bikes, whether police are enforcing the law, whether the law is clear enough, whether e-bike users should be required to be licensed. Other than defining what an e-bike is and where it can be used, no discussion of the e-bike's future.

Of course, there are 60 days to discuss all of this. Go to the website, read the draft strategy and press the button to submit your responses.

Want to have a say in Kitchener's cycling policy?

If you can make a two-year commitment to making Kitchener a better place for cyclists, the Kitchener Cycling Advisory Committee has a space for you.

The committee, which meets monthly and formulates advice for Kitchener city council members on bicycle infrastructure policy, is looking for new recruits for a new two-year term, to begin in January 2013.

You can fill out an online application form here, where you can also download the terms of reference for the committee. Deadline for applications is Oct. 5 (yes, that's this Friday). For more info, you can contact Josh Joseph, Kitchener's transportation demand management co-ordinator at 519-741-3400, ext. 3167 or by email at josh.joseph@kitchener.ca

 

Lower speed limits are in our future

Way back in 2010, while at Velo-city Global 2010 in Copenhagen, I posted on a presentation from John Whitelegg, a prof in transportation studies from John Moores University in Liverpool.

The post was titled "Are lower urban speed limits in our future?", based on his research showing that 95 per cent of peds and cyclists will survive being hit by objects travelling at a speed of 32 km/h or less, while fully 55 per cent won't survive being struck at 48 km/h or faster.

So, of course, it was with interest that I read the reportage on the recent Ontario coroner's report on pedestrian deaths in Ontario. While the coroner's Report on Cycling Deaths (released in June, go here for both reports) made virtually no mention of speed limits, the attention on the Pedestrian Death Review seemed to be entirely about the speed limits.

In fact, that was one recommendation of many. Here's the recommendation: "The MTO should amend the Highway Traffic Act to allow local municipalities to lower the unsigned default speed limit to 40 kilometres an hour on residential streets from the current limit of 50 kilometres an hour." (It was later elaborated to indicate that speed limits on residential streets should be reduced to 30 km/h while all other municipal streets should be 40 km/h.)

There were lots of other recommendations: that Ontario communities should adopt a "complete streets" approach to planning and redevelopment (a recommendation that also was the first item in the cycling deaths review); that the province should develop a walking strategy; that side guards be manadatory on transport trucks (also in the cycling deaths review); that the Driver's Handbook be updated to reflect the new realities (also in the cycling review); and that there be publlic education and police education and enforcement (also in the cycling review).

You could view both reports as convergent (the exceptions being the speed limits, mentioned only in the pedestrian review, and the three-foot passing law and mandatory helmets, mentioned only in the cycling review).

I think you can read a few things from both reviews:

One is that complete streets is the way of the future for municipal planning. No surprise since it is already happening at the grassroots level. Eventually, the provincial funding agencies will respond.

Another is that truck side guards are going to happen. They are already happening ... you can see examples on the major highways every day.

And another is lower speed limits. Not one of the "convergent" items, but cyclist and pedestrian advocates have been talking about lower limits for years. It fits with the complete streets planning model and is the logical way to reduce insurance costs, health funding, and energy consumption. Every roadway innovation of recent years -- traffic calming, roundabouts, community safety zones -- has been intended to reduce speed limits in the urban/suburban setting.

Lower speed limits are in our future and that can only be good news for cyclists.

Who pays for the roads? Well, maybe cyclists pay too much

The August newsletter from Toronto-based 8-80 Cities has the answer next time some motorist hits you with the "you cyclists aren't paying your share for my roads" argument.

Todd Litman, of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, has sifted through the current data on walking, cycling and motoring for this paper: Whose Roads? Evaluating Bicyclists' and Pedestrians' Right to Use Public Roadways.

The 31-page document is jammed with data about who wins and who loses when more people walk or bicycle.

For instance, homeowners win: house prices are 15.5 per cent higher, on average, in communities deemed to be walkable. Property values also rise the closer they are to walking trails. Store owners win: since bicycle parking is space efficient, each square metre of bicycle parking generates five times as much consumer spending as a square metre of vehicle parking. Ironically, cyclists lose (when there are more cyclists) because the funding for local roads comes almost entirely from the local tax base. Everyone pays into that pot relatively evenly, so it turns out that cyclists are subsidizing motorists.

Next time a motoring acquaintance appears to be ready to drop that old chestnut about cyclists and their fair share, step on his voice, and let him know who the real freeloader is.

When you count cyclists, they count

This post from the CBC Ottawa website is a reminder that statistics are a powerful force in making bicycle infrastructure decisions.

The item posted Tuesday night was about the one-year anniversary of the two-year pilot project for segregated bike lanes on Laurier Avenue. The installation of the lanes was not without controversy, as recalled in this 2011 story from the Ottawa Citizen.

One of the telling points from the first year is the number of cycling trips logged so far. The bike lane has a counter (which you can see online), and at the publication of the post Tuesday night, had recorded more than 365,000 trips in the first year. At this writing, the total is 368,429. (More than 50,000 trips were recorded for May of this year alone, the highest monthly total for the project so far.)

Having this kind of easily accessible data does three things: it affirms the decision to launch the pilot project (build it and it will be used); it encourages other people to give it a try (wow, 2,500 people a day can't be wrong); and it lets cyclists know that they really do matter to municipal officials. They count us; we count.

Planning some major bicycle infrastructure project? Think about ways to measure its impact. Council members are swayed by statistics. Prove that it is being used, and you will have their support.

 

Fossil fuel formula: more cyclists means more gas available for trucks

Here's what I haven't yet heard being said here at Velo-city Global 2012 in Vancouver: we're all going to have to look at bicycles more seriously because we're running out of gas.

Hans Michael Kloth, secretary general for the Paris-based International Transport Forum (of which Canada is a member), came the closest, in both addressing the audience of 800 urban planners, cycling advocates and manufacturers on Tuesday and in a media briefing later. (See also this intvu with Julian Ferguson of the European Cyclists Federation.)

The ITF is interested in the Big Picture of global commercial transport. Aviation access, maritime shipping, road and rail transport infrastructure: these are the big issues for the ITF. Frankly, whether a bike lane is pulled from a street or added to another, is the plankton of the ocean that this fish swims in.

So why was Kloth here at a cycling advocacy forum anyway?

It's sort of the elephant in the room: peak oil. At some point (and some say the point has passed), we are going to reach peak oil, and how is declining oil production going to square with rising economic expectations, especially from the developing world.

To the Velo-city Global audience, Kloth spoke of the global rebooting of bicycle share programs. (See this graphic from the ITF that shows the number of cities and number of bike-sharing bicycles in play in the world right now.) Kloth urged the audience to seek from their municipal leaders a creative vision for cycle planning.

In his later discussion, Kloth said international transport needs a flexible system, and spoke of a "transport cocktail" that would include cycling as a part of many "ingredients." He spoke also of the co-operation that will be required of all parties to make effective global transporttion choices.

The short version: do you want to have five cars on the road each carrying a single person to work, or do you want two trucks on the road carrying food and supplies that keep the homes and offices of those workers, working? Is those five people are going to have to leave their cars at home, how are they going to get to work. Mass transit, car-pooling, cycling.

Suddenly, all the plankton is really important to the planet's bigger fish.

Will be a new cycling voice, or just another cycling voice?

Toronto MP Olivia Chow chaired the first meeting of a fledgling cycling advocacy group on Monday here in Vancouver, but it remains to be seen if it will be a new voice or just another voice.

Tentatively called Canada Bikes, Cycling's National Voice, the group has between 20 and 30 members, some of whom participated in person because they are here in Vancouver for Velo-city Global 2012, and some who phoned in.

I talked with longtime cycling advocate, former national cycling team member and children's author Laura Robinson and Richard Campbell, vice-president of a Vancouver-based cycle infrastructure consultancy.

Both are excited about Canada Bikes, and hope it will work with other regional cycling advocacy groups in Canada to create a national voice that can be heard at the federal cabinet level. The group has a wide range of skill sets, from lawyers to academics, from Vancouver to Nova Scotia.

What it doesn't seem to have, yet, is the commitment necessary from the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, Active and Safe Routes to School, the Toronto Cyclists Union or any other group that advocates for non-competitive cycling in Canada.

Here's hoping no noses are out of joint for not being at the table for the first meal.