http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/transport/cycling-health-and-safety_9789282105…
Many jurisdictions around the world are trying to retain or increase the
share of cycling in urban traffic in order to benefit from the many health
and transport efficiency benefits. Safety is a key concern and should be
accounted for in these policies.
This report of the International Transport Forum's Cycling Safety Working
Group monitors international trends in cycling, safety and policy, and
explores options that may help decision makers design safe environments for
cycling. Key messages relate to strategic goal-setting for cycling policy
and managing crash risks while increasing health benefits. The report also
discusses how to better capture crash and bicycle usage statistics. The
safety impacts of a wide range of pro-cycling measures are examined in
detail.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/12/15/conservatives-new-enemy-bikes/No
LMjnocHg28jZ4hw3F4oI/story.html
Conservatives' new enemy: Bikes
The bicycle is emerging as a new conservative front in the culture wars.
Even before Toronto Mayor Rob Ford became internationally famous for being
videotaped smoking crack, he was known as a City Hall version of Bluto
Blutarsky of "Animal House"-swearing in public, proudly overeating, guzzling
booze. His boorishness is so conspicuous and well documented that it raises
the question: Who elected this guy? And why?
The answer, in large part, comes down to transit. Ford is famously pro-car,
and his strongest support came from suburbs outside downtown Toronto, where
voters drive into the city during the day and return by car in the evening.
One political scientist found that the strongest predictor of whether
someone voted for Ford in the 2010 mayoral election was the person's method
of commuting: Car commuters were Ford voters; everyone else wasn't. Ford
repaid their loyalty by declaring on his first day as mayor that the "war on
cars" was over; he abolished the vehicle registration tax and announced a
plan to kill light rail in the city simply because, he said, streetcars "are
just a pain in the rear end."
But Ford reserves special venom for the menace called the bicycle. He is
perhaps the most antibike politician in the world. In 2007, he told the
Toronto City Council that roads were designed for only buses, cars, and
trucks. If cyclists got killed on roads, "it's their own fault at the end of
the day," he said. He compared biking on a city street to swimming with
sharks-"sooner or later you're going to get bitten." He once summarized his
views in City Hall succinctly: "Cyclists are a pain in the ass to the
motorists."
This all might seem kind of crazy-the rantings of an unmuzzled Canadian
demagogue better known for his disastrous personal habits. But in his
antipathy for bikes, Ford appears to be part of a trend. Particularly in
America, the bicycle is emerging as a new conservative front in the culture
wars. In May, Wall Street Journal commentator Dorothy Rabinowitz called
bicyclists "the most important danger in the city"; in Colorado's last
governor's election, a Republican candidate said a local bike-sharing
program "could threaten our personal freedoms." A columnist for the
conservative Washington Times declared D.C. bike-sharing programs to be
"broken-down socialism"; radio pundit Rush Limbaugh said he "won't care" if
his car door knocks over a cyclist.
Cyclists who have struggled for years to attract political attention might
be surprised to hear themselves talked about as an insidious new social
force. But they can also see it as a kind of welcome-a recognition that for
better or worse, they have, politically, arrived.
In some ways, the bicycle seems profoundly unsuitable as a political
lightning rod. True, zero-emission transport is a kind of liberal dream, but
the bike is also an icon of self-sufficiency, designed for use by
individuals who rely on themselves for upkeep and mobility. Republican
Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush all were
photographed on their bicycles. The bike has managed to stick around for
over a century without joining the likes of organic vegetables and the Prius
as symbols of holier-than-thou progressive snobbery.
But as health and government officials have begun peddling bicycles as
healthy, environmentally responsible alternatives to cars, and cities and
towns spend money on new bike infrastructure, conservatives have started to
sense a new target. They have begun to deploy "the bike" as a bogeyman in
political debates-cast in a role anywhere from physical annoyance to a
genuine threat to the American way of life.
The most common target of critics has been the new city bike-share programs,
an idea imported from Europe that has turned out to be wildly popular in
Boston, New York, and elsewhere.
In an antibike-share video commentary titled "Death by Bicycle," The Wall
Street Journal's Rabinowitz described New York as "a city whose best
neighborhoods are absolutely-begrimed, is the word-by these blazing blue
Citibank bikes," while the reporter interviewing her helpfully offered that
the bikes were also a "fire hazard" and observed that "New York is not
London, or Paris, or Amsterdam."
But Rabinowitz's deeper cavil is that bikes represent an assault on American
freedoms. Her description of the bike lobby as an "all-powerful enterprise"
might sound a little breathless, but is echoed elsewhere. Dan Maes, a
Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2010, declared efforts to
boost cycling to be "part of a greater strategy to rein in American cities
under a United Nations treaty." When Rush Limbaugh suggested that injured
bikers deserve what they get, it was because they're victimizing auto
drivers by forcing them to yield to others.
Ford acted on his promises to crack down on the biking nuisance, ripping up
existing bike lanes in an attempt to help return his supporters to the
freer, pre-bike world he promised them. The removal cost the city $300,000,
and, according to Canada's National Post, ended up saving commuters just an
average of two minutes each way.
There's an element of demographic realpolitik to the conservative antipathy
to bikes. Cyclists-and especially bike commuters-are statistically more
likely to be city residents, and thus more liberal than those living in
suburban and rural areas.
But as the commentators' language suggests, the bike fight is really just
another proxy battle in the American culture wars. Washington Times
columnist Charles Hurt declared D.C.'s bike-sharing program to be favored by
"commune enthusiasts." The program's red bikes, he wrote, weren't suitable
for manly men, only for "these so-called 'metrosexual' males everybody keeps
talking about."
As political ideas fracture along cultural lines, pundits and politicians
are finding cyclists to be a convenient new "them" in the eternal us-them
struggle. Even if conservatives don't all agree that riders are
metrosexuals, they "see bikers as obnoxious, rude hipsters," says Sam
Schwartz, former New York City traffic commissioner.
Conservative politicians know that simply opposing causes like
environmentalism appeals to the base. At the extreme end, this leads to some
positions that almost defy belief-"I love that smell of the emissions," said
the former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, while riding a
motorcycle-but bikes represent more of an everyday rebuke, a quiet reminder
that your car isn't the only way to get around.
In this respect, Rob Ford isn't just a mess. He is a visionary-perhaps the
first candidate to win an election in part by fanning public annoyance at
those reckless, entitled, tax-and-spend bicycle riders. As new bike lanes
make their slow incursions into downtown traffic patterns, it's reasonable
we can expect more such victories. It might seem frustrating for bike
supporters, but there is one consolation: In politics, you get attacked
because you matter.
"There's been a huge increase" in the number of bikers, says Schwartz, who
put in New York's first bike lane in 1978. "The love affair with the car is
over for young people." After decades of unquestioned, highway-sponsored
dominance of cars, bikes are finally becoming-even if just on the
margins-something big enough to push against. Just ask Rob Ford. Or don't.
He'll tell you anyway.
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2013/12/-and-after-guide-safer-stree
ts/7867/
A Before-and-After Guide to Safer Streets
In the past decade or so, New York has seen a considerable decline in
traffic fatalities (30 percent since 2001) and an even more dramatic
decrease in the risk of serious injury among cyclists (72 percent since
2000). At the heart of these public safety achievements is better street
design. City streets are far from perfect, but as officials have reduced
space for cars, they've improved mobility for everyone.
Last month, the New York City Department of Transportation released a
brief-but-handy guide [PDF
<http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/dot-making-safer-streets.pdf> ]
that uses before-and-after design renderings to illustrate five basic rules
for street safety. The report calls its comparisons "the largest examination
of the safety effects of innovative roadway engineering conducted in a major
American city, or perhaps any city globally." That's a tall claim, but
there's no question that the five lessons embedded in these images merit
notice from urban communities near and far.
1. Make the street easy to use. The idea here is to reduce the complexity of
a given intersection in the eyes of all travelers. A safer city street will
trade long, indirect crosswalks for shorter crossings and pedestrian
islands. Removing low-volume legs from the traffic cycle will reduce wait
times for everyone and eliminate complicated (read: dangerous) turns.
Clearer lane designations - for left-turns and through traffic alike - make
the whole intersection more predictable.
(See PDF for images)
2. Create safety in numbers. Counter-intuitive as it can seem, the
safety-in-numbers effect suggests that more pedestrians and bike riders
actually make streets less dangerous. Bike lanes are the obvious way to
bring riders to an intersection, while islands, mid-block crossings, and
direct pedestrian routes can do the same for walkers. Giving signal priority
to pedestrians gets platoons of people in the streets before cars have the
chance to turn.
(See PDF for images)
3. Make the invisible visible. Clear sight lines can improve a street's
safety significantly. Curbs lined with parked cars can make it hard for a
turning vehicle to see what's in another part of the street. That problem
can be addressed by removing some of the parking spaces closest to the
corner - a process called "daylighting," which increases visibility
considerably (so long as parking enforcement is strict). Curb extensions
that bring pedestrians further into the street have a similar effect.
(See PDF for images)
4. Quality over quantity. Street engineers like to give cars as much space
as possible
<http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/12/transportation-planning-la
w-every-city-should-repeal/636/> , but removing lanes to reduce the
complexity of an intersection can actually improve traffic flow. A jumble of
un-designated lanes with competing signals has the potential to become much
more congested than an intersection that bans complex turns and creates
right-angle corners. Pedestrian plazas that take the place of former lanes
can enhance visibility and the safety-in-numbers effect.
(See PDF for images)
5. Look beyond the problem. Expanding the area of traffic analysis can
unlock solutions across a wider wedge of the street system. Redirecting
traffic to another part of the local network, for instance, can help
decongest crowded intersections without eliminating important routes.
Sometimes the best street design is really a corridor design.
(See PDF for images)
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/home_family/mass-high-te
ch-startup-launches-device-that-transforms-any-bike-into-an-electric-hybrid-
236330091.html
Mass. high-tech startup launches device that transforms any bike into an
electric-hybrid
In this Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013 photo, Assaf Biderman, co-inventor of the
Copenhagen Wheel and Associate Director of the SENSEable City Laboratory at
MIT, poses with his invention at Superpedestrian, his venture-backed company
in Cambridge, Mass. The Copenhagen Wheel is a human/electric hybrid bicycle
engine built into a bicycle's back wheel. Pre-orders for the Copenhagen
Wheel are being taken with delivery expected by May 2014. (AP Photo/Stephan
Savoia)
In this Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013 photo, Assaf Biderman, co-inventor of the
Copenhagen Wheel and Associate Director of the SENSEable City Laboratory at
MIT, poses with his invention at Superpedestrian, his venture-backed company
in Cambridge, Mass. The Copenhagen Wheel is a human/electric hybrid bicycle
engine built into a bicycle's back wheel. Pre-orders for the Copenhagen
Wheel are being taken with delivery expected by May 2014. (AP Photo/Stephan
Savoia)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A Massachusetts startup is launching a new device that
transforms almost any bicycle into an electric-hybrid vehicle using an app
on a smartphone.
The device, called the Copenhagen Wheel, is installed as part of a rear hub
of a bike wheel and is packed with a proprietary computer, batteries and
sensors that monitor how hard a rider is pedaling and activate an onboard
motor whenever support is needed. The device uses wireless connectivity to
communicate with the biker's smartphone to track distance travelled and
elevation gained, share with friends the number of calories burned and lock
the wheel remotely as soon as the owner walks away from the bike.
"The motor integrates itself with the rider's motion very, very seamlessly,"
said Assaf Biderman, who co-invented the device at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's SENSEable City Lab, where he is associate
director. "It's almost like having a riding companion riding together with
you, making the ride easier, simpler."
The combination of power from the Copenhagen Wheel and the cyclist's energy
can make an average biker move "almost like a Tour-de-France-level athlete
in your daily commute," said Biderman, who founded Cambridge, Mass.-based
Superpedestrian Inc. that secured an exclusive license for the technology
from MIT.
The Copenhagen Wheel packs sufficient power to propel a rider as fast as 60
kph (37.28 mph), but developers have put speed limits in software to meet
local speed limits, effectively turning off the motor once the speed reaches
20 mph in the U.S. and 25 kilometres in Europe.
The concept was inspired by a simple question: "How can we get more people
to cycle?" Biderman said.
The project received funding from the Italian ministry of the environment
and office of the mayor of Copenhagen, a Danish city known as one of the
most bicycle friendly locations in the world and whose tourism website says
55 per cent of its residents bike 1.2 million kilometres (750,000 miles)
every day.
The initial 1,000 units of the Copenhagen Wheel became available for
pre-order through the Superpedestrian website earlier this month. Two weeks
later, at least 810 had been sold for $699 each, the majority of them to
customers in the U.S. Other orders went to Europe, Australia, Kenya,
Madagascar and elsewhere. Shipping is scheduled for next spring.
The Copenhagen Wheel does not replace a cyclist's existing bicycle.
Consumers get the stylish hubcap-sized device already installed on a new
rear wheel that fits their current bicycle. They remove the current wheel
from their bike and install the souped-up unit and they are ready to go. The
batteries are rechargeable.
The Copenhagen Wheel seeks to tap into a lucrative and highly competitive
market for electric bikes, also known as e-bikes.
In a recent report, clean-technology consulting company Navigant Research
estimated that worldwide revenue from electric bicycles will grow from $8.4
billion this year to $10.8 billion in 2020, fueled in part by desire for a
viable alternative to increasingly congested city roads that makes crawling
in car traffic less palatable.
In the U.S., the trend is reflected in Census Bureau data showing the number
of bicycle commuters rose 60 per cent in the decade ending in 2010.
"Over the past few years we've seen a cycling renaissance throughout the
world," Biderman said. "People are looking for alternatives."
Dreaming of a bike Christmas Cycle of Giving volunteers work 'round the
clock to make Christmas more shiny for 250 kids
By: Kevin Rollason
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/dreaming-of-a-bike-christmas-2359782…
More than 250 children whose families wouldn't be able to afford to buy a
bike will be getting refurbished ones under the Christmas tree thanks to an
army of volunteers at a 24-hour bike-repair marathon.
Volunteers organized by WRENCH, which stands for Winnipeg Repair, Education
and Cycling Hub, were able to refurbish more than 250 bikes during its
third annual Cycle of Giving bike-building marathon during the weekend.
"It's nice to think of that child who will get a bike all shiny," volunteer
Kate MacKay said Sunday as she put the final touches on a small, purple
two-wheeler a young child could soon be riding. "There's few things as
rewarding as teaching a kid to ride a bike. It's a confidence-builder and
it is an important step.
"I've been volunteering since noon and I will be here next year and the
year after," MacKay said.
For 24 hours starting Saturday at 6 p.m., the gymnasium inside the Orioles
Community Centre at 448 Burnell St. was transformed into a bicycle repair
shop.
Pat Krawec, WRENCH's executive director, said 900 bicycles were taken out
of the Brady Road Landfill earlier this year and brought to the community
centre. The bikes included kids bikes, tricycles, 10-speeds, and mountain
bikes.
"The bikes that need the least work go first," Krawec said. "If you're
going to put out 250 bikes that work well, you don't have time to work on
something that's been in a landfill for a year-and-a-half already or used
by someone's big brother."
At one end outside the community centre, hundreds of bicycles sat in snow
waiting to be worked on. At the other end of the centre, repaired bikes,
cleaned and shined, were parked back into the snow before being picked up
by several organizations, including Newcomer Employment Education
Development Services (NEEDS Inc.), which will distribute bicycles to
immigrant and refugee children, youth and families they support.
Krawec said the volunteers include mechanics from bicycle repair shops and
ordinary Winnipeggers who fix their own bikes.
He said bicycles not repaired now will be taken to be fixed up by inmates
at Headingley Correctional Centre and then distributed across the province.
Nearby, Richard Helbig, a science and mathematics teacher at Hugh John
Macdonald School, an inner-city junior high school -- who also runs an
after-school bicycle repair club -- said it's great to be able to fix so
many bikes.
"I'm mostly making sure everything on it is tight -- it's probably better
now than when the first owner took it home," Helbig said.
Across from him, two students, 13-year-old John Nai and his 15-year-old
brother, Jack, said they appreciate coming in to help other children get a
bicycle.
"It's great -- last year I got a bike so I know what it's like," John said.
"It's fun -- I enjoy doing this and helping out," Jack said.
On the other side of the room, past boxes full of bicycle seats and other
assorted parts, Jayson Gillespie was using a special tool to tighten the
spokes on the wheels of a tricycle. When not on his knees repairing a used
tricycle, Gillespie is coach of the Manitoba Provincial Cycling team.
"This is different than the high-end bikes we use," Gillespie said
laughing. "These have had lots of wear and tear. But you can ride this in
the basement -- you don't have to ride it outside."
WRENCH is still accepting monetary donations at thewrench.ca or by mailing
a cheque to the WRENCH, 1057 Logan Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R3E 3N8.
kevin.rollason(a)freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 16, 2013 B1
[ Calling policy, health and/or active transportation professionals:
If you are willing to stay up a bit late, (or get up a bit early) next
Tuesday, you have a unique opportunity to participate in an online seminar
on how to use the World Health Organization's Health Economic Assessment
Tool (HEAT).
In Europe especially, policy makers and planners are using HEAT as a go-to
population-level health benefit assessment tool for determining the return
on investment of various programs and capital projects. At VeloCity 2013 in
Vienna, the importance of this tool was underscored numerous times,
especially during the political panel, in discussions of budgeting.
Thanks to the European Cycling Federation newsletter for sharing the
opportunity. You can sign up to ECF's newsletter here:
http://www.ecf.com/category/newsletter/
Kindly,
Anders ]
"*This tool is designed to help you conduct an economic assessment of the
health benefits of walking or cycling by estimating the value of reduced
mortality that results from specified amounts of walking or cycling.*
*The tool can be used in a number of different situations, for example:*
- *when planning a new piece of cycling or walking infrastructure.*
HEAT attaches a value to the estimated level of cycling or walking when
the new infrastructure is in place. This can be compared to the costs of
implementing different interventions to produce a benefit–cost ratio (and
help to make the case for investment)
- *to value the reduced mortality from past and/or current levels of
cycling or walking*, such as to a specific workplace, across a city or
in a country. It can also be used to illustrate economic consequences from
a potential future change in levels of cycling or walking.
- *to provide input into more comprehensive economic appraisal
exercises, or prospective health impact assessments.*
For example, to estimate the mortality benefits from achieving targets
to increase cycling or walking, or from the results of an intervention
project.
- "
*Tuesday December 17th 10:30am Central European Time*
*Sign up here:*
http://heatwalkingcycling.org/index.php?pg=training&id=
*More info on how HEAT is used for walking*
http://heatwalkingcycling.org/index.php?pg=walking&act=introduction
*More info on how HEAT is used for cycling*
http://heatwalkingcycling.org/index.php?pg=cycling&act=introduction
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-leonard/biking-to-work_b_4426504.html?
view=print
Why You Should Never Bike to Work
I have biked everywhere within 4 miles of my apartment in the past 5 years,
including every job I've had -- I've never had to drive to work in Denver. I
find riding a bicycle exhilarating, but that's no reason for you to think
you should. In fact, here are 9 reasons you shouldn't bike to work. I'm sure
you can think of others.
9. It's too dangerous.
Can you imagine being out there on a bicycle with all these crazy drivers
flying past you, nothing to protect you except a plastic and styrofoam shell
on your head? You could get killed. The absolute best thing is to stay in
the protective cage of your car, because no one's ever been killed when
they're inside an automobile. Driving is safe.
8. You have to wear a tie to work. Or a suit. Or a skirt.
Not only that, it's important to wear your tie/suit/business casual attire
from the moment you leave your house in the morning until the moment you get
home. There is no conceivable way you could leave some clothes at your
office, and change into them after you ride your bike to work, two or three
days a week. Plus, your suit/tie combination is so dialed, you can't just
spread your tie collection out over two locations. Where the hell is my
cornflower blue tie? I need to see if it looks good with these shoes. And
like there's some way to ride a bike in skirt or a dress?
<http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/2009/06/cycling-in-skirts-and-dresses-cy
cle.html>
7. You have to go to the gym after/before work.
What, are you supposed to carry all your work materials and your gym clothes
in a tiny little backpack on a bike? Please. I mean, what, bike to work,
then bike to the gym, then get on the stationary bike for 45 minutes, and
bike home? Ridiculous. What are you, Lance Armstrong? I guess you could just
ride your real bike, and stop going to the gym, but we're Americans. We work
out indoors.
6. You can't show up all sweaty and smelly for your job.
It is a proven fact that once you have sweated from exercise, you can never
recover until you get into a shower or bath and rinse it off. Also a fact:
Human sweat is comprised of more than 90% fecal particles, which is why you
smell like a hog confinement instantly after you start exercising, and
afterward, when the people next to you on the Stairmaster are passing out
like they've just been chloroformed. It's not like you could take a shower
at the office, after all, or use Action Wipes to wipe off when you get to
work to mitigate that smell. Your co-workers will be all, "Bob, what the
hell did you do, bike to work today? It smells like somebody's gutting a
week-old deer carcass in your cubicle."
5. You don't have the right bike for it.
The only bike you own are your Trek Madone, and your single-speed 29er,
neither of which will work. You'd have to go out and buy a dedicated
commuting bike, which start at, what, $1,200? Ask those day laborer guys who
bike to work every day on secondhand Huffys and Magnas -- they're not cheap.
4. You can't be wearing a bike helmet and messing up your hair before work.
Fact: Hair products are not portable, and are not designed for use outside
of your home bathroom or a hair salon. And let's face it: Your hairstyle is
a work of carefully crafted art, not something that can be rushed in 5, 10
or even 30 minutes in some modern office restroom. You spend a long time on
your hair, just like Tony Manero
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viCYkduSzaU> . You can't just throw it all
away on a bike ride.
3. The route from your home to your office would be suicide on a bike.
There are no bike lanes, no shoulders, no wide sidewalks, no nothing on the
roads from your home to your office. What, are you supposed to find other
roads to ride on, like lesser-traveled, lower-speed-limit roads through
residential areas? Or detour way out of your way to get on a bike path? No
thank you. You don't have time for that shit.
2. What if it rains?
Yeah, Mr. Hardcore Bike Commuter, what if it rains? You're supposed to just
ride a bicycle home from the office through a downpour? What are you
supposed to do when you get home, looking like a sewer rat? This is a
civilized society. Thanks to umbrellas, sprinting from your car to your
office, and sometimes holding a newspaper above your head, you haven't
gotten wet outside of your shower since 2007. Next thing, someone's going to
tell you that you have to carry a rain jacket in your bike commuting bag --
maybe pants too. What the hell is this, a backpacking trip? You're just
trying to get to work on time.
1. You would have to change your routine.
Please. Give up your 45-minute drive into work, the drive that energizes you
for the day ahead? Give up interacting with all those other fun, friendly,
courteous drivers on the freeway? Sitting in traffic? Road construction?
Merging? Not a chance.
City committee sets January 2015 date for U-pass
By Bernice Pontanilla <http://metronews.ca/author/bernicepontanilla/>Metro
http://metronews.ca/news/winnipeg/879443/city-committee-sets-january-2015-d…
A city committee has endorsed an amendment to the 2014 budget that would
get the universal transit pass for post-secondary students, better known as
the U-pass, back on track.
The infrastructure renewal and public works committee held a special
meeting on the preliminary 2014 budget on Monday, during which several
students and councillors spoke in favour of the U-pass program.
Both student associations at the universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba held
votes where a majority approved paying a maximum of $200 and $180
respectively for the September-to-April pass as part of their university
fees.
These supporters had been hoping the program would start in September of
2014, however, that date has been pushed back to January of 2015.
Rorie Mcleod Arnould, vice president of the University of Winnipeg
Students’ Association, said the U-pass would be an investment for the
future, so waiting a few extra months isn’t a huge concern.
“The U-pass program is a long-term investment in not only our
post-secondary education system in Winnipeg, but our transit system in
Winnipeg,” said Arnould after the meeting.
“If we can get this done at the proposed term in January, then that would
make me very happy.”
The students still face an uphill battle, since both Dave Wardrop, director
of Winnipeg Transit, and Coun. Russ Wyatt, who chairs the finance committee
and attended Monday’s meeting, said a proposed semester pass is the better
option.
This semester pass, which will likely be over $200, would come into effect
when the Transit system moves to the smartcard model.
“I met with the students earlier this year as well, prior to the budget
being released,” said Wyatt, who has encouraged the students to find
dollars from sponsors.
“The challenge we have is right now we as a city do provide below the
national average post-secondary transit fares … our fares are very
economical, very competitive.”
Wyatt said as a municipal government, the city is not prepared to subsidize
post-secondary education and “that’s what this would be.”
Though Winnipeg needs more connected bike infrastructure before
contemplating a bikeshare system, here's an interesting guide on best
practices and latest technologies, such as stationless systems. Check out
the top 5 components of a successful system.
http://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/12/06/how-do-you-grade-a-bike-share-system/