Bicycle policy
Putting cycling solutions into motion
DANIEL GRAVENOR
Tired of frantically trying to avoid hitting cyclists when driving down the road, or being almost hit by vehicles trying to squeak by you? Want to end downtown demonstrations and clear up rush hour traffic? It is time to address the issue of cycling and cyclists.
A Primer
Wikipedia states that cycling has been around since about 1885, and remains a choice method of transportation for millions. It does not pollute, gives the rider financial, physical, and mental freedom, and will survive the personal automobile by centuries if not millennia. In many places across Europe and Canada, cyclists share the road with motorized vehicles. Cyclists, like motorists, pay into infrastructure budgets through their income taxes, and are allocated funding as such.
However in Winnipeg, cyclists are stuck between a rock and a car place, to the disappointment of motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians alike. It is illegal to ride on the sidewalk, but there is not an adequate provision of infrastructure for cyclists on city streets. Cyclists are forced to share the road with motorists, with the resulting traffic routes being insane for drivers not wanting to hit cyclists, unsafe for cyclists who do risk it, and an inability to cycle for those who do not want the risk. As the demonstrations and multiple letters to the editor of local media have shown, something needs to be done.
European cycling
European cities lead the way in bicycling and bicycle infrastructure design. They have created and enjoy city-wide bike lanes, and in some cases nation-wide bike networks. They have public bicycle storage facilities throughout their cities, many of which have lockers for gear, and legislated workplace shower rooms for large businesses. It is not uncommon to see piles of bikes on street corners at storefronts, and a steady stream of cyclists on city streets.
With large amounts of cycling it is also no wonder these cities lead the way in bicycle education. Several cities implement a mandatory training in safe cycling by the third or fourth grade, and people must pass a policeadministered test to show that they can cycle safely before riding on the streets.
Canadian cycling
Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City, and Vancouver all have some form of bicycle infrastructure network. All of these cities have extensive bike lanes in their downtown cores, and some have bike lanes and paths throughout most of their entire cities. The province of British Columbia gave $1.5 million per year from 1995-2004 for cycling infrastructure, while Vancouver’s TransLink transit authority will be investing $15 million with matching funds from municipalities.
Since the creation of the 1995 official bicycle policy, Quebec provided $89 million from Transports Quebec, and $180 million from other government agencies and municipalities towards cycling infrastructure, leading to a total of about 7,000 km of bikeways province-wide.
The province of Ontario has provided little funding for cycling infrastructure, but the cities have largely picked up the slack. Ottawa has 10,000 bike racks throughout the city, while Toronto has a North America-leading 14,500 bike racks! All these cities have also made some policies to integrate bike infrastructure on buses, and incentives for businesses to provide bicycle-related facilities to their workers.
Cycling in Winnipeg
Cycling infrastructure hardly exists in Winnipeg. We have bike paths in some parks, and a couple of paths have been added with new development in the past couple years in the periphery of the city. However, we have no dedicated bike lanes, few locking facilities downtown, and no comprehensive city-wide bike network. We spend roughly $175,000 a year on pedestrian and cycling infrastructure combined, but spend about $47,000,000 a year on the roads. We also do not have any public policy in effect which indicates infrastructure should be built, nor do we have a policy to create a plan to uniformly address cycling issues as a whole.
The proposal
Winnipeg should first create a series of public dialogues with interested cyclists, urban planners, and city officials, to fully address the needs of cyclists, much like the recent “Bike to the Future” event held at the U of W. Through these discussions we can pool our collective knowledge to determine where a city-wide bike network could go, what main arteries could be expanded or simply repainted to include bike lanes, where new bike locking facilities could be built, and how to educate cyclists and motorists alike on their respective responsibilities.
The next step would be to have the city and the province get together to develop cycling legislation, policy, and bylaws prior to cycling infrastructure development. In Canada, the province has the duty of developing the province-wide Highway Traffic Act, which then determines what types of bylaws and policies that the city can implement municipally.
This would include updating the Highway Traffic Act section on cyclists to explicitly give them adequate rights and responsibilities for riding on roads, sidewalks, and bike paths — many other cities have done so to reduce the confusion. It would also include policies for creating mandatory bike lanes of certain dimensions on major thoroughfares when they are built or renovated.
Once we know how to accommodate cyclists, we need to dedicate funds towards implementation of the policy. Given the amount of money other Canadian cities have spent on cycling, $500,000 a year would be a fair starting point — vastly more than we have done in the past, but not by any means unreasonable.
Lastly, motorists and cyclists alike should get into motion and support such initiatives for they will create a more equitable, safe, and free Winnipeg.
If you are interested in sharing your information or holistically discussing topics such as this, please register for free and visit the Holistic Earth website at http: //holisticearth. org.
Daniel Gravenor is a fourth-year environmental studies student at the University of Manitoba.
