Take The Lane

Waterloo cyclist counter just the beginning of bike data collection

Today's story in The Record about the new bicycle counter on King Street in Waterloo could be just the beginning of cycling infrastructure data collection in the region.

One has to look no further than this article in the European Cyclists' Federation newsletter, which discusses the first year of a cycling congestion alert system in Copenhagen.

Yes, my two-wheeler friends, cycling congestion is a thing. It was a thing back in 2011, when this article appeared in The Guardian newspaper,  about how the explosion of Copenhagen cyclists, both tourists/visitors and cycle-enthusiastic residents, was threatening to overwhelm that city's widely lauded cycling infrastructure.

The North American response to traffic congestion is pretty much always to build more lanes for cars, and we know how well that has worked out. The Danes, wisely, looked for other options, and last year, tested an electronic updating system that provides real-time bicycle traffic updates, alerting commuting cyclists (and other riders) to upcoming cycle congestion and suggesting alternate routes.

The ECF article concludes that cyclists want the same kind of infrastructure commitment that motorists get. As planners on this side of the Atlantic absorb this, expect to see more cycling information signs on your favourite routes.

These postal delivery vehicles belong in bicycle lanes

I thought it was amusing to read the Toronto Star story that ran earlier this year, about how Canada Post vehicles are the worst offender for those ticketed for parking in Toronto bicycle lanes.

While my partner and I were in France this fall, I was delighted to see postal vehicles that absolutely belonged in bicycle lanes.

 

This is a La Poste France delivery bicycle, ridden by a 40-something woman who was delivering small parcels and letter mail in the plaza near where we were staying in Caen.

She said the rugged, electric-assist bicycles are equipped with weather-proof bags, and are ideal for navigating some of the narrow streets in the old French city of about 110,000 people. She said there are about 100 of these bicycles servicing the community.

Now, here is an option for mail delivery in urban areas. Ottawa could look to this as a creative way to reduce its carbon footprint, as well as legitimizing bicycles (in the eyes of motorists) as part of our everyday road user community.

The World is coming to Milton and hardly anyone knows

Here's a secret known largely only to people in competitive cycling: world-class athletes and Olympic medal holders will be in competition this weekend in Milton.

The Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Dec. 1-3) at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre (aka, the Milton Velodrome).

I am totally pumped to have my parking pass for the Friday events, where I will be joining members of Cycling Canada to promote Canada's national cycling education program, CAN-BIKE. Cycling Canada is expecting to spread the good news about cycling to the 1,400 Grade 6 and 7 students from southern Ontario who will be visiting the facility during the events Friday.

This Milton event is the third round of the five-round event. The world's best track cyclists — from Canada, Great Britain, U.S.A., Australia, France, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Ukraine and China, among others — started this process in Pruszkow, Poland, then went on to Manchester, England, are bringing this event to Milton this weekend (for the first time that Canada has had the opportunity to host the Track Cycling World Cup), and continue on to Santiago, Chile, in the new year, and then the final round in Minsk, Belarus.

The Friday events include qualifying rounds, heats and finals for the men's and women's points race, and qualifying rounds for the team pursuit.

If you have never experienced the excitement of watching highly toned athletes translate their raw power into speed on a banked tank, you should come. The tickets are shockingly affordable: as little as $6 for seniors for a morning session.

You were wondering what to do Saturday or Sunday. Get a ticket.

 

Cyclist blamed for his own death on the road

On the surface of it, it seems as though Ross Chafe, who was hit head-on and killed by a motorist charged with drunk driving while Chafe was on a recreation ride on B.C.'s Sea To Sky Highway on May 31, is being blamed for his own death.

Chafe, who was riding with two other cyclists at the time, one of whom, Kelly Blunden, was also killed, was an experienced cyclist, former Canadian cycling team member in several World Championships. Cycling Canada issued a statement about the death and his cycling involvements at the time.

The motorist, Samuel "Farmer" Alec, 43, of Lillooet, B.C., was eventually charged with criminal negligence causing death, impaired driving causing death, driving with a blood alcohol level over 0.08, and failing to remain at the scene of an accident. He already had three convictions for impaired driver. A passenger in his car, 52-year-old Paul Maurice Pierre also died in the accident.

Once the charges were laid, Chafe's family launched a wrongful death lawsuit against Alec and the owner of the car.

So far, pretty much as you might expect. Person dies at hands of another, charges laid, lawsuit filed.

It took an odd twist Wednesday when the CBC reported that the Insurance Commission of British Columbia (ICBC) had entered as a third party into a lawsuit, arguing that Chafe might have been impaired, or might have been riding without the proper care and attention, thus sharing the blame in his own death.

This report was followed shortly by one from the Vancouver Province, saying that the ICBC had withdrawn the references to impairment, but still argued that Chafe may have contributed to his own death by having poor brakes, not being as close to the edge of the road as possible, and, somewhat incredibly, not alerting the driver that an accident might be imminent.

As you might guess, the cycling community is stirred up about this.

The ICBC is reported as saying that all avenues have to be explored in a civil proceeding. For me, it just sounds like a case of trying to blame the victim.

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.

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.

Hey politicians! Pay attention to this editorial.

Thanks to The Record for an editorial on the Cycling Death Review that takes a balanced approach to the review by looking at the suite of suggestions from the Ontario coroner about how to make cycling safer in Ontario.

Now if we can just get our elected officials to become long-term planners rather than quick-fix seekers, perhaps there will be real change on our roads.

 

Dead cyclists are today's hot topic, but what about tomorrow?

You could tell right away that the Cycling Death Review, released today in Toronto, would be a trending topic with the mainstream media.

I showed up 30 minutes early for the press briefing at Xeriscape Park at the corner of Grosvenor Street and University Avenue in Toronto and there wasn't a parking space to be found. CTV, CBC, CityTV and the lot had filled up the street, and the hottest part of this little treed square bordered by the Whitney Block and the Mowat Block in Queen's Park.

Pretty good-sized crowd at the briefing, with camera crews, print media, bloggers, cycling advocates and others. And although the review was passed out prior to the briefing and, in theory, everyone could have just taken off to read it and post their thoughts, pretty much everyone stayed to listen to chief coroner Dr. Andrew McCallum; Toronto West regional supervising coroner Dr. Dan Cass; Share the Road Cycling Coalition's Eleanor McMahon; Patrick Brown, who stood for a number of road-user groups, including Cycle Toronto, 8-80 Cities, Hoof and Cycle and United Senior Citizens of Ontario; and Toronto Police Service Const. Hugh Smith, himself a Can-Bike examiner and co-founding member of the Toronto police cycle patrol.

Can't blame the Toronto media for turning out in droves: bicycling has been a hot-button issue for the Toronto media, esp. with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's battle against the so-called "war on cars" and all the buzz about adding and removing bike lanes.

McMahon addressed some of the vitriol, by speaking against the "overheated and irrational environment" that now exists, so over-heated that politicians are trying to figure out what they can do to please cyclists without alienating motorists.

McMahon said that cycling safety is "not a bicyclist versus motorist issue. It is us, it is we. We are all trying to navigate roads that are becoming increasingly crowded."

She might have pushed the envelop a bit too far when she said that "all Ontarians want this to change." Well, clearly, some Ontarians don't want it changed. They are happy with roads full of cars, and bicycles relegated to parks and multi-use trails that are out of sight and out of mind.

She moderated that later, but pointing out that "many" Ontarians want a better cycling environment. The "blame game is not an acceptable refuge," she told the gathering, inviting politicians to stop criticizing and make roads safer for all users.

Hers was the most political, and most passionate, of the addresses. But we'll need more than passion to make change in Ontario. We'll need commitment of cycling advocates and others to take this review and do something with it. Time to hold our politicians' feet to the fire.

Dutch firm enlarging its stake in cycling

The growth of the European cycling economy continues. This story from Reuters suggests that the venerable Raleigh brand is close to joining the stable of the ever-growing Accell Group, based out of Heenrenveen, The Netherlands.

Accell is already one of the largest bicycle makers in the world, producing 850,000 bikes under the marks of Staiger, Ghost, Mercier, Batavus, Redline, Torker and Bianchi (the Turkish Bianchi). Seems to me that Raleigh would have great name recognition in English-speaking cycling circles. The Dutch company make see the name as a selling point in the U,K., Canada and the U.S.

Acording to the Reuters piece, part of the reason for the acquisition would be to bolster Accell's move into electric bikes. The e-bike revoution is upon us.