Take The Lane

Velo-city Global 2012 approaches

If Velo-city Global 2010 in Copenhagen focused on the spirit of cycling, Velo-city Global 2012 in Vancouver is reconnecting with the financial benefits of cycling.
No surprise that, considering the bean-counting mentality of most North American decision-makers, or considering the current global economic climate.
To ignore the dollars is to ride blindfolded.
I expect that conference chair Paul Dragan, himself a bike shop owner, will direct some of the discussion to the economic benefits of investing in the cycling culture.
Make the right arguments, show the savings, and vote-conscious councillors will make the right moves.

Ontario set to compete with Route Verte

Further to last Sunday's post about the Ministry of Transportation study on road cycling to be unveiled June 17-19 at Trailhead Ontario, I've had a chance to look at the request for proposals (RFP) on the study for a provincial cycling route network, and the results will be good news for long-distance road cyclists and cycle tourism in Ontario.

Essentially, Ontario wants to catch up to Quebec, where the tourism-cycling network known as the Route Verte has been operating since 2007. The idea would be roughly to identify where cycling routes now exist in Ontario, where there are gaps that connect existing routes and how tourism agencies could develop or exploit these routes.

The group doing the study actually has a pretty broad mandate. After consulting with reps from Route Verte; the Waterfront Regeneration Trust (Ontario's Waterfront Trail); the U.K.'s National Cycle Network; the SwitzerlandMobility Foundation; a number of provincial ministries; at least 20 regional tourism organizations and an undetermined number of cycling support groups, the group is to recommend the critieria for the province to select routes to be included in a provincial cycling route network (both on-road and off-road); to determine which parts of Ontario would benefit from such a network; and give a short list of the areas that should be in the first phase of any development of such a network.

That's a lot of power in one study. Of course, it could be tossed aside with the next round of budget cuts. That the Ministry of Transportation plans to unveil it, first in Ingersoll and then in Vancouver at Velo-city Global 2012, suggests there might actually be some muscle behind it.

The RFP does not say what the cycle network would be called or who gets to name it. Your suggestions are invited.

 

 

Road cycling in Ontario to get a makeover

The Ontario is going to unveil its provincial road cycling policy June 17-19 in Ingersoll at Trailhead Ontario, a provincial conference for recreational trail planners, sponsored by the Ontario Trails Council.

As far as I can read from the website, the main reason for this event is to discuss the new Ontario Recreational Policy which was being re-examined last year (check this link). This seemed to be more of a Health and Sport Promotion ministry initiative, aka not about bikes on roads.

But a recent posting from Alan Medcalf suggests that the Ministry of Transportation consulted with the Ontario Trails Council about cycling infrastructure that would make roads more cycle-friendly, and while planning to announce its findings to the international audience expected for Velo-city Global 2012 in Vancouver, the Ministry is going to unveil its report at the Trailhead Ontario meeting in Ingersoll the week prior.

This could be big news for road cycling in Ontario.

 

Vancouver offers lessons to cycling planners

This article in the Vancouver Sun today -- Cycling can still be a risky business -- is a kind of sprawling mashup of a feature.

Having said that, it's a mashup that has lots of interesting bits in it, for cyclists in British Columbia specifically, for cyclists generally and even for cycling advocates in Waterloo Region. A few of those bits are:

-- A University of B.C. study, to be released later this year, shows that multi-lane roundabouts pose "a significant risk for cyclists," unless there is a dedicated cycling lane in the design. Something to remind the Waterloo Region planners as they consider yet another mega roundabout at Homer Watson Boulevard and Ottawa Street in Kitchener.

-- According to the Insurance Corp, of B.C., Vancouver is the worst place for cyclists, based on the number of insurance claims from 2006 to 2010 (3,164). Not surprising, since Metro Vancouver is the province's biggest metro area, at 2.3 million people. Metro Victoria, with a population of 344,000, weighed in with 413 insurance claims over the same period. Vancouver, as you likely know, is the site of Velo-city Global 2012 in June. While Vancouver officials will likely proudly display the area's many cycling amenities, the accident rate has to be a major concern.

-- The City of Vancouver has launched a pedestrian-cyclist safety awareness program called People are Fragile (be nice to the people, motorists).

-- A number of lawyers have advertised themselves as experienced to handle cycling-specific insurance claims. (Too bad they've acquired so much experience in cycling insurance claims.)

-- Vancouver's use of cycling traffic counters has given planners some real data: 60,000 trips a day by bicycle, with 3,500 cyclists commuting into the downtown every day. That's enough cyclists to fill 65 to 75 buses (and clearly, 3,500 cars!).

Have a look, harvest some facts, amaze your friends.

 

Is Ford's subway defeat a positive sign for cyclists?

Is the recent defeat of Mayor Rob Ford's transit plan a signal that Toronto councillors may become more open to plans to develop transportation alternatives in the country's largest city?

Gil Penalosa, head of 8-80 Cities and one of Canada's most prominent voices in walkable/ bikeable community building, doesn't think so.

Penalosa, who will be a major presence at Velo-city Global 2012 in Vancouver later this year, thinks this vote defeat is just an example of Mayor Ford's inflexibility: "He has lost two major votes. It just shows how stubborn he is. The first one was over $15 million in budget cuts. The City of Toronto has a budget of 9,000 million dollars. And they were fighting over $15 million. That's like if you have a household budget of $9,000 and you are fighting over $15. And he lost. This transit vote is an even bigger issue, and he couldn't come to a compromise."

Penalosa thinks that all parties involved, including the media, have done a poor job in framing the question. "It's not about LRT vs. subways, it's about how much can you get with a fixed amount of money. Do you want a subway on Eglinton and nothing on Finch, or LRT on Eglinton AND Finch?"

Penalosa says that from a municipal politics point of view, having the mayor lose two important votes is precedent-setting: "There has been nothing like this in the last 20 years."

But no precedents are being set for cyclists or pedestrians. "The mayor is not going to soften on the issues of cycling and walkers, and the majority of council is not interested in cycling and walking. Oh, there are few who are, but most are not.

"There won't be a focus on cycling when only two per cent of the population is cycling and 40 per cent are driving. We have to reframe the discussion, around issues of healthy lifestyle and environmental improvement . . . link cycling with transit."

But for the interim, he believes that cycling and walking remain on Toronto's back burner.

Velo-city online registration is open

The online registration forms for Velo-city Global 2012 Vancouver are now open.

At $1,000 a pop for delegates and speakers, this is a significant financial commmitment; the hope is that participants will come away with more than $1,000 in ideas, innovations, data, connections and enthusiasm for cycling options for thier communities. (See earlier post)

 

Velo-city Global 2012 extends deadline for papers

Although I had recently posted that the Velo-city Global 2012 final deadline for their call for presentations was Tuesday, Nov. 15, I was not apparently the only one who thought that the timeline from announcement to deadline was a bit short.

I just received an email from the organizers saying that the deadline has been extended to Friday, Nov. 25.

Velo-city Global 2012 is the world's biggest and most diverse cycling planning conference. There will likely be delegates in host city Vancouver between June 26 and 29 from every continent (OK, not Antarctica -- can penguins cycle?) who will come to talk about and to hear about cycling plans, cycling advocacy and cycling infrastructure.

The call for presentations is to bring advocates and researchers out of the woodwork.If you know someone who's a good talker or is elbow-deep in cycling research, send them to the call for presentations page.

As for registration, the online forms are still not ready.

 

Short timeline to commit to presenting at Velo-city Global 2012

Velo-city Global 2012 Vancouver has finally issued its call for presentations, and you'd better not take much time to think about it: the deadline is Nov. 15.

Velo-city Global 2012, to be held June 26-29 in Vancouver, will be the world's largest bicycle advocacy conference. The child of the European Cycling Federation, the 2012 event is one of the few to be scheduled outside of Europe. It will attract cycling advocates, planners, bicycle innovators and infrastructure suppliers from around the world.

Products are secondary to ideas. This is a clearinghouse for thinking, processes, imagination, experience. The call for presentations is the invitation for planners, researchers, developers, advocates and others to be part of the roundtables, workshops, research presentations and symposia that will be running concurrently through the four days. You can read about the various formats for presentation here. Of particular interest will be the PechaKucha events, sort of speed-dating for idea-sharing, where presenters of similar themes will be given 20 minutes and 20 slides to make their point and host a discussion.

For someone like me, this is a cycle advocacy candy store. In the course of my time at Velo-city Global 2010 Copenhagen, I acquired a bicycle buzz that buzzes still.

The call for presentations was to have been posted in September, but the Velo-city team has apparently been on the move and it wasn't updated until just recently. I got an email notice letting me know about it on Tuesday. I was told last month that the online registration would be open in November, and the website says that registration will open in November, but it hasn't opened yet.

Soon, grasshopper, soon.

Velo-City Global 2012 is looking for your input

If you want to speak to a global audience about such topics as the politics of bicycle advocacy, cycling and the green economy, how cycling can benefit the young and the old, or the argument for e-bikes or bike-sharing, Velo-City Global 2012 Vancouver offers that venue.

The June 2012 cycling hive is calling for papers. You can get the details here. If you are an alternative transportation specialist, a bicycle advocate, a graduate student doing research, or anyone with innovative ideas or concepts, Global 2012 will consider your paper for presentation at the four-day event.

I barely scraped the surface of Velo-city Global 2010 when I attended. Simultaneous seminars, presentations and demonstrations meant a rich stew of ideas (and hardly any down time to digest them). Having Velo-city Global in our own turf means there should be more Canadian input than ever before (even if flying to Vancouver and staying there is about as expensive as travelling and staying in the usual host countries in Europe).

Euro Cycle Federation launches new cycling advocacy club

The European Cycling Federation and various bicycle industry companies have used EUROBIKE as the venue to launch the Cycling Industry Club, a new bicycle advocacy lobby.

We have a bicycle industry lobby in Canada -- the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada, which advocates for cycling issues, but is primarily focused on the needs of its retail members. It's more about selling bicycles then selling bicycling.

This ECF initiative sounds a bit different. For one, it is soliciting donations from the cycling industry to create a one million euro pool to promote bicycle advocacy in the European Union. One goal for the new "cycling club" is to triple the number of cyclists in Europe.

Just in case you thought that Europe is the Shangri-La of cycling, they have the same problems we have in North America: congestion, pollution and too much dependence on a decreasing resource: oil. The difference is that they figured out during the oil crisis of the 1970s that they had to make chnages, while we in North America just decided that we'd get more oil (offshore, oilsands, Alaska).

But though you may have these mental images of a Europe awash in bicycles, that's just a myth. When 15 per cent of urban trips are by bike or foot, that means 85 per cent are by motorized transport. Even if the number of cycle trips was tripled, motor vehicles would still be the majority.

So, the ECF is pushing its cycling club, with support from Trek among others. A budget of one million euros is ambitious, and possibly unlikely. We'll know in a year.