Take The Lane

I wore my helmet in Copenhagen's morning commute

I wore my helmet in Copenhagen's morning commute, and I was not alone.

Actually, there were quite a few riders wearing what look like Nutcase-style helmets, and a few wearing the multi-vented wonders like the one I have.

Perhaps the reason that they don't make it into Mikael Colville-Andersen's Cycle Chic blog is that, frankly, they aren't that chic, although I would argue that the wonderfully personalized Nutcase-style helmets are tres cool.

And to offer full disclosure, I did not wear my helmet Tuesday night as I rode around the grey-goose-filled marshlands northeast of where my hosts live. Very pretty area, quite the mix of bike trails, including segregated lanes, gravel trails and some lanes of uncertain parentage. I was out for a half-hour or more, and never once felt that the god of helmets would strike me dead, although I did dearly miss my helmet-mounted rear-view mirror.

This morning, I took my loaner bike into the heart of the city, learning a few things about bicycling protocol, such as the old-style North American right-hand-turn signal means "Stop" over here. To turn right, extend your right arm, or your right upper arm, or your right hand, or just don't bother. Ah yes, insouciant chic...

Are lower urban speed limits in our future?

Here’s a plan that would drive motorists in Waterloo Region, or Canada, crazy: Lower the speed limit to 30 km/h for all urban road users.

Actually, you might wonder if something like that is in the wind anyway, what with the visions of traffic circles that have dominated the thinking of regional traffic circles.

Accidents are more severe at speed. We know that. So does John Whitelegg, a professor of transportation studies from John Moores University in Liverpool, and professor of sustainable development at University of York's Stockholm Environment Institute. He spoke Tuesday on the Co-Benefits of Cycling at the afternoon plenary session of Velo-city Global 2010, at the Oksnehallen in downtown Copenhagen.

Outside, a raft of Bixis for use by the conference goers.

Inside, exhibits from various infrastructure-related displays and the lecture area, in a huge former cattle barn and auction building (with its white-washed walls and vaulted ceilings, it reminded me oddly of the Kitchener Farmer’s Market). On stage, Whitelegg entertained and intrigued as he, and his five doppelgangers on the big screens in front of a crowd of nearly 1,000, finished off the first day of this global cycling conference.

He told the crowd that at 64 km/h, only five per cent of pedestrians/cyclists will survive being hit by a motor vehicle. At 48 km/h, that survivability rate jumps to 45 per cent. At 32 km/h, a staggering 95 per cent of peds and cyclists will survive.

You drop the speed, more people live. You drop the speed, more leave hospital after treatment. More walk out by themselves. Lower physio costs, less insurance liability. Across the board, the cost of transportation drops.

And isn’t that the same argument that regional traffic planners are using for roundabouts? The cost of day-to-day transportation is greater with traffic-light-controlled intersections. There are more accidents in roundabouts, but because roundabouts force traffic to adopt lower speeds, the type of injuries are less severe. The fatality rate is nearly negligible.

So here’s my theory: traffic planners are already looking at 30 km/h for urban motoring. Sure, the limit’s 50 km/h now “unless otherwise posted.” Just consider how many neighbourhoods have applied and received the new 40 km/h traffic-calming limits. Sounds like the thin edge of the wedge to me.

Any day now, there will be a proposal before council to make all urban roads safe for all road users, and the key to that safety will be lower speed limits. Get your earplugs ready for the whining.

Whitelegg had lots more to say. Here’s a sampling:

What would a city look like if a senior citizen wasn’t afraid to go out in it.

There’s no good in building a three-kilometre bike path with a sign at one end that says this is where the path begins and a sign at the other end saying this is where it ends, cyclists please dismount.

Cyclists save money for governments. Healthier (less demand on health care). Transportation infrastructure has a smaller footprint.

A typical male motorist spends 1,600 hours a year or the road or gathering resources to allow himself to be on the road, and travels only 12,000 kilometres, which is an average speed of eight kilometers per hour. You can ride faster on a bicycle.

Try tell that to a guy with a hot Acura.

Want to live well? Cycle

You know that cycling is good for you. What is also good for you is data to back up that knowledge when you are verbally jousting with your motoring co-workers.

So thanks to Vekso of Denmark, which is one of the many companies that will be flooding the media with press releases about the benefits of cycling at Velo-city Global 2010 in Copenhagen. The conference begins Tuesday, but Vekso was first out of the gate today, with a news release on cycling and mortality, based on research by Lars Bo Andersen, a University of Southern Denmark professor with an extensive pedigree in Danish fitness research. USD is based in Odense, itself a cycle-friendly community.

Andersen found that adults could improve their fitness level by 15 per cent by cycling at least 20 minutes a day at a slow pace for eight weeks. Essentially, an easy ride to work.

Vekso said the research showed that the mortality rate could be lowered by up to 28 per cent by incorporating regular cycling into everyday life.

The key phrase is "physical inactivity," which was defined as less than 2.5 hours per week of moderately intensive physical activity. The results applied to Danish men and women, but you could just as easily substitute "Canadian" for "Danish."

According to Andersen's work, physical inactivity accounts for 20 per cent of all Danish deaths. Inactive Danish men can lose up to eight mobile years of life; Danish women up to 10 mobile years. Up to 40 per cent of all Danes are inactive, which will have consequences for the health care system farther on.

According to Vekso, Odense struggled mightily from 1999 to 2002 to increase bicycle usage, and while increasing cycling by 20 per cent, realized a health care savings of 4.5 million euros. Pretty impressive numbers.

Vekso started out making bicycle racks, but has expanded into bicycle consultancy. No surprise it would be interested in such numbers. We all want to live longer, healthier and lower-cost lives. We should be interested in such numbers, too.

Nice vid about cycling in Copenhagen

Here's a slick vid meant to encourage cycling in Denmark's capital city.

Do I take my helmet to Copenhagen?

I can really kick the hornet's nest by taking my bicycle helmet with me to Copenhagen.

If you cruise Copenhagen Cycle Chic or similar blogs, you might come to believe that no one in Copenhagen wears a helmet. Cycle Chic author Mikael Colville-Andersen might have a slightly skewed vision of Copenhagen cycling: most of his visuals are of fashionable women, with great clothes and no helmets.

Even the trailer videos for Velo-City Global 2010, available for viewing on the Velo-city website or at Copenhagenize, the extremely informative blog that is Colville-Anderen's alternate cycling persona, show very few cyclists with helmets. 

The Arizona-based One Street cycling advocacy group will have a rep at Velo-city (executive director Sue Knaup), interestingly enough volunteering at the European Cyclist Federation booth opposing the demonizing of cycling through mandatory helmet laws. You can read some of the One Street arguments here.

I read one comment that suggested you can tell a North American cyclist in Europe by the helmet.

But since I'll be wearing a Maple Leaf of some sort wherever I go, I guess I want to be identified as a North American. And since I have been comfortably wearing a bicycle helmet since 1978, I suppose I can somehow find a place for my Giro Pneumo in my already somewhat-crammed luggage.

Hello, hornet's nest.

GTA communities sadly absent from cycling conference

Wonderful and ironic that Gil Penalosa from Ontario's 8-80 Cities cycling non-profit will be one of the two speakers in the final day morning plenary at Velo-city Global 2010 in Copenhagen next week.

Wonderful that the message of this GTA-based agency that promotes healthy communities through cycling and walking is being used to consolidate the messages from the previous three days of the conference, and energize the hundreds of participants who will take those messages home to their own communities around the world.

Ironic that no one who controls the purse strings for cycling infrastructure from the GTA, or from anywhere in Southern Ontario for that matter, will be there to hear it.

As I posted recently, the largest contingent of Canadian municipal mandarins and politicians (eight) will come from the Ottawa-area. Of the 32 Canadians (including media) going, there are also municipal officials coming from Vancouver and Calgary. But Southern Ontario? Nada.

Penalosa's group, formerly known as Walk and Bike for Life, has been a consulting agency for active transportation transformation in several Ontario municipalities, including Halton Hills, Caledon, Burlington, Oakville and parts of Mississauga. The message he brings is that "Cycling is not an end in itself . . . cycling is a means to create a vibrant community."

He says that municipalities, and bicyclist-voters are stuck in a mindset where "we get excited about getting a bike lane or a bike rack. We have to get beyond that. We need to establish cycling networks."

Southern Ontario is not utterly unrepresented. Yvonne Bambrick, of the Toronto Cyclists Union and Eleanor McMahon, of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, will both be there.

But the people who actually propose or approve the cash for cycling infrastructure in Toronto, the GTA and the rest of the very bikeable Southern Ontario won't be.

Penalosa was disappointed: "The Ottawa group -- they will come back transformed by this experience. We should be having 30 people from the GTA going. The best investment they could make in bicycling infrastructure is to go and see what can be done."

If they can't witness this potential future with their own eyes, maybe at least, they can spend some time reading the conference summaries.

New Waterloo-area cycle tour will test the fit

The weather should be good Sunday for the inaugural Tour de Waterloo.

There's a story in the Waterloo Region Record today about this ride, organized by local cyclist Malcolm Steven to support Grand River Hospital. There are two routes: 70K or 130K. With distances like that, you know this is not your average charity fund-raiser. Steven says it is not a race, but is for the "serious road cyclist or recreationally fit cyclists..." Riders will leave Kitchener's Kiwanis Park this Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and cruise through parts of Waterloo Region and Wellington County before returning.

A good way to keep Dad busy while the rest of the family makes preparations for a Father's Day barbecue.

You can get more details at the ride's website.

Casino town bans bicycles to protect its motoring visitors

This has got to be a joke: a Colorado casino town has become the first in America to ban bicycles.

About 10 minutes after I posted on businesses and bicycling, I saw this story at work, and couldn't believe it. To protect its motoring casino patrons, the town of Black Hawk, Colo. has adopted a bylaw that bicyclists must dismount and walk their bikes through town. See the AP story here.

Already the pro-cycling forces are gathering to fight this ban. So far, eight $68 tickets have been issued. 

The only thing goofier than this was a few years back when Shanghai moved to ban bicycles from its core, so there would be more room for cars.

Please, give yourselves a shake.

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Cyclists are good for business: they have more spending money than motorists

It seems odd that some business people should argue for car infrastructure over bicycle infrastructure when it is likely that cyclists are their better customers.

You've heard the arguments: we can't remove parking to create bicycle lanes, it's bad for business. A plan for a segregated cycling lane in Ottawa has apparently run into opposition from business and some neighbours, since parking spaces will be removed and motor vehicle traffic reduced to one lane. Must blindly serve the motorist, because motorists are our source of revenue, the poor, misinformed businesspeople say.

But car ownership is a huge money suck. According to the CAA website, owning and driving a car can run around $8,110 a year. Assume that the car owner instead rides a bicycle for the everyday errands, buys a monthly bus pass for commuting and rents a car one day a week every other week for those trips to the beach or to Toronto, then her/his annual transportation costs will be about $2,540.

That would mean Cyclist A would have $5,570 more to spend on non-transportation costs than Motorist B. That would be a big-screen TV, perhaps. Books. Wine. Some sharp clothes to wear on the bus. That stackable washer-dryer set. You get the picture.

Convert, say, 1,000 Waterloo Region motorists into cyclists and suddenly you have $5.5 million more dollars diverted from the joys of car ownership into the disposable income to be spent at businesses that have nearby bike lanes or good bicycle parking.

I thought business people liked customers with disposable income. Encouraging cycling infrastructure would be a way, not just to attract them, but to create them.

Cycling advocates begin to head to Copenhagen

It's still a little more than five days before the opening session of Velo-city Global 2010 in Copenhagen, but delegations, including one from Canada, are already making their way there.

Velo-city, sponsored by the European Cycling Federation, is drawing more than 800 participants from almost every continent to the CPH Conference centre and Oksnehallen in central Copenhagen. Starting next Tuesday, bicycling advocates, municipal planners, federal officials, politicians and cycling consultants will meet in plenary sessions to talk about such big issues as cycling as an expression of freedom and democracy (co-led by Canadian urban planner Lake Sagaris) and the global status of cycling initiatives (led by former Bogota mayor Enrique Penalosa), and will break off into smaller groups to discuss bike share programs, cycling in cold climates, road safety and public sector-private sector cycling initiatives.

It wraps up with a lunch and handshakes on Friday, and reps from the League of American Bicyclists, the Toronto Cyclists Union, Velo Quebec, and Cyclenation UK, councillors from the cities of Nairobi, Dublin, Ottawa, Gdansk, and Helsinki, and municipal officials from Nicosia to Boulder, Colo. will take home ideas and inspiration for cycling in their communities.

The biggest Canadian contingent comes from the Ottawa-area. The National Capital Commission, the City of Ottawa and the City of Gatineau are sending eight people, including Ottawa Coun. Jacques Legendre (Rideau-Rockcliffe), who chatted with me before he left today. Some members of the Ottawa-area group are going to Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Berlin before arriving in Copenhagen next week. The intention is to see how cycling has been developed and integrated into these world centres, and apply those lessons to Ottawa.

(In response to the municipal presence, the Ottawa media are sending four people to cover the contingent  -- two from Radio-Canada, one from LeDroit and one from the Ottawa Citizen.)

I would certainly have counted Ottawa among the more cycle friendly communities in Canada, bu Legendre says that the NCC and the municipalities in the area are "revisioning" their future, and seeing an even greater role for cycling in it. Particularly after last year's highly publicized Ottawa accident where a van plowed into a group of riders (previous post here), and then the horrific fatal crash this May in Quebec (previous post here), municipal politicians are looking to make cycling safer for its citizens.

Legendre says the other factor is that the Ottawa-area is finally putting some cash into cycling/pedestrian infrastructure, including bridges. Once you build bridges for cyclists and pedestrians, you are committed to spending cash on the additional infrastructure.

Part of that infrastructure planning was a study this year for a segregated bicycle lane through the city, much like the one in Montreal. There has been opposition to this plan, especially from the business community. That's part of the reason for the media presence as the Ottawa-area politicos enter the den of cycle-advocates.

As for himself, Legendre is not a fanatic cyclist. He sees himself as an "average person" on a bicycle, and he's looking for ways to make the streets safer for "the ordinary cyclist."

"We're trying to see what Copenhagen did (to develop cycling). Copenhagen was 30 years ago where we are now," he said. 

In fact, from 1970 to 2005, the number of people using their bicycles as their primary mode of transportation in Copenhagen has more than doubled, from 8,000 (in rush hour) to 20,000, while the number of cars in the same time period has dropped to 18,000 from 23,000. More people ride their bikes in rush hour than drive their cars!

It's an inspiring model for cycling advocates, and part of the example that the Ottawa-area delegation hopes to learn more about.