AT-Network September 2015

at-network@lists.umanitoba.ca

6 participants
16 discussions

Wpg Sun: Public asked to weigh in on active transportation projects (Sept.11'15)

by Beth McKechnie

Public asked to weigh in on active transportation projects http://www.winnipegsun.com/2015/09/11/public-asked-to-weigh-in-on-active-tr… The city is calling on the public to weigh in on three pedestrian and cycling projects. The city is hosting community consultations on three separate planned projects and looking for public input. The projects will target pedestrian and cycling improvements in downtown, West Alexander, and northwest Winnipeg. “These projects will make it safer, easier and more enjoyable for Winnipeggers to walk or ride a bike,” Scott Suderman, the city’s transportation facilities planning engineer, said in a statement. “They will improve transportation options for citizens of all ages and abilities, while ongoing public consultation will ensure the input of local stakeholders will be taken into account in the design of each project.” The projects are part of the pedestrian and cycling action plan that city council approved in May. The downtown project is a bike lane system that aims to connect The Forks to the Exchange District; in West Alexander, a pedestrian and cycling corridor would connect McPhillips Street to Sherbrook Street; and the third project would take an existing hydro corridor and create a pathway in the northwest region of the city. More information can be found at winnipeg.ca/walkbikeprojects.

8 years, 7 months

Ciclovia count anyone?

by Anders Swanson

Last year there was a coordinated count at a few locations along the Ciclovia route using CounterPoint <http://counterpointapp.org> our designed-in-Winipeg traffic counting app. I am curious what it will be like one year later. I'll personally be doing one for fun in the Mostyn-Balmoral-Westminster corridor, since I am convinced it would be Winnipeg's next great protected bike lane. *If anyone is planning on attending Ciclovia, has a smartphone, and wants to do a count from 1-3 at one of the counterpoints along the route, send an email to info(a)counterppointapp.org <info(a)counterppointapp.org>. * You can even try out the new gender bike count <https://www.facebook.com/CounterPointApp/photos/a.206350762875837.107374182…> and get some interesting results on the gender split instead. Or settle in and have some beers while counting bikes along the Sherbrook protected bike lane. You can even try one the following sunday to look for the dramatic difference. You might find that counting traffic is kinda fun, and certainly interesting to watch the all; the different types of people go by. Cheers, Anders CounterPoint/ManyFest Steering Committee

8 years, 7 months

Why is kids' bike safety soaring?

by Beth McKechnie

Very interesting Friday reading (with lots of graphs!) from the U.S. on the number of kids walking and biking compared with the 1970s, and the plummet in youth biking fatalities. Surprisingly, it's *not* because kids are biking less. Read on: http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/why-is-kids-bike-safety-soaring-it… cheers, Beth -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/> <http://canadahelps.org/>

8 years, 7 months

Provincial climate change job posting

by Beth McKechnie

*Senior Policy Analyst* PM3 Program and Policy Analyst 3 Regular/full-time Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship Environmental Stewardship Division Winnipeg MB Advertisement Number: 30607 Salary(s): PM3 $60,314.00 - $75,804.00 per year Closing Date: September 14, 2015 Preference will be given to women, Aboriginal people, visible minorities and persons with a disability. Conservation and Water Stewardship is seeking a qualified candidate to fill the position of Senior Policy Analyst position. Qualifications: *Conditions of Employment:* · Must be legally entitled to work in Canada. · Must have a valid full stage Manitoba Class 5 Driver's Licence · Must be willing and able to travel throughout province and occasionally outside of Manitoba (Canada and the United States). *Essential Criteria:* · Post secondary education in Environmental Studies/Sciences, Political Sciences or an Economic related field, with related experience. An equivalent combination of education and experience may also be considered. · Experience developing, implementing, managing and providing recommendations on complex projects and programs. · Strong written communication skills including experience preparing correspondence, reports and position papers with a high degree of accuracy. · Strong verbal communication skills including experience facilitating presentations to the public and stakeholder groups. · Strong interpersonal skills, including experience fostering collaboration and partnerships with a variety of internal and external stakeholder groups. · Strong research and analytical skills. · Experience working independently with strong organizational skills, including the ability to prioritize workloads, multi-task, and work on concurrent assignment with strict deadlines. · Strong political acumen. · Experience working with local, national and international climate change issues and trends including mitigation and adaptation. · Experience working with Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. · Knowledge of legislation, policies and programs relating to climate change in Manitoba, including knowledge of key Green House Gas emitting sectors and sources in Manitoba. *Desired Criteria:* · Experience managing change and projects horizontally across multiple departments. Duties: This position is responsible for providing support cross-coordination of provincial climate change policy and programs and function as the cross-department lead on policy and programs that impact multiple government departments, agencies and Crown corporations. The incumbent will be an active member of regional and national committees and working groups related to federal climate change regulations. They will provide advice to senior officials on policies that could potentially conflict with climate change policy objectives. Apply to: Advertisement # 30607 Civil Service Commission Human Resource Services 300-305 Broadway Winnipeg, MB , R3C 3J7 Phone: 204-945-8615 Fax: 204-948-2193 Email: govjobs(a)gov.mb.ca *When applying to this advertisement, please indicate the advertisement number and position title in the subject line and body of your email.* Employment Equity is a factor in selection. Applicants are requested to indicate in their covering letter or resumé if they are from any of the following groups: women, Aboriginal people, visible minorities and persons with a disability. We thank all who apply and advise that only those selected for further consideration will be contacted. Your cover letter, resumé and/or application must clearly indicate how you meet the qualifications. http://jobsearch.gov.mb.ca/search.action

8 years, 7 months

AT Webinar: Shared Streets, Slow Streets - Wed, Sept 16, 2-3pm, EcoCentre

by Beth McKechnie

Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg invite you to join us for a local viewing of the following APBP webinar: *Shared Streets, Slow Streets*. Should be a good one. The webinar viewing takes place in the EcoCentre boardroom (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) and will be followed by group discussion of local applications. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth ** * * * ** Shared Streets, Slow Streets *Wednesday, Sept. 16th, 2-3pm, EcoCentre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Boardroom* Learning objectives: - Understand the theory behind Sustainable Safety, which has driven widespread adoption of 30-km (20 mph) zones in the Netherlands - Identify the principal elements necessary to design successful 30-km zones - Examine how design standards might be revised to allow for new spatial forms in North America This webinar explores the Dutch theory of Sustainable Safety (similar to Vision Zero) and the engineering and design principles underlying 30-km zones that permit different modes to share the streets safely. The session includes examples of shared street projects in North America, where these design principles have been adapted to local contexts. Sustainable Safety is a safe systems approach used in the Netherlands to prevent serious crashes and severe injury. This approach has reduced fatal traffic crashes by 30 percent between 1998 and 2008. As the details of Vision Zero initiatives are being developed, North American planners can learn from the mistakes and successes of the Dutch. The presentation introduces the underlying principles of Sustainable Safety and focuses on the design and engineering tools used to create streets where different modes can mix at speeds safe for all users. Case studies with both good and bad examples of 30-km zones are included; presenters also discuss examples of shared streets in North America. *Presenters*: - Dick van Veen, MSc. Eng, MSc. Arch, Mobycon BV - Brice Maryman, Senior Landscape Architect, SvR Design

8 years, 7 months

The Economist: Cities are starting to put pedesetrians and cyclists before motorists (05Sept2015)

by Beth McKechnie

Some inspiration leading up to our own Ciclovia <http://www.manyfest.ca/#!ciclovia/cbu2> happening Sunday, September 13, which for the first time will include a car-free route for Winnipeggers to bike, walk, inline skate, skateboard or whatever from Kildonan Park to The Forks in addition to the car-free route from The Forks to Assiniboine Park. Thanks to Dan Prowse for sharing this article. * * * * * Cities are starting to put pedestrians and cyclists before motorists. That makes them nicer—and healthier—to live in http://www.economist.com/news/international/21663219-cities-are-starting-pu… AT 6am on a sweltering Sunday the centre of Gurgaon, a city in northern India, is abuzz. Children queue for free bicycles to ride on a 4km stretch of road that will be cordoned off from traffic for the next five hours. Teenagers pedal about, taking selfies; middle-aged men and women jog by. On a stage, a black-belt demonstrates karate; yoga practice is on a quieter patch down the street. Weaving through the crowd dispensing road-safety tips is a traffic cop with a majestic moustache. Gurgaon’s weekly jamboree is called Raahgiri (“reclaim your streets”). Amit Bhatt of EMBARQ, a green think-tank, started it in 2013, inspired by Bogotá’s ciclovia, pictured above, for which Colombia’s capital closes 120km of streets on Sundays and holidays. Such events are part of a movement that is accelerating around the world. Cyclists and motorists have never liked sharing the road. In “A Cool and Logical Analysis of the Bicycle Menace”, P.J. O’Rourke, a car-loving comic, grumbles that “one cannot drive around a curve” without meeting a “suicidal phalanx” of “huffing bicyclers”. Casey Neistat, a New York cyclist who was fined $50 for not riding in a bike lane, made a film of himself crashing into some of the unkindly parked cars that so often make that impossible.From Guangzhou to Brussels to Chicago, cities are shifting their attention from keeping cars moving to making it easier to walk, cycle and play on their streets. Some central roads are being converted into pedestrian promenades, others flanked with cycle lanes. Speed limits are being slashed. More than 700 cities in 50 countries now have bike-share schemes; the number has grown by about half in the past three years. Many cities are exploring ways to keep petrolheads and pedalophiles apart. Over 100, particularly in Latin America, close some roads to cars on weekends. Paris is leading the way in Europe, closing over 30km; Dublin and Milan plan to banish cars from their centres. Even Los Angeles (a city Steve Martin, a comic actor, satirised by getting in his car to drive three paces to his neighbour’s house in “LA Story”) recently announced plans for hundreds of miles of bus and cycle lanes. In the rich world, these measures follow improvements in public transport—and congestion charges and other policies that make driving and parking in many cities a misery. The number of cars entering central London has dropped by a third since 2002. Three-fifths of Parisians owned a car in 2001; now two-fifths do. And some people are shifting from public transport to walking or cycling: a fifth as many journeys in London are now made by bike as on the Underground; 15 years ago, only a tenth were. All this makes cities safer and nicer, planners say. London hopes to attract footloose talent this way, says Isabel Dedring, its deputy mayor for transport. The International Transport Forum, a think-tank, predicts that by 2050 the world’s roads will have to cope with 2.5 billion cars and light trucks, three times as many as today. Almost all the growth will be in developing countries. Some cities are building rail and subway systems; others are creating rapid-bus lanes. India plans to expand or launch rapid transit in 50 cities. But safety is often neglected. The best way to get more people walking is to slow down traffic citywide, says Guillermo Peñalosa of 8 80 Cities, a Canadian lobby group. Slower traffic makes neighbourhoods quieter and safer. More than 80% of pedestrians hit by cars moving at 65kph die; at half that speed only 5% die. A 25mph (40kph) speed limit went into effect in New York last year. London recently cut the speed limit to 20mph on more than 280km of its roads and is getting rid of pedestrian-unfriendly giant roundabouts. In September Toronto will slow down traffic on more than 300km of its roads. Four wheels bad, two wheels good In cycling, Amsterdam and Copenhagen are the pacesetters, with a third of trips made by bicycle. More than half of Amsterdam’s residents use their bikes daily. London, New York and Paris all have plans to challenge them. All three cities are expanding their bike-share schemes and building new bike lanes, some on quiet roads with new, lower speed limits for cars, and others running through central areas and separated from motorised traffic. Such schemes can quickly convince more people to start pedalling. They are particularly popular with women, who transport planners say are more nervous than men about sharing roads with roaring traffic and typically make up less than a quarter of urban cyclists. In 2007-2010 the Spanish city of Seville built an 80km network of separated two-way bicycle lanes; the share of trips in the city that were by bicycle went from nearly zero to 7%. In Taipei few women cycled before its YouBike share scheme started in 2009; now they are half of the city’s cyclists. Bike-shares are spreading out beyond city centres and being linked with public transport, says Kevin Mayne of the European Cyclists’ Federation. In Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands some schemes are run by the railways. More than 100 cities have smartphone apps that show which docking stations have bicycles available. Riders of Copenhagen’s GoBike can plot routes and check travel bookings from an on-board GPS. Both bikes and public transport are more likely to be used when bike racks are placed on the front of buses, as in Boston and Washington, DC, and secure parking is provided at rail stations. In 2014 Britain’s transport ministry looked at recently built cycling and walking infrastructure in eight cities. Standard cost-benefit analyses for planned transport infrastructure include a value for the lives saved (or lost) through changes in the number of accidents. Using the same figures for the lives prolonged by increased activity, it found that the cost of the schemes was repaid three-fold—and again in reduced congestion. London’s authorities calculate that if every Londoner switched to walking for trips under 2km, and to cycling for trips of 2-8km, the share who got enough exercise to remain healthy simply by getting around would rise from 25% to 60%. That would amount to 61,500 years of healthy life gained each year. Even once-a-week exercise fiestas can boost health. A 2009 survey of participants in Bogotá’s Sunday ciclovias found that 42% of adults did as much exercise during the event as the World Health Organisation recommends for a week. (It ranks Colombia the world’s most sedentary country: see article <http://www.economist.com/news/international/21663218-sedentary-living-has-r…>.) Only 12% would have done so otherwise. Yet the health gains from walking and cycling rarely feature in transport plans—partly because the benefits are reaped by national health ministries (and the people who get fitter, of course), rather than the cities that build the infrastructure. Britain is trying to align incentives better. Last year London’s transport authority published a “transport health action plan”: a ten-year scheme, backed by £4 billion of government money, that will redesign streets along lines recommended by public-health experts. And the country’s National Health Service (NHS) wants to help cities that are building cheap housing complexes to include health-promoting features, such as cycle routes and playgrounds. As rich cities are, at last, undoing their past planning mistakes, activists in developing ones are trying to ensure that they are not repeated. They are lobbying for safe walking and cycling routes as well as better public transport, and for traffic laws to be enforced—before pollution and inactivity take their full toll. Convincing officials preoccupied with keeping cars moving can be tough: “This won’t work here,” one told Mr Bhatt when he proposed the*Raahgiri *and other ways to make Gurgaon’s streets more pedestrian-friendly. He persisted, getting 200 schoolchildren to cycle up to the city administration’s headquarters to demonstrate public support. His team has since also convinced the city to paint cycling lanes at the side of some streets; barriers will soon protect them from cars. One user is Dilip Grover, a 62-year-old manager of a small firm. Not having cycled since college, he rediscovered its joys after hopping on a free bike at the Raahgiri. He now cycles 10km to work. The Raahgiri has changed attitudes, he thinks: many drivers also participate and now think twice before honking at a pedestrian or jumping a traffic light. It is a small start. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/> <http://canadahelps.org/>

8 years, 7 months

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AT-Network September 2015