- AT-Network - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Press and popsicles - 11am TODAY Disraeli AT Bridge for Commuter Challenge Kickoff
by Beth McKechnie 29 May '14

29 May '14

Need a break this morning? *Escape the office and join us for a press release <http://greenactioncentre.ca/living-green-living-well/2014-commuter-challeng…> and popsicles at 11 am on the south side (Rover Ave) of the Disraeli AT Bridge!* It's time to kickoff the 2014 Commuter Challenge! Hope to see you there.

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AT overpass - PTH 59
by Beth McKechnie 28 May '14

28 May '14

Please see message below from Terry Zdan... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Terry Zdan <tjzdan50(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 13:41:49 -0500 Subject: active transportation overpass The premier noted an active transportation overpass at the northeast Perimeter Highway and Raleigh Street/Gateway Road will also be built in conjunction with structures at the northeast Perimeter Highway and PTH 59 interchange, in order to connect the northeast Pioneers Greenway with the Duff Roblin Parkway Trail and Birds Hill Park. May 28, 2014 PROVINCE ANNOUNCES MAJOR HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENTS ALONG PTH 59 - - - Design Work to Begin Immediately On North Perimeter Interchange: Premier Selinger The Manitoba government will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs and upgrades along PTH 59 including immediately undertaking design work on the PTH 59 and PTH 101 interchange, major paving projects and bridge rehabilitation, Premier Greg Selinger announced today. "PTH 59 is a heavily travelled north-south tourist and trade route, and these road investments will improve the ride for heavy trucks and commuters," Premier Selinger said. "The new projects include bridge replacements and paving of this roadway to Birds Hill and the east side beach communities of Lake Winnipeg." Approximately $160 million was initially budgeted for PTH 59 work over the next five years, but even more will be allocated to PTH 59 with the completion of the PTH 59/PTH 101 interchange in the five-year period, the premier said. The project will see design and tendering take place over this year, with planned construction beginning in the fall of 2015 and completed over a three-year period, he said, adding the size of the interchange project is similar to CentrePort Canada Way and will be constructed along much the same timelines. -- Terry Zdan 126 Duncan Norrie Drive Wpg MB R3P 2J9 CANADA tjzdan50(a)gmail.com <tjzdan(a)gmasil.com>

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Active & Green: 6 guys & 1 van, It's Commuter Challenge time, Free transit
by Beth McKechnie 28 May '14

28 May '14

Check out our latest e-newsletter for all sorts of info and events on green commuting! (Click here <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/active-green/> if you'd like to subscribe or see past issues.) Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.<http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f55cc&id=852acefb0a…> *Looking to improve commuter options at your workplace?* Request resources<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>employee commuting surveys, secure bicycle parking, Smart Trips, and more. Register for free Creative Commuting Ambassador Training<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>sessions. Book a presentation<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>on creating a commuter friendly workplace, greening the workplace, and more. Rent our bike-powered blender<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>for your next workplace event -- always a hit! Feeling inspired? Check out these other pedal-powered<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>machines. Melissa Gayle-Smith from the University of Manitoba's Sustainability Office gives the bike blender a whirl. ------------------------------ *Upcoming Events* Commuter Challenge Kickoff!<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> 11am, Thurs, May 29 South side of Disraeli AT Bridge (Rover Ave) The W.R.E.N.C.H. Workshops<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> Bike Part Art, Sat, May 31 3 Speed Hubs, Sat, May 31 Hubs, Sat, June 28 Headsets, Sat, July 26 Frame Bending, Sat, August 23 Commuter Challenge Week<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> June 1-7, 2014 *Clean Air Day on the Bridge*<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> Wed, June 4, 2014, 7-9am NE corner Leg grounds near ped & bike signal on Osborne #busisbetter<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> The Downtown BIZ will be rewarding transit riders at different bus stop locations. Transit riders can help themselves to *FREE* Starbucks coffee and other coupons/vouchers from 15 different downtown restaurants and businesses. 7:30-9am, June 2-6 Mon: Main @ Broadway (Northbound) Tue: Portage @ Edmonton (Westbound) Wed: Graham @ Edmonton (Eastbound) Thu: Portage @ Donald (Eastbound) Fri: Graham @ Donald (Westbound) Bike Week Winnipeg<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> June 16-22, 2014 Includes 7th Annual Bike to Work Day on Fri, June 20 Bike Ride to Folk Festival<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> Wed, July 9, 2014 A Moveable Feast<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> June 19, September 27 ------------------------------ <http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> <http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> <http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> *6 guys, 1 van, great carpool* Meet Cody, Guy, Darrel C., Rick, Justin and Darrel F. In 2010, they bought a van together and have been saving money on gas and repairs by vanpooling to work ever since. Read their story<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> and collect a few tips to start your own carpool. *Commuter Challenge is on!* Need a reason to participate in the 15th annual Commuter Challenge<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>? Here are my top 4 reasons to take part: 1. I can see the difference I'm making by walking to work when combined with the efforts of 7,000 other participants in Manitoba and 25,000 across Canada. 2. I can see the money I’m saving, GHG emissions I’m avoiding, and calories I burn every time I add another day's commute. 3. I can gloat that I helped Winnipeg to win the Commuter Challenge for the 11th year. 4. ... and have you seen the prizes<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> ?! Register today<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> and tell us why you’re taking the Challenge. Also, if you're hosting an event at your workplace the week of the Challenge, let us know and send us your pictures<jessie@greenactioncentre.ca?subject=Events%20and%20pictures%20from%20Commuter%20Challenge%20week> ! *Try transit - FREE pass* Work downtown and want to give transit a try? You're in luck as the Downtown BIZ is giving away 250 FREE 5-day passes as part of the Bus is Better<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> campaign. Just in time to use during Commuter Challenge! Head down to the Millennium Library Desk to pick up a pass while supplies last. You might also be one of the lucky transit riders who gets a free coffee and other giveaways at a downtown bus stop June 2-6 during Commuter Challenge. *Take your brain for a walk* If you need an excuse to go for a walk, research is on your side. Researchers from Santa Clara University have found that going for a walk increases your creative thoughts<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>both during and afterward. Just to be sure, they put their volunteers to the test – walking indoors on a treadmill, walking outside, sitting inside a lab with no windows, and sitting outside in the fresh air. Without question, those who were walking (indoors or out), “...had more thoughts, but they also had a higher density of creative thoughts than sitters”, says Marily Oppezzo, lead author of the study. So if you need to do some creative thinking today, take your brain for a walk! *RRC takes the bus* Red River College has offered downtown employees a 60% EcoPass discount on monthly bus passes since 2012. This works out to a cost of about $33 per month for a staff bus pass - a much more appealing option than paying for parking downtown. The result? 84% of RRC staff at Paterson Global Foods Institute take the bus! Find out more on Red River College's Red Goes Green<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>blog. *Clean Air Day on the Bridge* Join us on Wednesday, June 4th, between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. to celebrate active and green commuting on Clean Air Day. All part of the week-long Commuter Challenge June 1-7! Stop along your way to work for a tasty snack, enter to win a great draw prize, get a quick adjustment on your bike, chat with other active commuters, and even register on the spot for the Commuter Challenge. Find details here<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> . *Bikes, bikes and more bikes* After this winter, there's nothing better than being out on your bike enveloped in warm sunshine. 'Tis the season for all things bike-related and here are our top 5. First and foremost, take in Winnipeg's annual celebration of cycling with a full week of activities during Bike Week<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> (June 14-22). Second, discover which Winnipeg neighbourhood made a Top 10 Cycling Communities in Canada<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>list. Third, get ready to ride Winnipeg's first parking protected bike lane<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>. Fourth, ride your bike to Winnipeg Folk Festival<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>. Finally, try out the 20km City Loop Trail<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> to get around Brandon. You are receiving this email because you are an Active & Green subscriber. Our mailing address is: Green Action Centre 3-303 Portage Ave. Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2B4 Canada Add us to your address book<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/vcard?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f5…> Copyright (C) 2014 Green Action Centre All rights reserved. [image: Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp]<http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm…>

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Walkability is good for business
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 27 May '14

27 May '14

Good blog post from Green Communities Canada... http://www.greencommunitiescanada.org/blog/ -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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Kickoff the Commuter Challenge! Thurs, 11am, Disraeli AT Bridge
by Beth McKechnie 27 May '14

27 May '14

*Join us for sunshine and fun when we kickoff the 15th Annual Commuter Challenge!* *11am, Thursday, May 29th* *Disrael AT Bridge (south side @ Rover Ave)* Let's ensure that Manitoba continues to have the highest percentage of participation of all provinces and that Winnipeg wins the national Commuter Challenge title once again! In the spirit of the Commuter Challenge<http://greenactioncentre.ca/event/2014-commuter-challenge/>, we invite you to arrive to the media launch by bike, bus, on foot, rollerblading, carpooling, canoeing, or any other active and green way to get around. Hope to see you there! cheers, Beth <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>

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Sustainable Mobility & Healthy Communities Summit: Nov 30th-Dec 3rd
by Jessie Klassen 26 May '14

26 May '14

(This has been an excellent conference in past years. If you plan to be near Toronto at the end of November, the focus for 2014 is on health and transportation.) *Save the Date! * The pioneering ACT Canada *Sustainable Mobility & Healthy Communities Summit will be held November 30th to December 3rd, 2014 *at the Hilton Markham Suites Hotel. With hotel suite rates of only $139 CAD/night and easy direct flight access to the Toronto Pearson Airport this conference is not only affordable – it is strategically targeting the most critical issues facing our communities today. Research and practical experience in the health, transportation and planning fields has made an indisputable case for the connection between the built environment and health. This Summit is a *call to action* to achieve a shift in how we plan communities and the movement of people from auto-dependent communities to communities that not only support efficient vehicle travel but also puts an emphasis on walking, cycling, ridesharing and taking public transit. An increase in active and sustainable transportation is critical to addressing the magnitude of the health challenge affecting North America. Conditions such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes have been rapidly rising and a significant percentage of these diseases are preventable through increased physical activity. The ACT summit calls on transportation and health professionals, from Ontario, Canada, USA and internationally, to come together and collaborate on multi-disciplinary solutions to built environment challenges that will increase the accessibility and use of active and sustainable travel modes. Plan to attend to be part of this trail-blazing event! Our Call for Presentations will be released shortly and all Summit news will be posted at www.ACTCanada.com *ACT Canada* 613-226-9845 *Summit(a)ACTCanada.com <Summit(a)ACTCanada.com>* www.ACTCanada.com <http://www.actcanada.com/> *Connect with ACT Canada:* [image: cid:image002.jpg@01CE56E2.8BE373A0] <https://twitter.com/ACTCanada> [image: cid:image003.jpg@01CE56E2.8BE373A0]<http://www.linkedin.com/company/3098941?trk=vsrp_companies_res_name> [image: cid:image004.jpg@01CE56E2.8BE373A0]<https://www.facebook.com/pages/ACT-Canada/68980019569> [image: cid:image005.jpg@01CE56E2.8BE373A0]<https://plus.google.com/111714074517087148654/posts> [image: 13-09-2010 3-20-36 PM signature] *Jessie Klassen* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca>| Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3772 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/>

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WFP No Accident - Part 7 (final): Proceeding with caution - We surveyed mayoral contenders about their plans to make streets safer (May24'14)
by Beth McKechnie 24 May '14

24 May '14

Proceeding with caution We surveyed mayoral contenders about their plans to make streets safer NO ACCIDENT SERIESBy: Mary Agnes Welch Part 7 (final) - http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/proceeding-with-caution-260507861.ht… [Find the whole series here: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/no-accident/]

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Transit investments drive positive change
by Beth McKechnie 23 May '14

23 May '14

Interesting article on transit investments from the David Suzuki Foundation. Thanks to Jessica Jacques for sharing! http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2014/05/transit-investment… *From:* David Suzuki Foundation [mailto:subscribers@davidsuzuki.org] *Sent:* May-23-14 9:17 AM Transit investments drive positive change What makes a city great? Among other things, great cities welcome ethnic diversity, support and foster the arts, have access to venture capital to spur entrepreneurship and innovation and benefit from healthy environments that provide clean air and water. New York City is a driver of global finance and a hotbed of arts and culture. It's also known for green spaces, like Central Park and the award-winning High Line <http://go.davidsuzuki.org/s0Uh0410zD0I0V0E6U00N0U>. San Francisco is celebrated for its narrow streets, compact lots and historic buildings. These contribute to the city's old-world charm, but they're also the building blocks of a more sustainable, pedestrian-friendly urban form <http://go.davidsuzuki.org/DVV600J0UDz00h01400U0NE> that reduces the need for cars. The world's leading cities also owe their success to government investments in transit systems that move residents safely and affordably using a range of solutions, from light rail and subways to bus rapid transit networks. The latter include state-of-the-art fast vehicles that run in lanes separated from traffic. The City of Markham, north of Toronto, is building an impressive BRT network with rapid transit corridors<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/K00E6VD004hW0KNzU0100U0>for a fleet of modern and comfortable fast buses. Transit-oriented cities have better air quality with lower greenhouse gas emissions and benefit from reduced traffic congestion with shorter commuting times. Evidence even shows people in cities with a range of transportation options, like Vancouver, are less sedentary, get more exercise and are happier and healthier<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/ND00XVEN0001UhU0L060z04>as a result. There's growing recognition that prioritizing transit is crucial to moving a region forward. Since the 1970s, Curitiba, Brazil, a city of 1.9 million, has invested billions in its bus rapid transit network<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/f00hN040zY001D0EV0UMU06>. There, public transportation is fully integrated into planning decisions. High-density hubs with shopping centres and office buildings are located within walking distance of transit stations and commuters have access to a fleet of more than 2,000 modern, low-emission buses, servicing 390 routes that crisscross the city and connect it to surrounding communities. Eighty-five percent of Curitiba's residents use the BRT system<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/VzDN000Nh10U000V46EUZ00>, which has reduced car trips by a whopping 27 million a year. But you don't have to travel far to see how transit investments can improve residents' lives. In his book, Arrival City<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/P00000NV4D0U060i0zPU1E0>, Globe and Mail columnist Doug Saunders argues that easy access to transit, among other factors, is one reason Toronto's Thorncliffe Park<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/HV0000E00UQziU6041D001N>has avoided many social problems that plague similar inner-city neighbourhoods. Though most are recent immigrants, half speak a first language other than English and many are poor, Thorncliffe Park residents integrate well into Canadian society, and many enter the urban middle-class within a generation. Saunders believes this is in part because the neighbourhood is well connected to Toronto's downtown, with bus and subway routes, and easy access to schools, employment and other opportunities. Transit facilitates social and economic links to the core of the city and helps residents overcome the physical isolation that plagues many communities. Politicians are starting to recognize transit's importance<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/WV01R0D64020UNU00E0zi00>to the economic, social and environmental health of Canadian cities. It's even become a major issue in the Ontario election<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/e00z3U00000DVi0E61S4U0N>. Premier Kathleen Wynne committed $29 billion over 10 years in the recent budget to expand transit networks in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and other regions of the province, but the budget failed to pass. Other parties have committed to funding improved transit if they're elected, but all of them need to step up with concrete details and credible plans to ensure dedicated and sustained funding. More problematic is the reluctance of the major political parties in Ontario to consider new revenue tools<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/M00U0E0zVi61N00T40UD040>, such as modest increases in the gas tax or regional sales tax. Polls show most residents support increases in taxes and fees to improve transit<http://go.davidsuzuki.org/Y0N6i0U0U00Ez0004DV05U1>, and two expert panels studying the issue have recommended fiscal solutions such as these. Transit investments are a catalyst for change. They reduce barriers that strangle economic productivity and improve the well-being of commuters who would otherwise be stalled in gridlock. It's time to put people ahead of politics and support dedicated transportation investments in Ontario and other provinces. Doing so will transform the way our communities move and generate numerous other benefits. Effective transit and transportation solutions can spur economic productivity, protect the environment and improve quality of life. It's time to get moving. *By David Suzuki with contributions from Faisal Moola, Director General, Ontario and Northern Canada *

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WFP - No Accident Part 6: Bumps in the road - Simple intersection fixes available (May23'14)
by Beth McKechnie 23 May '14

23 May '14

Bumps in the roadSimple intersection fixes available, but lack of cash and fear of backlash keep them from gaining traction <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/> NO ACCIDENT SERIESBy: Mary Agnes Welch Part 6: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/no-accident/Bumps-in-the-road-2603… * * * * * Summary of links for No Accident series: No Accident - Part 5: Enforcement http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/the-burden-of-proof-260221091.html No Accident - Part 4: Slow zones http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/no-accident/in-the-slow-zone-26006… No Accident - Part 3: Bike lanes http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/fear--pedalling-259898271.html No Accident - Part 2: New York City's vision http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Caution--Safer-roads-ahead-25… No Accident - Part 1: The Problem http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/crash-consequences-259487791.html

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WFP - No Accident Part 5: The burden of proof (May22'14)
by Beth McKechnie 23 May '14

23 May '14

The burden of proof For police, investigating and charging dangerous drivers is a tricky and frustrating process By: Mary Agnes Welch <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/> No Accident - Part 5: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/the-burden-of-proof-260221091.html * * * * * In case you missed the earlier articles: No Accident - Part 4: Slow zones http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/no-accident/in-the-slow-zone-26006… No Accident - Part 3: Bike lanes http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/fear--pedalling-259898271.html No Accident - Part 2: New York City's vision http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Caution--Safer-roads-ahead-25… No Accident - Part 1: The Problem http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/crash-consequences-259487791.html

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WFP - No Accident Part 4: In the slow zone - NYC has embraced speed reduction (May21'14)
by Beth McKechnie 21 May '14

21 May '14

In the slow zone NYC has embraced speed reduction, but experts question whether it would work here By: Mary Agnes Welch No Accident - Part 4: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/no-accident/in-the-slow-zone-26006… * * * * * In case you missed the first 3 parts: No Accident - Part 3: Bike lanes http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/fear--pedalling-259898271.html No Accident - Part 2: New York City's vision http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Caution--Safer-roads-ahead-25… No Accident - Part 1: The Problem http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/crash-consequences-259487791.html

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The Atlantic: Fire Departments Are Standing in the Way of Good Street Design
by Patman, David 20 May '14

20 May '14

This is a common issue throughout North America... pitting walkability vs. design standards for fire engines. http://www.citylab.com/politics/2014/05/fire-departments-are-standing-in-th… David Patman, P. Eng. Transit Planner Winnipeg Transit | Service Development Division 421 Osborne Street | Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2A2 P: 204-986-5737 | dpatman(a)winnipeg.ca<mailto:dpatman@winnipeg.ca>

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Canadian kids need to be active throughout the day, in every way
by Jackie Avent 20 May '14

20 May '14

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Canadian kids need to be active throughout the day, in every way Green Action Centre supports global findings in the 2014 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth Winnipeg, Manitoba; MAY 20, 2014 – Green Action Centre supports the 2014 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth, released today by Active Healthy Kids Canada and its strategic partners, ParticipACTION and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute – Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (HALO). For the first time, the Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card looked at how Canadian child and youth physical activity stacks up against 14 other countries and reveals Canada is among the top countries for having well-developed physical activity infrastructure and programs, but trails at the back of the global pack for overall physical activity levels. In Canada, we have successfully built sophisticated infrastructure and programs to support kids’ activity, but this alone is not enough to add up to an active population. The global comparisons highlight a need in Canada to examine our own culture of convenience. “Our society values efficiency—we build more, do more and impose more structure—but perhaps this approach is somewhat misguided when it comes to getting kids more active,” says Dr. Mark Tremblay, Chief Scientific Officer, Active Healthy Kids Canada. “A child’s day is so structured that there is no room for free play or walking or biking to school. Having plenty of local playgrounds is important, but what if they never get used? To increase daily physical activity levels for all kids, we must encourage a mix of opportunities, such as organized sport, active play and active transportation.” Jackie Avent, Coordinator of Manitoba’s Active and Safe Routes to School Program agrees. “Walking and wheeling to and from school is a great way for kids to incorporate physical activity into their day while having fun with friends, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from motorized vehicles and exploring their neighbourhood. School Travel Planning is an important way to learn about what schools and parents need to foster this behavior.” “Overall, child and youth physical activity levels remain alarmingly low—the Report Card tells us that only five per cent of five- to 17-year-olds are meeting the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines,” says Elio Antunes, President and CEO, ParticipACTION. “That’s why we need to encourage a wider variety of opportunities to improve the grade on kids’ physical activity levels, and in some cases we need to step back and do less. Many parents see active transportation and active play as inconvenient or unsafe, which results in kids spending their free time indoors being sedentary. In fact, these are great, cost-efficient ways to get kids moving more.” New Zealand and Mozambique lead the pack with “B” grades in Overall Physical Activity. The global comparisons reveal that New Zealand seems to have found success in providing a balance of opportunities for organized activities and active play, with most kids saying they spend an average of 78 minutes per day in free play. And, in Mozambique, where the majority of the population lives in rural environments, high physical activity levels consist largely of transport and domestic chores. “Considered in a global context, Canada is a developed country, but it might be fair to say Canada is overdeveloped when it comes to its physical activity infrastructure and programs for children and youth,” says Jennifer Cowie Bonne, CEO, Active Healthy Kids Canada. “Canada will never reap the benefits of our well-developed policies, programs and places unless we relax our grasp and give our kids room to move. Parents and families, policymakers, schools and community leaders must work together to make it easier for our kids to make the active choice, more often.” More on the global comparisons For its 10th anniversary Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth, Active Healthy Kids Canada brought research teams from 15 countries across five continents together to establish and compare grades, and seek solutions to the worldwide childhood inactivity crisis. Countries that participated in the international comparison process, based on the Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card framework, included: Australia, Canada, Colombia, England, Finland, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Mozambique, New Zealand, Nigeria, Scotland, South Africa and the United States. The results of the global comparisons and Canada’s Report Card were shared with 700 international delegates at the first-ever Global Summit on the Physical Activity of Children, hosted by Active Healthy Kids Canada on May 19 to 22 in Toronto. Among the ten grades assigned to Canada, key grades and comparisons include: • “D-” for Overall Physical Activity – Mozambique and New Zealand lead with a B, and Scotland lags with an F. • “C+” in Organized Sport Participation – New Zealand leads with a B and Mozambique lags with an F. • “B+” in Community & the Built Environment – Australia leads with an A-, and Mexico and Mozambique lag with an F. • “D” in Active Transportation – Finland, Kenya, Mozambique and Nigeria lead with a B, and United States lags with an F. • “F” in Sedentary Behaviours – Ghana and Kenya lead with a B, and Scotland, South Africa and Nigeria also received an F. • “C+” in School – England leads with an A- and Colombia lags with an F. Full copies of the short-form and long-form Report Card, plus free presentations, articles and media materials can be found at www.activehealthykids.ca. GreenAction Centre is a non-profit, non-governmental organization focused on greener living at home, at work, at school and in the community. We share a greener, better living message through the delivery of community programs, events, education and policy work. -30- For more information or to arrange an interview please contact: Jackie Avent Active and Safe Routes to School Program Coordinator Green Action Centre 3rd Floor, 303 Portage Avenue Winnipeg, MB R3B 2B4 204-475-1327 (cell) jackie(a)greenactioncentre.ca -- Jackie Avent | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue | (204) 925-3773 | Find us here Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member

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WFP - No Accident Part 3: Fear & pedalling - protected bike lanes best 'vaccine' for cyclist deaths (May20'14)
by Beth McKechnie 20 May '14

20 May '14

Fear & pedalling: protected bike lanes best 'vaccine' for cyclist deaths By: Mary Agnes Welch http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/fear--pedalling-259898271.html * * * * * In case you missed the first 2 parts, here are the links: No Accident - Part 2: New York City's vision http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Caution--Safer-roads-ahead-25… No Accident - Part 1: The Problem http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/crash-consequences-259487791.html

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WFP: Want to get creative? Take a walk (May18'14)
by Beth McKechnie 19 May '14

19 May '14

Want to get creative? Study suggests a walk By: Deborah Netburn http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/health/want-to-get-crea… LOS ANGELES -- If you find yourself in a creative slump, scientists have a suggestion: Take a walk. People generate more creative ideas when they walk than when they sit, according to new research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition. "Everyone always says going on a walk gives you new ideas, but nobody had ever proved it before," said Marily Oppezzo, a professor of psychology at Santa Clara University and the lead author of the study. In fact, Oppezzo got the inspiration for the research while she was taking a stroll as a graduate student with her thesis adviser, Stanford University education professor Daniel Schwartz. To measure creativity, Oppezzo recruited 176 people and gave them various verbal tests. For instance, some volunteers were asked to come up with alternative uses for a common item, like a button. Oppezzo defined a creative response as one that was both appropriate (a button could serve as a tiny strainer or the eye for a doll, but it wouldn't work as a light bulb) and original, meaning no one else in the study had said it. In the first experiment, volunteers were asked to complete the creativity test twice -- first while sitting at a desk in a small room for four minutes, and then while walking on a treadmill for the same amount of time. Researchers found 81 per cent of participants improved their creative output when walking. Walkers were more talkative than sitters, but Oppezzo said the increased output of creative ideas while ambulatory was not simply the result of having more ideas in general. "We took everything they said and divided the total creative ideas by the total ideas mentioned," she said. "Walkers had more thoughts, but they also had a higher density of creative thoughts than sitters." To see whether walking improves brainpower overall, Oppezzo and her team had volunteers complete a task that measures convergent thinking. Study participants were given three words and asked to come up with another word that would combine with each of them to make a common phrase. For example, "Swiss," "cake" and "cottage" can all be combined with "cheese." On this test, volunteers performed slightly worse when walking compared with when sitting. That led the researchers to conclude the cognitive benefits of walking were specific to creative thought. In subsequent experiments, the researchers found this creative boost can linger for a period of time. People who took the creativity test while walking, and then while sitting, came up with more creative ideas in their chairs compared with other seated volunteers who hadn't gone for a walk. To make sure this wasn't just a sign the volunteers were getting used to the test, the researchers asked some participants to take the test twice and remain seated both times. Under those conditions, test performance did not improve with experience. In another set of experiments, the researchers found walking inside was just as good for creativity as walking outside, although being outdoors made participants more talkative. In the final experiment, Oppezzo tried pushing volunteers around the Stanford campus in wheelchairs and compared their creativity with that of volunteers who went for a walk outside, those who walked indoors on a treadmill and those who sat inside a lab room with no view of the outdoors. The results were clear: Walking (whether inside or outside) trumped sitting (either inside or outside). Other researchers said they found the results convincing, especially because they were confirmed in four different experiments. Jennifer Wiley, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who was not involved in the study, said Oppezzo's results were in line with what she called the "bed, bath, bus and bar syndrome." "When we take a break from active perusal of solutions and go about our other daily activities, new ways of thinking about the solution may pop into our minds," she said. But Wiley and others were at a loss to explain why walking seemed to enhance creativity. Perhaps walking increases arousal in the brain, said Jonathan Schooler, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who wasn't involved in the study. If so, that would explain why most volunteers became more chatty when they were ambulatory, he said. Oppezzo thinks it's possible that walking interferes with the brain's ability to filter thoughts. "We really don't know," she said. Oppezzo and Schwartz intend to continue their research into the connection between walking and creativity. "We've had many walking meetings to think about future ideas," Oppezzo said. -- Los Angeles Times Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 18, 2014 A6

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No Accident Part 2: New York plans to eliminate all traffic deaths - but could it work for Winnipeg? (May17'14)
by Beth McKechnie 18 May '14

18 May '14

*NO ACCIDENT* *NEW YORK PLANS TO ELIMINATE ALL TRAFFIC DEATHS — BUT COULD IT WORK FOR WINNIPEG?* By employing a strategy embracing community outreach, city planning and increased enforcement, New York City has set the ambitious goal of bringing traffic deaths to zero. But can the Big Apple’s plan achieve the same effect in our city? By: Mary Agnes Welch http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Caution--Safer-roads-ahead-25…

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Something droolworthy for Friday
by Stacy Matwick 16 May '14

16 May '14

Skylock - bluetooth enabled lock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gyLPjDakAc Happy Friday Stacy Matwick

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WFP: Crash consequences - with radical traffic reform, others may not have to suffer (May16'14)
by Beth McKechnie 16 May '14

16 May '14

Crash consequences: Victim's recovery a long journey With radical traffic reform, others may not have to suffer NO ACCIDENTBy: Mary Agnes Welch <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/> [Link includes video introducing the WFP's "No Accident: How we can make Winnipeg's roads safer: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/crash-consequences-259487791.html] Here's the sum total of what Bev Bungay remembers after she left for work one slushy Tuesday in December 2012. "Great, I'll be able to catch the earlier bus." Asking a paramedic if she was dreaming. He replied, "No, but you're going to be OK." Someone in the emergency room saying, "I've got her backpack and her wallet." Hearing her sister, saying, through tears, "You hurt her. You have to be more careful." Looking up to see a dozen people hovering over her bed, while someone rubbed her breastbone with their knuckles because she'd stop breathing. When Bungay began to wake up two or three days later, still in a haze of shock and painkillers, she asked her husband, David, to let her boss know she'd be working from home for a while. "Honestly, I thought four to six months and I'd be completely back to normal," she said. "I had no clue it would take this long." That's what happens when you're hit by a speeding Monte Carlo, land face down about seven metres away in a yard and shatter 11 bones, including four ribs and a neck vertebrae. You spend weeks in hospital with your head immobilized in a metal halo, months sleeping in the dining room because you can't get upstairs to your bed and nearly a year off work. And you join the 1,300 Winnipeggers, most of them nameless except to family and friends, who were killed or critically injured in bad car crashes over the last decade. If Bungay had been injured on the job, there would be a provincial investigation. If she had been hurt in a nursing home, health executives would launch a critical incident review. If it had happened in a STARS air ambulance, the minister would have suspended the service. Instead, remarkably little happens to prevent the next pedestrian from being hit while crossing Portage Avenue at Woodlawn Street, or to prevent any of the other 14,000 collisions Winnipeg sees in a year. Vehicle makers have done their bit. Airbags, crumple zones and backup cameras have made vehicles much safer, meaning even the worst crash tends to kill one person in the car, instead of two or three. Seatbelt use is now ubiquitous. Photo enforcement is widespread. And paramedics, in the word of one veteran Winnipeg traffic cop, do "phenomenal" work at the scene. That has helped shrink the total number of crashes in Winnipeg by about 30 per cent over the last two decades, even though the city's population has grown. More recently, though, the figure has plateaued. In fact, since 2010, the number of Winnipeggers badly injured by traffic has risen steadily, according to Manitoba Public Insurance data. And, there were so many crashes this terrible winter MPI is threatening to hike insurance rates significantly. So far this year, several bad crashes, including the death of 23-year-old Amy Gilbert on Broadway last month, have captured the public's attention. Despite that, Winnipeg has not followed other cities -- New York, Paris, Stockholm, Chicago, Seattle -- by making traffic deaths and injuries a public-health issue. Elsewhere, that shift has sparked huge investments in enforcement, traffic engineering, pedestrian and bike infrastructure and public education, and in turn made those cities more livable. If Winnipeg cut the number of crashes in half, through innovative road design, more cycle tracks and tougher enforcement, nearly 100 lives could be saved over the next decade, while also making the city more livable and less car-centric. Using cost estimates gleaned from Transport Canada research, Winnipeg could also save close to $5 billion in health care, lost work time, traffic delays, disability payments, property damage and other spinoff social costs related to crashes. "It is a reasonable goal to have. These are things we can do. We have the tools," said University of Manitoba traffic engineer Jeannette Montufar. "We have a very important issue in our hands right now, a very important problem of people dying in motor-vehicle collisions. It affects society today but also in the future... We need to hear much more about that than we're hearing today." Winnipeg averages 18 traffic deaths a year. There are roughly 28 homicides annually, sparking billions in spending on police, courts and prisons. Perry Gray, the doctor in charge of Health Sciences Centre's surgical intensive care unit, said violence and crime get all the attention, but his biggest customers are victims of motor-vehicle collisions, just like Bev Bungay. They tie up nearly half the beds in the trauma unit, and they often need multiple surgeries on multiple body parts by multiple surgeons. "You have the un-fixable in the worst category, the spinal injuries, the time-will-tell category and then the stuff we can actually fix," said Gray. "You get this whole array thrown at you when your family member is the victim of a bad accident, a series of events that go on for days and days and days... Is he going to wake up? Is he or she going to be like they were?" That is exactly what David Bungay was wondering as he raced to HSC an hour after his wife's crash, using his Bluetooth to frantically call family. Soon, the couple's grown kids converged on the hospital, along with Bungay's dad. Sisters and nephews arrived from across town and from Thompson. David camped out for a week in Bungay's room. Two weeks after the crash, the couple's new granddaughter celebrated her first Christmas at HSC with a groggy, bruised, swollen, immobilized Bungay in the background of fluorescent-lit family photos. None of the 11 bones Bungay broke was a nice, clean, easy-to-fix fracture. Her C2 bone (the second of seven bones in the cervical spine) was smashed in several pieces but on the side furthest away from the spinal cord, which was good. X-rays show bits of jagged shin bone floating in space, a metal rod acting as the leg's structure. The 30-year-old driver who caused all this pulled a classic Winnipeg move, darting out of traffic to zip ahead of a slow-moving lane. Bungay was crossing Portage at the light, a few steps from the curb when she was hit, likely at close to 70 kilometres per hour. Many people stopped to help. They did all the right things, resisting the urge to turn Bungay over and, instead, covered her up with coats to keep her warm until paramedics arrived. Over the last 18 months, Bungay has gone from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane and a leg brace. She is back at work at Manitoba Justice halftime, squeezing in physio three times a week to improve mobility and deal with pain in her neck. Before the crash, Bungay had just started to run, doing the "couch to 5k" program. She really misses running, something she never thought she'd say. She can't drive yet -- using the gas and brake pedals hurts her right shin too much -- which is also making her nuts. It would have been nice if the driver had reached out to the family, come to the hospital or offered an apology, said David, but neither is wasting energy on ill will. "People have asked me about that -- 'Aren't you angry?' " said Bungay. "I don't feel anger toward the driver. I don't believe he had the intention of hurting anyone that day. He just made a careless mistake." maryagnes.welch(a)freepress.mb.ca FIVE NUMBERS THAT MATTER *177*: Number of deaths on Winnipeg roads in the last decade, 2004-2013 *1,094*: number of serious injuries, 2004-2013 *46*: percentage of trauma patients in the Health Sciences Centre intensive care unit with crash-related injuries *$1.17 billion*: estimated annual spin-off cost of all traffic crashes in Winnipeg *$12.6 million*: what the city and Manitoba Public Insurance are spending this year on traffic safety *Source: Manitoba Public Insurance; City of Winnipeg collision statistics; Analysis and Estimation of the Social Cost of Motor Vehicle Collisions in Ontario Final Report, August, 2007, Transport Canada* NEXT IN THIS SERIES - *Today:* The problem - *Saturday:* New York City's vision - *Tuesday: *Bike lanes - *Wednesday:* Slow zones - *Thursday:* Enforcement - *Friday:* Intersections - *Saturday:* Political will - *Sunday:* The jerks

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AT Webinar: Best Planning and Engineering Practices for School Zones (Wed, May 21, 2-3pm, EcoCentre)
by Beth McKechnie 15 May '14

15 May '14

Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg invite you to join us for a local viewing of the following APBP webinar at the EcoCentre<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>(3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave). This will be followed by group discussion of local applications. Description provided below. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth (204) 925-3772 ** * * * ** *Best Planning and Engineering Practices for School Zones* *Wednesday, May 21, 2014 | 2:00-3:00 pm Central* This webinar takes an in-depth look at how effective engineering and planning in school zones can improve traffic safety and neighborhood livability. What are the best practices? How can we improve collaboration between city staff, school principals and law enforcement? APBP’s May 2014 webinar offers answers based on three school safety case studies from Peoria, Arizona. Two case studies involve elementary schools and include discussion of effective collaboration, traffic control devices, access management, and school policy to reduce school-related traffic congestion during school arrival and dismissal times. The third case study focuses on a high school where behavioral observation led problem-solvers to install an effective mid-block crossing. In all three cases, the city’s approach to “the problem” included a bigger picture look at walking and bicycling routes, sidewalk width and crosswalk access. The webinar also examines how effective school policies and reconfiguration of problematic school pick-up and drop-off areas can greatly improve children’s safety. Peoria’s population of 160,000 people and its suburban proximity to Phoenix offer rich insights useful in similar locales throughout North America. *Presenter:* Brandon Forrey, Transportation Planning Engineer, City of Peoria, Arizona

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GTA's top doctors join forces to encourage cities to plan for built-in exercise
by Beth McKechnie 14 May '14

14 May '14

* GTA’s top doctors join forces to encourage cities to plan for built-in exercise Urban planning should encourage walking, cycling and use of public transit to battle chronic disease, public health doctors say.* *By:* Theresa Boyle <http://www.thestar.com/authors.boyle_theresa.html> Health, Published on Wed May 14 2014 <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/> http://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2014/05/14/better_and_integrate… The top doctors for Toronto, Peel, Hamilton and Simcoe- Muskoka have joined forces to urge all levels of government to change the way communities are planned, to encourage more physical activity. When it comes to land-use and transportation planning, more consideration must be given to encouraging residents to walk, cycle and use public transit, they told a news conference at Union Station on Wednesday. “This really is the big public health concern of our time, of our generation. How our communities are shaped, how we move around and the impact it has on the leading causes of death and illness in our society is something that all health organizations are coming to grips with,” said Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. David McKeown. Many communities have been built around the car, contributing to sedentary lifestyles, thy noted. Chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease are directly related to “having engineered physical activity out of our lives,” said Dr. David Mowat, medical officer of health for Peel. He pointed out that 10 per cent of an adult’s physical energy expenditure is recreational while 90 per cent is utilitarian, that is, “going about our regular business.” The solution to getting people move more is to get them to incorporate physical activity into their daily routines, he said. “This is not about telling people to shape up, exercise more and eat well. That approach has been tried for years and it has failed,” Mowat said. He cited cycling as an example, noting that those who spend a total of three hours weekly biking to work cut their risk of premature death from all causes by 28 per cent. Even taking public transit can easily add 30 minutes of activity into one’s day because it can include walking to and from the bus stop and subway and taking stairs. The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines<http://www.csep.ca/english/view.asp?x=804> just happen to call for 30 minutes of activity a day. The group of doctors made three specific recommendations: Invest “many billions of dollars” in public transit. Strengthen provincial policies that support transit and active transportation (walking or cycling to get to a destination). Make transit and active transportation integral to city planning. The doctors released a report, Improving Health by Design<http://www.peelregion.ca/health/resources/healthbydesign/pdf/moh-report.pdf>, that points out that there are almost 57,000 new cases of diabetes and 7,000 new cases of heart disease annually in the Greater Toronto- Hamilton Area and Simcoe-Muskoka. About a quarter of both conditions are preventable through physical activity, the report notes. It estimates that more than 300 premature deaths and over 1,000 cases of diabetes could be prevented annually with improvements in the way communities are designed and with better integration of public transportation. (Estimations are based on a health economic assessment tool from the World Health Organization and a diabetes population risk tool from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.) It goes on to say that physical inactivity and obesity cost the GTHA and Simcoe Muskoka $4 billion annually, including $1.4 billion in direct medical costs. The remainder is related to lost productivity. “The environment in which we live is the main influence upon our behaviour . . . and changes in the environment are necessary to improve our health. We need to make the healthy choice the easy choice,” Mowat said.

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FW: Pedal Power to the People- - - Join the Orange T' Revolution
by Dave Elmore 14 May '14

14 May '14

Please pass along. Bike Week is for everyone that rides a bike, not just commuters. Thanks Dave o _ ( \ _ (X)\ /(X) From: Bike Week Winnipeg [mailto:andraea@bikeweekwinnipeg.com] Sent: May-14-14 10:07 AM To: delmore(a)mymts.net Subject: Pedal Power to the People- - - Join the Orange T' Revolution <http://r20.rs6.net/on.jsp?ca=47b4be9e-2a69-41ad-a99a-c220d83e1d2c&a=1112227 710529&d=1117360722494&r=3&o=http://ui.constantcontact.com/images/p1x1.gif&c =56f90400-40c2-11e3-8fa1-d4ae529cde13&ch=58c55f90-40c2-11e3-90bc-d4ae529cde1 3> <http://img.constantcontact.com/letters/images/1101116784221/S.gif> T-SHIRTS ARE NOW ON SALE! BIKE WEEK WINNIPEG JUNE 16-22, 2014 <http://img.constantcontact.com/letters/images/1101116784221/S.gif> Featuring the 7th annual Bike to Work Day on Friday, June 20th <http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs177/1112227710529/img/36.jpg> T-SHIRT SALE ON NOW! Spring has sprung (at least it was supposed to) and what better way to ring in a new season than with your very own orange t-shirt! Visit <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001VPz0XMLiUs55cI2W4Kz1M9V4uuNsn_Dado_aozgwVHZD s8fzgpYAQwRg2Y3DVWrRRSbqNhus3HgGfu9Yc8juVWgw2fLFZCWc5qwhLtzX2l4XXqU93PTCPe5J Yq6Zobi5EgUXT5lknii5VqX1UKZUPrHqLarmOee6qq38J5LKz2__vTDP-sV3fw==&c=hHlRTJoTv i83eZm7B4wi7sB-OyN0RvkWpgourzct48OghjLjDQseGg==&ch=6dfE0jEehqSgTWZguMIEKAnzE hKe-SFoTD8wNqvV0iX_3m5Y6xfsJw==> bikeweekwpg.deco-apparel.com to buy your shirt today in either cotton or technical fabric. Shirts will be available for pick up two weeks after they are ordered at: Instant Imprints at 305 Madison St. WANT A FREE SHIRT? Then sign up to be a volunteer or host a pit stop. Be sure to register your pit stop by May 23rd, if you want to be include in our online map. Click the following links for more details: * Host a Pit Stop <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001VPz0XMLiUs55cI2W4Kz1M9V4uuNsn_Dado_aozgwVHZD s8fzgpYAQ_nAxVssDnsmJda9h1W_BcU_SVuqFijtGzEMyfOb8O4p8SEsHShdBRQyiX5PgqJ07ViS ldy4OaFq_iSm_mRKejFx7l5v4UxO1LZOj9wlSSRverJ_PAkj1nN4_cz4hZf06SBAlMp8J32etOP6 VT5ugIBhpalD9nhW4195TVeN_4wLVyqzEl5DHpsuXs8Nsk_uXQ==&c=hHlRTJoTvi83eZm7B4wi7 sB-OyN0RvkWpgourzct48OghjLjDQseGg==&ch=6dfE0jEehqSgTWZguMIEKAnzEhKe-SFoTD8wN qvV0iX_3m5Y6xfsJw==> * Run an event <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001VPz0XMLiUs55cI2W4Kz1M9V4uuNsn_Dado_aozgwVHZD s8fzgpYAQ_nAxVssDnsmSfBGimjEycI6T5VxxOteIepiL2AZsAGDXj0eSGulJ8xHfAJR0pFL2DJ2 e4vdVr68Sur9zKlBIp_vPx2apAaqgqVzGM19i2UiycCvfZPDTD7U_1B7Mc78M_Yty90pd6qMF-Xw PkWbtAPHU6uWyMWjMoNHMre6l8u3REXzaQ3C1rw=&c=hHlRTJoTvi83eZm7B4wi7sB-OyN0RvkWp gourzct48OghjLjDQseGg==&ch=6dfE0jEehqSgTWZguMIEKAnzEhKe-SFoTD8wNqvV0iX_3m5Y6 xfsJw==> - at your workplace, school, community centre or neighbourhood * Become a volunteer <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001VPz0XMLiUs55cI2W4Kz1M9V4uuNsn_Dado_aozgwVHZD s8fzgpYAQ_nAxVssDnsmUuZLQdZ360ldNQ7MCo5y2B7KnGcaFyJpM_KHNfxD7DMWNKZEiN5s0zv2 _uDh_o0gk_Mcx4xKXSy7r_afGjDwVK318J7e77nGo1_I4FTVQFty8OciQZkw5QEjxu96SPuf8CCp jkrmCF31bqTXFRIKreiPdDzv8P9M&c=hHlRTJoTvi83eZm7B4wi7sB-OyN0RvkWpgourzct48Ogh jLjDQseGg==&ch=6dfE0jEehqSgTWZguMIEKAnzEhKe-SFoTD8wNqvV0iX_3m5Y6xfsJw==> If you have signed up to host a pit stop but haven't had a chat with Anna-Laure, our pit stop coordinator, then send her an email at volunteer(a)bikeweekwinnipeg.com. WHAT ELSE CAN YOU GET FOR FREE? Well you can get your bike fixed for one, maybe a free burger and definitely some free entertainment on your bike by joining a group ride, bike polo or a bike race! Check out our updated <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001VPz0XMLiUs55cI2W4Kz1M9V4uuNsn_Dado_aozgwVHZD s8fzgpYAQ_nAxVssDnsmKYSxHL5fYEz-N5cya1075UXrJHVZ4JSz_rwrCxBfMTs5shyLFOpijIAh cHsqW2Ua-mfWyH6ANlohcMWqgzg1YaAk7iBv4K4GarR40mbMnoUylcESm-rdaoHSvEPvavnJH6Mh fek3QCr3hdEUJ6tW6AkAYC_LVYTA&c=hHlRTJoTvi83eZm7B4wi7sB-OyN0RvkWpgourzct48Ogh jLjDQseGg==&ch=6dfE0jEehqSgTWZguMIEKAnzEhKe-SFoTD8wNqvV0iX_3m5Y6xfsJw==> event calendar to see what we have in store for you! <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001VPz0XMLiUs55cI2W4Kz1M9V4uuNsn_Dado_aozgwVHZD s8fzgpYAQ_nAxVssDnsmKYSxHL5fYEz-N5cya1075UXrJHVZ4JSz_rwrCxBfMTs5shyLFOpijIAh cHsqW2Ua-mfWyH6ANlohcMWqgzg1YaAk7iBv4K4GarR40mbMnoUylcESm-rdaoHSvEPvavnJH6Mh fek3QCr3hdEUJ6tW6AkAYC_LVYTA&c=hHlRTJoTvi83eZm7B4wi7sB-OyN0RvkWpgourzct48Ogh jLjDQseGg==&ch=6dfE0jEehqSgTWZguMIEKAnzEhKe-SFoTD8wNqvV0iX_3m5Y6xfsJw==> http://www.bikeweekwinnipeg.com/about/events-schedule/ <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001VPz0XMLiUs55cI2W4Kz1M9V4uuNsn_Dado_aozgwVHZD s8fzgpYAQ_nAxVssDnsmzjtrIGS08zRRE1XsrPlTv8D6-ChfvDiMWKbOBTHQJa1W_ML5IiThZdzM p9Z2gcVVzpnW3v9RbbPGGxE8pvRMMgdbCa1R-uBUTp4vaUwHkOexVSQ_gg7Vcg==&c=hHlRTJoTv i83eZm7B4wi7sB-OyN0RvkWpgourzct48OghjLjDQseGg==&ch=6dfE0jEehqSgTWZguMIEKAnzE hKe-SFoTD8wNqvV0iX_3m5Y6xfsJw==> bikeweekwinnipeg.com <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001VPz0XMLiUs55cI2W4Kz1M9V4uuNsn_Dado_aozgwVHZD s8fzgpYAQ4LcKK97VU1KV2nEEqZWK6zjewQXRWhwpq_p80g85kWtqJhJ0UNLElRxy3AFfmH9puFl ovyFPT0-5_q1eQozlDOotn5Qu9nsITZUxD5DF18koFZzFu1VUI8D4JV43oyz_e0acO2MINgiKnf4 ECZ4wlEbbdjtLjWqqg==&c=hHlRTJoTvi83eZm7B4wi7sB-OyN0RvkWpgourzct48OghjLjDQseG g==&ch=6dfE0jEehqSgTWZguMIEKAnzEhKe-SFoTD8wNqvV0iX_3m5Y6xfsJw==> SIGN UP NOW In order to reach as many people as possible, you no longer need to register online. 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Pedestrian Safety, Urban Space and Health
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 12 May '14

12 May '14

Pedestrian Safety, Urban Space and Health DOI:10.1787/9789282103654-en <http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789282103654-en> This report presents decision-makers with hard evidence on the important place of walking in transport policies and provide guidelines for developing a safe environment conducive to walking. http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/transport/pedestrian-s… -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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Fwd: Groundbreaking MOU between city and school district in BC
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 08 May '14

08 May '14

*apologies for cross-posting* On April 22nd, the School District of North Vancouver signed an MOU with the City of North Vancouver about Active and Safe Routes to School. It's groundbreaking and a first in Canada, as far as I am aware. Wouldn't it be awesome to see AT Policies and relationships like this formed in Manitoba to ensure welcoming active and safe routes to schools. The MOU is attached. If anyone would like to discuss this further, please don't hesitate to contact me. Cheers, Jackie -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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RE: [At-network] New report from the APA: "Investing in Place"
by Patman, David 07 May '14

07 May '14

Hi Terry (and mailing list), My understanding is that the Capital Region Transportation Master Plan is going to be released before the end of spring… http://www.manitobacapitalregion.ca/notices_detail.asp?notice_ID=207 David Patman, P. Eng. Transit Planner Winnipeg Transit | Service Development Division 421 Osborne Street | Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2A2 P: 204-986-5737 | dpatman(a)winnipeg.ca<mailto:dpatman@winnipeg.ca> From: Terry Zdan [mailto:tjzdan50@gmail.com] Sent: May-07-14 8:36 AM To: Patman, David Cc: at-network(a)lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: Re: [At-network] New report from the APA: "Investing in Place" http://www.manitobacapitalregion.ca/_assets/downloads/TMP-OH2-Boards-June20… Hi David - is there more info about the Capital Region Master Plan that would validate values in our back yard? On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 3:47 PM, Patman, David <DPatman(a)winnipeg.ca<mailto:DPatman@winnipeg.ca>> wrote: New document from the American Planning Association. An interesting look at changing values in the US (probably we would see similar viewpoints in Canada) regarding “what is important” in communities and development for different demographic groups. “When asked what would strengthen their local economy, two-thirds believe that investing in schools, transportation choice, walkability, and key community features is the best way.… For both Millennials and Active Boomers, including those living in today’s suburbs, walkability is in high demand.” http://www.planning.org/policy/polls/investing/pdf/pollinvestingreport.pdf David Patman, P. Eng. Transit Planner Winnipeg Transit | Service Development Division 421 Osborne Street | Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2A2 P: 204-986-5737<tel:204-986-5737> | dpatman(a)winnipeg.ca<mailto:dpatman@winnipeg.ca> _______________________________________________ AT-Network mailing list AT-Network(a)lists.umanitoba.ca<mailto:AT-Network@lists.umanitoba.ca> http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/at-network -- Terry Zdan 126 Duncan Norrie Drive Wpg MB R3P 2J9 CANADA tjzdan50(a)gmail.com<mailto:tjzdan@gmasil.com>

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New report from the APA: "Investing in Place"
by Patman, David 06 May '14

06 May '14

New document from the American Planning Association. An interesting look at changing values in the US (probably we would see similar viewpoints in Canada) regarding "what is important" in communities and development for different demographic groups. "When asked what would strengthen their local economy, two-thirds believe that investing in schools, transportation choice, walkability, and key community features is the best way.... For both Millennials and Active Boomers, including those living in today's suburbs, walkability is in high demand." http://www.planning.org/policy/polls/investing/pdf/pollinvestingreport.pdf David Patman, P. Eng. Transit Planner Winnipeg Transit | Service Development Division 421 Osborne Street | Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2A2 P: 204-986-5737 | dpatman(a)winnipeg.ca<mailto:dpatman@winnipeg.ca>

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FW: Moveable Feast 2014!
by Reaney, Vicky (MMG) 01 May '14

01 May '14

From: Jason Syvixay Sent: April-30-14 12:05 PM Subject: MEDIA RELEASE: 400 Winnipeggers, 10 Tours, 5000KM Collectively Travelled Throughout Downtown MEDIA RELEASE April 30, 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 400 Winnipeggers Get a Taste of Downtown with 10 Tours, 40 Restaurants and 150KM of Gorgeous Scenery Downtown Winnipeg - 10 tours will offer Winnipeggers even more opportunities to delve deeper into what downtown has to offer and to discover the hidden gems that give our city its character. 40 restaurants and an urban landscape rich with green space, parks, and music history, will get its close up as 400 people sip, sup, and stroll throughout downtown, collectively traveling over 5000KM on foot and bicycle. "People have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring and summer - the sizzling heat, the sunset, and hanging around downtown restaurants and patios surrounded by friends and good people," said Stefano Grande, Executive Director of the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ. "These tours help us show off the city in an authentic, intimate way. Rather than just putting an ad in the paper or a billboard we want to pull people by the hand and actually show them what's going on downtown." >From cycling to wine tastings to an exploration of downtown's river trail leading up to the site of The Forks - Winnipeggers will discover why downtown is such a unique and exciting place to visit with personalized tours hosted by the Downtown BIZ: Biking & Beer - An elite mountain/hybrid cycling event. Hit the city's newest bike routes on a two-hour ride with the Executive Director of the Downtown BIZ, finishing with a cold beer on a downtown patio. Route is approximately 50KM and features Café 22, Pony Corral, and Moxie's Classic Grill on June 18, July 16, and August 13. 4:30pm start, free. A Moveable Feast - Take in the gorgeous view of some of downtown's most iconic buildings, architecture, and places on a five-hour bike ride, while enjoying great eats from local downtown restaurants, featuring Little Sister Coffee Maker, Old Spaghetti Factory, Promenade Cafe & Wine, Little Saigon, Waves Restaurant & Lounge, Pony Corral, Thom Bargen, The Fyxx, East India Company Pub & Eatery, Kum Koon, and surprise restaurants in the Exchange District and West End. Route is approximately 7KM and is co-presented by Downtown BIZ, Exchange District BIZ, West End BIZ, Provencher BIZ, West Broadway BIZ, Osborne Village BIZ, Bike Valet, Bike Winnipeg, and the City of Winnipeg's Active Transportation. June 19 and September 27. 5PM start, $35/person. Patio Crawl - Because now that summer is here, one patio is never enough. Grab your friends, soak up the sun and sip your favourite drinks. Sample delicious brews at beloved watering holes like: Elephant & Castle, Muddy Waters, Finn's Pub, The Keg, Earls Restaurant, Old Spaghetti Factory, Clay Oven, Beachcombers, Rudy's Eat and Drink, The Met, and The Current. August 8, July 11, and July 13. 5PM start, $30/person. Tour length: 2.5 hours. Winnipeg Wine - Explore the wine lists of some of Winnipeg's top downtown restaurants and sample delectable food pairings with this guided tour. Stroll your way to downtown's top fine dining restaurants, including Sydney's, The Velvet Glove, Hy's Steakhouse & Cocktail Bar, Prairie 360, 295 York, and Fort Garry, and cap it all off with an overnight stay at the lavish Hotel Fort Garry. September 12. 6:30PM start, $175 for one person or $250 for two people. Almost Famous - Tour the pubs, clubs, and bars that are home to Winnipeg best blues, rock, and country bands. Featuring classic, quirky, and historic venues with performances from up-and-comers and local favourites at featuring The Pyramid Cabaret, Shannon's Irish Pub, and Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club. July 19 and August 16. 9PM start, $35/person. Rebirth of Our Downtown - Take a front row seat as the BIZ shares with you stories leading to the rebirth of our downtown and our downtown vision. Winnipeg's downtown has shown a new wave of productivity, growth, innovation and consumer optimism - as articulated in a new market research report, Downtown Trends. Hop on our trolley and tour some of the redevelopment activities that's making downtown Winnipeg the place to invest, work, live, and experience. June 25. 10AM, free. Thanks to our media sponsor, Clear 102 FM. For a complete listing of downtown tours and to purchase tickets, visit www.downtownwinnipegbiz.com/tours<http://www.downtownwinnipegbiz.com/tours>. - 30 - For more information, contact: Jason Syvixay Managing Director Tel: (204) 958-4635 Email: jason(a)downtownwinnipegbiz.com<mailto:jason@downtownwinnipegbiz.com> ________________________________ This communication is confidential. We only send and receive email on the basis of the terms set out at www.rogers.com/web/content/emailnotice<http://www.rogers.com/web/content/emailnotice> Ce message est confidentiel. Notre transmission et réception de courriels se fait strictement suivant les modalités énoncées dans l'avis publié à www.rogers.com/aviscourriel <http://www.rogers.com/aviscourriel> ________________________________

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Fwd: [PNmb] Fwd: FW: Creative Placemaking Challenge!
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 01 May '14

01 May '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Molly Johnson <flat.not.boring(a)gmail.com> Date: 1 May 2014 15:09 Subject: [PNmb] Fwd: FW: Creative Placemaking Challenge! To: PNManitoba(a)googlegroups.com Please distribute widely! Hello Friends! Urban Idea and the Winnipeg Arts Council just announced the *Creative Placemaking Challenge*. The competition is to come up with do-able, temporary installations or activities in the alleys and dray ways (delivery alleys) of the West Exchange District. The goal is to get the public engaged in placemaking, either by putting a project together, or by coming by and interacting with the projects and the spaces. Proposals are due on June 13th and successful entries will receive up to $1,500 to implement their ideas. The project is inspired by examples in Melbourne, Seattle, and Portland. While the alleys in those places were eventually occupied by more permanent projects, they all started with temporary placemaking ideas. Let's try this in Winnipeg!! First, the call for proposals can be found here: https://urbanideawinnipeg.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/creative-placemaking-… and more information can be found here: http://urbanidea.ca/2014/04/30/urban-idea-announces-the-creative-placemakin… There is going to be a little information session on Wednesday May 7th from 5-7pm at PLATFORM (off the lobby at Artspace, 100 Arthur Street). There will also be an opportunity to workshop your ideas. On Wednesday May 28th, from 5-8pm at the Patterson Global Foods building dining hall, there will be a chance to talk through your proposal and get advice or feedback from artists and designers who have experience with placemaking projects. Please let all your friends know! Molly -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PNManitoba" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pnmanitoba+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to pnmanitoba(a)googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pnmanitoba. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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WFP online: Police oppose photo radar cameras at pedestrian crosswalks proposal (May1'14)
by Beth McKechnie 01 May '14

01 May '14

Police oppose photo radar cameras at pedestrian crosswalks proposal By: Aldo Santin http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Police-oppose-photo-radar-cam… The city councillor who believes pedestrian crosswalks are unsafe said he is disappointed with the recommendation from Winnipeg Police opposing his proposal to install photo radar cameras at pedestrian corridors. Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) said he remains convinced that measures have to be taken to make pedestrian corridors safe for pedestrians. "If we’re not going to have cameras (at pedestrian corridors), then we better have more enforcement," Eadie said. "We’ve just been lucky there haven’t been more fatalities." A WPS report to the Winnipeg Police Board recommends no action be taken on Eadie’s suggestion, citing a lack of pedestrian fatalities, the expense involved, and the unwillingness of the Selinger government to expand the use of photo radar cameras. The report found only one pedestrian fatality at a pedestrian corridor – on Henderson Highway in 2011. "We don’t measure the near-misses and there are a lot of them," Eadie said. "I take my life into my hands every time I cross at a pedestrian corridor on Main Street because drivers are not obeying the rules. "The residents in my ward want something done about it." The report, which will be presented to the police board at its meeting Friday morning, says only one community in North America – Washington, DC – employs photo radar cameras at crosswalks. The DC cameras went into operation in November and the report says no conclusive data exists at this time to support a claim they are effective at improving pedestrian safety. <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/> aldo.santin(a)freepress.mb.ca

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From today's Atlantic Cities -- community with no need for school buses
by Patman, David 01 May '14

01 May '14

More communities like this, please - should not be so hard to do, should not be so unusual: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2014/05/suburb-where-kids-actually… David Patman, P. Eng. Transit Planner Winnipeg Transit | Service Development Division 421 Osborne Street | Winnipeg, Manitoba R3L 2A2 P: 204-986-5737 | dpatman(a)winnipeg.ca<mailto:dpatman@winnipeg.ca>

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School Planning and Transportation Policy
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

This is a US site, but offers some excellent planning and policy tools for school-based Active Transportation planning, including school travel planning and school siting policies, as well as other excellent broader AT planning and policy tools. http://www.atpolicy.org/school-planning-and-transportation-policy -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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How Montreal built a bike lane by debunking fears of "autoparkolypse"
by Beth McKechnie 29 Apr '14

29 Apr '14

Every city that's ever considered removing auto parking to make room for a protected bike lane has been, understandably, nervous. North America's best city for biking wasn't immune. But when it was planning its signature downtown bike project<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Maisonneuve_Boulevard#Claire_Morissette_bik…> in 2005, Montreal got past those concerns with a very simple tactic. Instead of counting only the change in parking spaces on the boulevard De Maisonneuve itself, a measure that might have led to headlines and perceptions that "half of the parking" was being removed, it counted the total number of auto parking spaces — public and private, on-street and off — within 200 meters of the project. The district, it turned out, had 11,000 parking spaces. Converting one of the corridor's two auto parking lanes to a protected bikeway would remove 300 of them, or just under 3 percent. "The effect on the debate was suprise," said Jean-Francois Pronovost of Vélo Québec <http://www.velo.qc.ca/>, the bike advocacy and planning nonprofit contracted by the city to study the issue. "No one estimated that there was that number of car parking [spaces] available." Even worried business owners were calmed, he said, when they saw the proposed changes in context. *Read full article*: http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/how-montreal-built-a-bike-lane-by-…

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What Jane's Walks are you going to?
by Beth McKechnie 28 Apr '14

28 Apr '14

Jane's Walk is this coming weekend! Have you browsed the list of more than 20 walks <http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg> on offer this year? On Saturday May 3rd and Sunday May 4th you can choose from walks in neighbourhoods across the city on a whole range of themes: from Selkirk Avenue to South Osborne, North Kildonan to Wildwood Park, Saint Boniface to Wolseley and many places in between! New walks are being added to the website every day. Visit janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg for more details. *Saturday May 3rd* 9:00am Over, Under, Sideways, Down: Downtown!<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/over-under-sideways-down-downtown/> 10:30am Fort Rouge Forever... along with beers, bears and a story about the real golden boy of Winnipeg<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/fort-rouge-foreveralong-beer-bears-and…> 11:00am Sidewalk Design 101: Accessible and Approachable Neighbourhoods<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/sidewalk-design-101-accessible-and-app…> 12:00pm On Our Way, West Broadway<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/our-way-west-broadway/> 12:30pm Urban Renewal and the University of Winnipeg<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/urban-renewal-and-university-winnipeg/> 1:00pm Osborne Village: The Best Neighbourhood in Canada<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/osborne-village-best-neighbourhood-can…> 1:30pm Saint Boniface, Then and Now<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/saint-boniface-then-and-now/> 2:00pm Re(Discover) Public Art<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/rediscover-public-art/> 2:00pm St. Norbert: Imagining our History and Future<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/imagining-our-history-and-future/> 2:00pm Winnipeg in 1890: Winnipeg's Curious History of Numbered Streets<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/winnipeg-1890-winnipegs-curious-histor…> 3:00pm A Policy Wonk's Guide to Osborne and Corydon Village<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/policy-wonks-guide-osborne-and-corydon…> *Sunday May 4th* 10:00am The History of Crescentwood: C.H Enderton's Vision in 1902<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/ch-endertons-vision-1902-history-cresc…> 10:30am From Mean to Green: Making Community Spaces in Spence Neighbourhood<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/mean-green-making-community-green-spac…> 11:00am History and Heroes - Victoria Park and the 1919 General Strike<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/history-hhistory/> 12:00pm Rediscover Selkirk Avenue<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/rediscover-selkirk-ave/> 1:00pm The East Exchange Expedition<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/east-exchange-walk-wild-side/> 1:00pm Kildonan Drive North <http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/2587/> 2:00pm Neighbourhoods Change: Exploring North Point Douglas<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/neighbourhoods-change-exploring-north-…> 2:00pm Jane's Walk School Bus: A Child Friendly tour of Main Street<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/janes-walking-school-bus-child-friendl…> 2:30pm Living Downtown with 546<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/living-downtown-546/> 3:00pm A Walk in the Park - Wildwood Park that is!<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/walk-park-wildwood-park1/> 4:00pm Ballads and Boulevards: The City through Song<http://janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg/ballads-and-boulevards-city-through-so…>

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Cycling course through the Leisure Guide
by Dave Elmore 27 Apr '14

27 Apr '14

The city cycling course for beginners was cancelled due to low registration. The course for commuters is close to the same fate only having 3 registered to date. If you know anyone that is interested in learning more about how to ride the city streets, let them know that they need to register by this Friday. The course in on page 82 of the Leisure Guide and here are the details: City Cycling for Commuters - 453581 REGISTER <https://www.leisureonline.ca/eConnect/MyBasket/MyBasket.asp?Type=1&AddCours e=7215%7E483091%7E0%7E0%7E0%7E0%7E0&AjaxRequest=true> Ages: 16 Yrs. to 99 Yrs. Fees: - Course Fee $45.00 - Non Resident Fee $54.00 Description: Would you like to start commuting but are uncomfortable on busier streets? Are you already commuting, but want to learn the cycling skills that will allow you to ride safely in heavier traffic? Certified Can-Bike instructors from Bike Winnipeg will help you build the skills and knowledge to ride confidently in traffic. The course is endorsed by the Manitoba Cycling Association and each participant will receive a copy of the Winnipeg Cycling Map. Spots Available: 9 Thanks Dave o _ ( \ _ (X)\ /(X)

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Have you been in a traffic collision? The Free Press wants to talk to you
by Anders Swanson 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

Have you been in a traffic collision? The Free Press wants to talk to you Have you been in a car accident in the last couple of years? The Free Press would like to hear your story. Next month, the *Free Press *will launch a series on road safety in Winnipeg. As part of the series, Mary Agnes Welch is looking to interview motorists, cyclists and pedestrians who have been involved in collisions in the last couple of years. We’d also love to hear your views on improving road safety in Winnipeg. Please email reporter Mary Agnes Welch at maryagnes.welch(a)freepress.mb.ca or call her at 204-697-7590.

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Chris Turner: Cycle tracks are the sustainable choice
by Anders Swanson 23 Apr '14

23 Apr '14

[With a network of downtown cycletracks one of the action items proposed in Winnipeg's new cycling strategies under development, it may be worth reading an article from Calgary - just now undertaking a similar initiative - that helps put the scale of the work into perspective. - Anders ] Chris Turner: Cycle tracks are the sustainable choice <goog_125892633> http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/op-ed/Turner+Cycle+tracks+sustainable+…

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Cycling for health, environment and economy
by Cyndi Otfinowski 23 Apr '14

23 Apr '14

Hello, I receive the phenews from the World Health Organization. They have just sent this press release available in multiple languages. http://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/press-releases/2014/cyclin… "Cycling for health, environment and economy Cycling could create at least 76 600 jobs and save 10 000 lives every year in major European cities according to the new publication by the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the WHO Regional Office for Europe. If these cities reached the cycling modal share of Copenhagen, they would not only benefit from the positive effects on health and environment, but also economically. " Sincerely, Cyndi Otfinowski

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Fwd: 2014 Accessibility Awards
by Anders Swanson 23 Apr '14

23 Apr '14

[Dear AT-Network: Know a project/person/design/initiative/firm that has excelled at making it easier for persons with disabilities to move around Winnipeg? Think it deserves an award? Nominate them. See below. - anders] ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *Sobkowicz, Chris* <csobkowicz(a)winnipeg.ca> Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 Subject: 2014 Accessibility Awards To: "Sobkowicz, Chris" <csobkowicz(a)winnipeg.ca> *** Please feel free to pass this along to all of your contacts and associates. Thanks.******* *Save the Date…… Construction is now complete!* *Time to cut the ribbon…* Building upon our successes and work in promoting universal design principles and accessibility issues with the stakeholders of built spaces in Winnipeg, and in celebration of the Access Advisory Committee’s 20th year, the committee has completed the makeover of its annual awards program – the Access Awards. Presented and administered by the City of Winnipeg’s Access Advisory Committee, the Access Awards raise awareness regarding the importance of accessibility and universal design in the City of Winnipeg. Universal design makes life more equitable, safe, comfortable and affordable for everyone, including people with disabilities. These annual awards honour projects that incorporate physical access, communication access and/or way finding. What is different this year? *You have to go to be in the know…* Formerly known as the City Accessibility Awards, the 2014 Access Awards now have a different category structure and an updated criteria for eligibility. Further, all nominees and award recipients will be announced at a celebratory event. Nominees will not be announced in advance. This event is an excellent opportunity to network with other architects, designers, project owners, students and other professionals in the field. The organizing committee has selected the theme “Celebrating our successes and the increased use of universal design over the years”, which will be highlighted through a comedic retrospective showing how we have changed our “Best Practices” over the past eleven years. Save the date! *Celebrating accessibility…* This new gala evening will be held *Wednesday, September 10th, 2014*, at the Met Entertainment Centre, where we will announce the winner of the City’s Award of Excellence in Design and all the 2014 nominees and the category winners in an Academy Awards-style programme. The event includes dinner, wine and entertainment. Hope to see you there! Call for Nominations *Recognizing great local work…* The nomination process is now open and it is time to recognize the great work that has been recently completed in our city. We have attached the new nomination package and form that has all of the information needed to nominate a project. This material can also be found on our web site at: www.aacwinnipeg.mb.ca Chris Sobkowicz Coordinator Winnipeg Access Advisory Committee 204 986-8345 csobkowicz(a)winnipeg.ca<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','csobkowicz(a)winnipeg.ca');> www.aacwinnipeg.mb.ca *Chris Sobkowicz* Coordinator City of Winnipeg Access Advisory Committee 204 986-8345 www.aacwinnipeg.mb.ca

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Fwd: Webinar: Bringing Health into the Transportation Planning Process
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 21 Apr '14

21 Apr '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sarah Prowse <sprowse(a)wrha.mb.ca> Date: 11 April 2014 12:53 Subject: Webinar: Bringing Health into the Transportation Planning Process To: Hello, We would like to invite you to join us for the CHNET and CLASP webinar "Bringing Health into the Transportation Planning Process" - a presentation of some of the work undertaken in British Columbia and Quebec through the Healthy Canada by Design CLASP initiative. Following the 2 hour webinar, we'll have an opportunity to spend half an hour discussing the implications for Winnipeg. We've had the opportunity to hear about this work in its earlier stages, and we're excited to hear about the most recent lessons learned and how they can be applied here! Please feel free to bring your lunch as the webinar does fall over our lunch hour. We will also try to have some snacks. RSVPs are appreciated but not necessary. Please feel free to contact me at sprows(a)wrha.mb.ca or 204 962-0403. Enjoy the puddles (or more snow!) this weekend J Sarah *Bringing Health into the Transportation Planning Process * April 24, 2014, 12:00-2:30pm Winnipeg Regional Health Authority 490 Hargrave Street Meeting Room 119* *Enter through the Travel Health Clinic entrance at the corner of Hargrave St & McDermot Ave Bike racks are available in front of the building at the corner of Hargrave and McDermot. Plan your Winnipeg Transit trip: http://winnipegtransit.com/en/navigo Street parking (metered) is available in front of the building *CHNET-Works! is pleased to collaborate with the Healthy Canada by Design CLASP Initiative, funded by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, on this Fireside Chat.* *Researchers from Simon Fraser University and the University of Montreal will present two projects directed at health and transportation planning. * *Join us to hear about:* · What Simon Fraser researchers discovered, and recommend, about the data that is needed and available to bring health into transportation planning processes. · The approach that Montreal researchers have developed, and the data that is needed, to assess the health impacts associated with transportation options in Montreal. *Who should attend? *Professionals in public health, planning and transportation who are interested in weaving health considerations into the transportation planning processes in their communities. *Advisors on Tap:* [image: Description: Description: Description: M Winters] * Meghan Winters* is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She is an Epidemiologist interested in the link between health, transportation, and city design. [image: Description: Description: Description: A Smargiassi]*Audrey Smargiassi* has a PhD in Environmental Sciences. She is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Montreal. She is a spokesperson for a team of researchers and practitioners from Montreal Public Health, the University of Montreal, and McGill University, including Patrick Morency, Louis Drouin, Céline Plante, Louis-François Tetreault, Sophie Goudreau, Marianne Hatzopoulou and Lise Gauvin. Sarah Prowse Physical Activity Promotion Coordinator 2nd floor - 490 Hargrave Street Winnipeg, MB R3A 0X7 Telephone 204 232 3297 Fax 204 940-2690 Email sprowse(a)wrha.mb.ca Bike racks are available in front of the building at the corner of Hargrave and McDermot. Plan your Winnipeg Transit trip: http://winnipegtransit.com/en/navigo Follow Winnipeg *in motion* on Twitter @wpginmotion Sign up to receive updates from Winnipeg *in motion* @ http://www.winnipeginmotion.ca/signup/ This email and/or any documents in this transmission is intended for the addressee(s) only and may contain legally privileged or confidential information. Any unauthorized use, disclosure, distribution, copying or dissemination is strictly prohibited. If you receive this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and return the original. Ce courriel et tout document dans cette transmission est destiné à la personne ou aux personnes à qui il est adressé. Il peut contenir des informations privilégiées ou confidentielles. Toute utilisation, divulgation, distribution, copie, ou diffusion non autorisée est strictement défendue. Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire de ce message, veuillez en informer l'expéditeur immédiatement et lui remettre l'original. -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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FW: Review - cross Canada education materials
by Dave Elmore 18 Apr '14

18 Apr '14

Might be an interesting study to look at if anyone can get access to the full document. See link below. Thanks Dave o _ ( \ _ (X)\ /(X) From: Jason Carter [mailto:JCARTER@wcb.mb.ca] Sent: April-15-14 11:50 AM To: Dave Elmore Subject: Review - cross Canada education materials Hi Not that this helps because it's not a full text article that's free - but someone you know may be able to get it from a University system. J. http://trb.metapress.com/content/t92w3053n0582850/?genre=article <http://trb.metapress.com/content/t92w3053n0582850/?genre=article&id=doi%3a1 0.3141%2f2387-05> &id=doi%3a10.3141%2f2387-05

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Ontario Cycling Action Plan
by Beth McKechnie 18 Apr '14

18 Apr '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Terry Zdan <tjzdan50(a)gmail.com> To: "at-network-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca" < at-network-bounces(a)lists.umanitoba.ca>, Mark Cohoe <mcohoe(a)casch.com>, Anders Swanson <andersswanson(a)gmail.com>, jlukes <jlukes(a)shaw.ca> Cc: Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:03:15 -0500 Subject: Ontario Cycling Action Plan " Quick Facts - Since 2010, Ontario has added 112 kilometres of paved shoulders along provincial highways. - Ontario has introduced legislation to improve cycling safety. If passed, it would require motorists to maintain a distance of at least one metre while passing cyclists and introduce harsher penalties for dooring. - In 2010, two million Canadian visitors spent $391 million while cycling in Ontario -- an 18 per cent increase over the previous year. - According to the Canadian Medical Association, a 10 per cent increase<http://policybase.cma.ca/dbtw-wpd/Policypdf/PD09-04.pdf>in physical activity could reduce direct health care expenditures by $150 million a year. - Ontario has the second-lowest cycling injury rate of all Canadian provinces." http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/pubs/cycling/index.shtml http://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2014/04/province-building-cycling-infrastruct… -- Terry Zdan 126 Duncan Norrie Drive Wpg MB R3P 2J9 CANADA tjzdan50(a)gmail.com <tjzdan(a)gmasil.com>

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Winnipeg neighbourhood in the Top Ten for cycling accross canada for cycling.
by Anders Swanson 17 Apr '14

17 Apr '14

The article also has some interesting things to say about Winnipeg's potential overall. Check it out: http://www.cityclock.org/10-neighbourhoods-highest-levels-cycling-work-cana…

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Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies - Input opportunity!
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 17 Apr '14

17 Apr '14

For those who may have missed the pedestrian and cycling strategies open houses over the last week, you can check out the boards and offer input until the end of next week (April 25th). http://www.winnipeg.ca/publicworks/MajorProjects/ActiveTransportation/WalkB… -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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4 Fascinating Facts about Bicycling and Walking
by Beth McKechnie 16 Apr '14

16 Apr '14

Dear friend, How does your state stack up on bicycling and walking? Today, we are releasing *Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2014 Benchmarking Report*, a massive compendium of data on bicycling and walking in all 50 states, the 52 largest U.S. cities, and a select number of midsized cities. The Alliance produces the Benchmarking Report every two years in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Healthy Community Design Initiative. The report comprehensively examines bicycling and walking transportation across the U.S. and how these trends relate to public health, safety, and social and economic well being. There's a TON of really fascinating data in this year's Alliance Benchmarking Report. See for yourself: download the 2014 Benchmarking Report.<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0018mgUXQ5cNJhaCBFrkAHXPo0JfPeZiG-AnC5lEMdPV8KI…> <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0018mgUXQ5cNJhaCBFrkAHXPo0JfPeZiG-AnC5lEMdPV8KI…> For a sneak peek, check out four of the most fascinating facts from the report below. *1. We're seeing small but steady increases in the number of people biking and walking to work.* The average large American city experienced a 5.9% increase in population from 2000 to 2010 without comparable increases in land mass, and budgets are tight across the board. Both of these factors point to a need to find cost-effective modes of transportation that move people without taking up more space. *2. There are lower bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities where there are more people are biking and walking.* There is safety in numbers. In the graph below, orange dots represent pedestrian fatality rates -- i.e., the number of people who have died while walking as a portion of the number of people who walk to work. The grey line indicates the percentage of the population who bikes to work, and the green line shows correlation between the two. *3. More people tend to bike or walk to work when a city has strong biking and walking advocacy. * In 1996, there were just a handful of state and local biking and walking advocacy organizations and only 10 full time staff working on these issues. Now, there are over 230 state and local biking and walking advocacy groups and over 500 full time staff. A growing number of concerned citizens are organizing for safer, more accessible streets for walking and bicycling. And there is a positive correlation between the number of people who bike and walk to work in a city and the incomes and staff sizes of those cities' biking & walking advocacy organizations: *4. A large percentage of commuters bike and walk to work in Alaska, Oregon, Montana, New York, and Vermont. * Not so much in South Carolina, Atlanta, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. Here's a map of bicycling and walking levels by state across the country: Think this is interesting? Download your copy of the 2014 Benchmarking Report here.<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0018mgUXQ5cNJhaCBFrkAHXPo0JfPeZiG-AnC5lEMdPV8KI…> <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0018mgUXQ5cNJhaCBFrkAHXPo0JfPeZiG-AnC5lEMdPV8KI…> Best, Mary Lauran Hall Communications Director <http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&m=001fVXok0jsw3t7yu4AtMBC1w%3D%3…> <http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?cc=TEM_Basic_209> This email was sent to beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca by info(a)peoplepoweredmovement.org | Update Profile/Email Address<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=oo&m=001fVXok0jsw3t7yu4AtMBC1w%3D%3…> | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&m=001fVXok0jsw3t7yu4AtMBC1w%3D%3…>(tm) | Privacy Policy <http://ui.constantcontact.com/roving/CCPrivacyPolicy.jsp>. Alliance for Biking & Walking | PO Box 65150 | Washington | DC | 20035

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Motor Vehicle-Pedestrian Collisions and Walking to School: The Role of the Built Environment
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 16 Apr '14

16 Apr '14

Motor Vehicle-Pedestrian Collisions and Walking to School: The Role of the Built Environment http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/04/02/peds.2013-23… CONCLUSIONS: Pedestrian collisions are more strongly associated with built environment features than with proportions walking. Road design features were related to higher collision rates and warrant further examination for their safety effects for children. Future policy designed to increase children's active transportation should be developed from evidence that more clearly addresses child pedestrian safety. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Haynes <activetransportation(a)rogers.com> Date: 15 April 2014 17:46 Subject: Active Transportation Canada - New Listings: April 15, 2014 To: Winter is behind us (Let us hope), and the worlds of cycling and walking are becoming more active with the warmer weather. Since the last notice, in March, links to more than 100 new articles that have been posted on Active Transportation-Canada. You probably will not have time to read more than a few, so here are some recommendations: 1. Toronto Star - Ontario commits $25M for cycling infrastructure<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/toronto-star-ontario…> 2. Want a Healthier City? Prescribe Biking<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/want-healthier-city-…> 3. Ontario Planners Push for 'Active Transportation'<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/ontario-planners-pus…> 4. Motor Vehicle-Pedestrian Collisions and Walking to School: The Role of the Built Environment - Study<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/motor-vehicle-pedest…> 5. Report - Has Motorization in the U.S. Peaked?<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/report-has-motorizat…> 6. Copenhagen - Is Cycling Up or Down or What?<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/copenhagen-is-cyclin…> 7. Popularity of wheelchair skateboarding is on a roll<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/popularity-of-wheelc…> 8. 48 Madcap Hours in the Life of Citi Bike<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/48-madcap-hours-in-l…> 9. Will a World of Driverless Cars Be Heaven or Hell?<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/will-world-of-driver…> 10. Calgary - Wrong Track for Calgary Cycle Tracks<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/04/calgary-wrong-track-…> But if you have some time, just visit the home page and explore for yourself: http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/. If you are interested in Active Transportation isssues, I suspect you will find something worthwhile among the nearly 3,000 items that have been posted. Michael Haynes Director TransActive Solutions -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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Take a stroll through the city - Jane's Walks about community talks
by Beth McKechnie 15 Apr '14

15 Apr '14

Take a stroll through the cityJane's Walks about community talks THE eighth annual Jane's Walk is back -- this time with more than a dozen guided walks throughout fascinating areas of Winnipeg. Jane's Walk celebrates the ideas and legacy of Jane Jacobs -- a celebrated urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to building walkable and vibrant cites. Free walking tours held on the first weekend of May each year are led by locals who want to create a space for residents to talk about what matters to them in the places they live and work. The first Jane's Walk was organized in Toronto eight years ago and it has since spread to cites across Canada, the United States and worldwide. Community members with a passion for urban issues and local history volunteer to organize a walking tour in their neighbourhood exploring an interesting aspect of the lived urban experience. Jane's Walks are about community conversations. Walks confirmed for this year include: - Neighbourhoods Change: Exploring North Point Douglas. Join longtime North Point Douglas tour guide Rob Galston as he highlights important landmarks, sites, personalities and historic events that have given shape to one of Winnipeg's most historic, fascinatng and resilient neighbourhoods. - Explore the forgotten history of Victoria Park, the main gathering place for strikers during the 1919 General Strike in Sandy Gesslar's History and Heroes: Victoria Park and Winnipeg General Strike. - Join Tricia Wasney, manager of the Winnipeg Arts Council's Public Art Program, for an inspiring tour of the public art you walk by every day. - Over Under Sideways Down: Downtown! invites you to explore one of the most fascinating urban centres in Canada. Veteran Jane's Walk leader Rob Shaw presents an eclectic walk looking at "old gems" and new trends in downtown street design and residential development. - What can one street tell you about the changing face of a neighbourhood? On Our Way, West Broadway invites you to join Choi Ho as she walks a short stretch of Spence Street. A complete list of walks is published on www.janeswalk.org/canada/winnipeg. Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 14, 2014 A10

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Chamber of Commerce BOLD Conference Idea: Creating a Year-Round Active Transportation Network
by Anders Swanson 14 Apr '14

14 Apr '14

*[Even though it is extremely unlikely there is someone on this list that is still interested in hearing me expound on ideas related to active transportation, t**he organizers asked me to pass it along and it's a worthwhile event, so I am. Details below. **- Anders]* On April 22 I am presenting my BOLD idea for Winnipeg at The Chamber’s half-day BOLD Conference—I encourage you to come out and do the same. The BOLD movement is all about bringing people together and thinking outside the box. Please consider joining the discussion Tuesday, April 22 from 7:30 am – 1:30 pm at The Met. The morning’s three panels focus on: 1. Creating community 2. Encouraging creativation (creativity, innovation and inspiration) 3. Looking ahead to what aspects will define Winnipeg over the next 100 years The event’s keynote speakers include *Gail Stephens* (Chief Operations Officer, CMHR) and *Hon. Kevin Chief*, Minister responsible for relations with the City of Winnipeg, Minister for Children and Youth Opportunities. For more information and to purchase tickets: http://www.winnipeg-chamber.com/events/BOLD-Winnipeg-Conference-56937/detai… I hope to see you there. *Details:* Half-day BOLD Conference Tuesday, April 22, 2014 7:30 AM - 1:30 PM The MET 281 Donald St. Tickets are $75 + GST and include breakfast, coffee, and lunch. Click here<http://www.winnipeg-chamber.com/events/BOLD-Winnipeg-Conference-56937/detai…> to get your tickets. [image: photo BOLDconferenceApril22-e-ad_zpsf78d5b37.jpg]<http://www.winnipeg-chamber.com/events/BOLD-Winnipeg-Conference-56937/detai…>

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WFP: Bike, sidewalk plan under public scrutiny (Apr.13'14)
by Beth McKechnie 13 Apr '14

13 Apr '14

Bike, sidewalk plan under public scrutiny Some progress but more needed: backers By: Carol Sanders http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/bike-sidewalk-plan-under-public-scru… With freezing rain and an unwelcome dump of snow, Saturday wasn't a great day for Winnipeg cyclists or walkers. But that didn't stop them from packing an open house at The Forks to get the lay of the land on the city's proposed bike and sidewalk strategies. Visitors to the Manitoba Theatre for Young People were asked for their feedback on City of Winnipeg plans to improve safety and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists. The Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies spring from the city's 2011 transportation master plan. It calls for continuous improvements to Winnipeg's cycling network and making walking a more attractive choice. Plans for active transportation have come a long way in a short time, said Mark Cohoe, a cycling advocate who started out with Bike to the Future. The citizens group began in 2006 and quickly gained traction, pushing for better bike routes in Winnipeg. "It's like night and day," Cohoe said Saturday at the Walk Bike Winnipeg open house, where he represented the stakeholders' committee. He's seen the budget for sidewalks and bike routes go from just $250,000 in 2006 to more than $3 million today, resulting in more people walking and riding around the city. "The number of cyclists we're seeing is a great return on investment." More and better trails for cyclists will get more people riding bikes and result in a healthier population, said Nick Humniski. The second-year medical student said he's studying what deters Winnipeggers from cycling and its health benefits. The avid cyclist said he's ridden bikes in other cities, including Vancouver. "It has amazing bike infrastructure." Its dedicated bike lanes aren't just white lines painted on the road. "They're separated from the road and safer," Humniski said. There are bike traffic signals plus a lot of people riding bikes in Vancouver, and there's safety in numbers, he said. In Winnipeg, he gets the sense cyclists feel "second-rate." Bike routes will end suddenly, for example, he said. The one he follows from the Corydon Avenue area to classes at Health Sciences Centre ends abruptly on Sherbrook Street at Notre Dame Avenue. At rush hour, he's left feeling pretty vulnerable on his bike in the high-traffic area, he said. "There's no protection," said Humniski, who has been hit by vehicles twice on his bike but was not seriously hurt. Police are happy to see more bike trails and pedestrian paths and remind both cyclists and pedestrians to look out for each other. "Entering spring, there are a lot more people out these days," said Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen. A common concern police hear is from the elderly and disabled who say they're being hit or jostled by bikes riding on sidewalks. Kids' bikes are OK but bigger bikes are supposed to be on the road, he said. "These are shared spaces," said Michalyshen. "We need to be courteous to one another and know what our responsibilities are." carol.sanders(a)freepress.mb.ca *Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 13, 2014 A3* ** * * * ** Also some positive coverage in the Winnipeg Sun! (just don't wade into the comments) http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/04/12/winnipeggers-get-glimpse-of-cyclist-s…

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WFP: Advocates hail new bike lane on Sherbrook - Will separate traffic from bicycles (Apr.11'14)
by Beth McKechnie 11 Apr '14

11 Apr '14

Advocates hail new bike lane on SherbrookWill separate traffic from bicycles <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/> By: Adam Wazny http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/advocates-hail-new-bike-lane-on-sher… <http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/800*730/5802799.jpg> Enlarge Image<http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/800*730/5802799.jpg> OPEN HOUSES TO TALK BICYCLING Starting Saturday, the city is holding a number of open houses to discuss pedestrian and cycling strategies. A review of draft recommendations that will shape the city's active transportation plan is scheduled, including how recent changes to the bike lane/walking trail infrastructure will co-exist with future projects. Saturday's open house goes from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People. Two separate public forums are scheduled for Tuesday (April 15); one at Manitoba Hydro Place atrium and the other at the Sinclair Park Community Centre. Both are open from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. A new bike lane appears to have Winnipeg on the right track. Earlier this week, the city announced plans to construct a new dedicated bike lane on Sherbrook Street running north from the Maryland Bridge to Cumberland Avenue. Part of this lane includes a parking-protected section for cyclists, a stretch of lane that will feature a row of parked cars serving as a physical divide between riders and traffic. The protected section of the lane, which should open to cyclists this summer, is widely considered a trial project for lanes of this kind in the city. The premise has city cycling advocates excited for what the future could hold for those interested in getting around on two wheels. 'We've been pushing for something like this, whether it's a separated cycle track or a protected bike lane, for a long time' -- Bike Winnipeg executive director Mark Cohoe "We've been pushing for something like this, whether it's a separated cycle track or a protected bike lane, for a long time," Bike Winnipeg executive director Mark Cohoe said Thursday. "We've been working with the city on Sherbrook since 2010 so we're excited to see it's coming through. "We hope this is the start of more improvements to the bike infrastructure in the city. One of the biggest fears we hear from cyclists is that fear of traffic and having to mix in between the traffic. This project will be worth the wait." The new lane will be split into three sections. The parking-protected stage will run from Wolseley Avenue to Broadway, on the right side of the one-way street. Cyclists will ride between the parked cars (which will now be 24-hour parking) and the sidewalk, with some curb bump-outs to alert motorists of the bike lane when parking. Unlike the wider bike lanes and sidewalk ramps on Pembina Highway (between Chevrier Boulevard and Plaza Drive), which continue to create confusion between cyclists and pedestrians, Winnipeg Transit users will find the new bike lane environment on Sherbrook a little easier to navigate. Bicycles will stay on the street, Cohoe said. The second section (from Broadway to Ellice Avenue) will be a wider, clearly marked lane to the left of the parked cars adjacent to traffic. Between Ellice and Cumberland avenues, the lane will slide up against the curb on the right side of the street, similar to the bike lane that runs along Maryland Street in the other direction. The city has indicated two white painted lines on the roadway will provide more navigation room for cyclists travelling along Sherbrook. "It will have a little more buffer to it, a little more space," Cohoe said. Cohoe said the existing width of Sherbrook is the biggest reason the project is going ahead, as retrofitting proper bike lanes into the current city layout on the cheap is proving to be a challenge for active transportation hopefuls. "We're going to continue to push to get a little more width in some spaces, but this is a good first step," he said. adam.wazny(a)freepress.mb.ca Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 11, 2014 A7

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Montreal this Summer? --> Bike lab 2014
by Anders Swanson 10 Apr '14

10 Apr '14

Hello, Passing along an opportunity to all of you local bike/pedestrian-inclined planners/engineers....some of whom may have seen Bartek and JF's respective presentations this February (or remember Marc's back in 2009). If you plan to be anywhere near La Belle Province this June - or want to - you may want to have a look at this info on Bike Lab Montreal 2014: http://www.velo.qc.ca/en/event/bikelabmtl-home A trip to Canada/Quebec's most beautiful, exciting and bike-friendly city is never wasted - no matter your reason - but especially with the chance to learn from the pioneers, experience the Tour de L'Ile first-hand and meet all kinds of people as you take part in an intensive 2-day design workshop. Cheers, Anders

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AT webinar: Public Health Benefits of AT, Wed, Apr 16, 2-3pm, EcoCentre
by Beth McKechnie 10 Apr '14

10 Apr '14

Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg invite you to join us for a local viewing of the following APBP webinar at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave). This will be followed by group discussion of local applications. Description provided below. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth (204) 925-3772 ** * * * ** *Public Health Benefits of Active Transportation* *Wednesday, April 16, 2014 | 2:00-3:00 pm Central* Active transportation creates important opportunities for routine physical activity. Effective collaboration between public health and active transportation can strengthen projects with better results for all residents, including children, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and low-income families. By understanding the impact of different types of interventions on the behavior of drivers and pedestrians, transportation professionals can create and construct designs that meet community goals. This webinar looks at case studies in Charlotte, N.C. and Columbia, Missouri, where changes to the streetscape were studied for their effects on physical activity and social interactions. The interventions include replacing a pedestrian bridge with an at-grade, signalized crossing; and modifying the streetscape and street profile with landscaping, narrower driving lanes and additional bike lanes. Presenters also suggest techniques for breaking down professional silos and engaging transportation, public health and research professionals in a collaborative study and design process. *Presenters:* - Ian Thomas, PhD, Board of Directors, America Walks - Dwane Jones, PhD, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development, University of the District of Columbia

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WFP: City studying more sidewalk clearing around schools (Apr.9'14)
by Beth McKechnie 09 Apr '14

09 Apr '14

City studying more sidewalk clearing around schools <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/> By: Nick Martin http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/city-studying-more-sidewalk-clearing… The city could clear every sidewalk around every school in Winnipeg right after a snowfall next winter. But it will require city council to approve a major policy change at a significant but unknown cost this summer, right before October's municipal election. "We'd be looking at the impact of making the sidewalks around schools priority 1 or priority 2," said Jim Berezowsky, the city's manager of street maintenance. "The expectation is they want it to be done the first day." Pembina Trails School Division raised alarms earlier this winter when the city was considering reducing snow-clearing operations on residential streets. Berezowsky said that prompted the city to re-examine its snow-clearing policies, particularly on sidewalks around school properties. The city has three priority levels for sidewalks, he said. Depending on how major the roadway in front of a school, the front-entrance sidewalk and school-bus loading zone would currently be cleared in the first or second wave of operations. But most schools have the vast majority of their property, including school fields, along residential side streets, and those sidewalks along school property have been a third-level priority. That could change next winter, but it would mean buying more sidewalk snow-clearing machines and hiring people to operate them, Berezowsky said. He said the city clears sidewalks after five centimetres of snowfall. "It's going to be an increased cost to the city. As a policy decision, it would still have to go to council" after staff finishes their study and report back sometime this summer. It's a matter of safety, Berezowsky said. Most families drive their kids to school, but they'd let them off earlier if the kids could walk safely the rest of the way, he said. "It's because of the amount of traffic that picks up and drops off kids. They want to be able to drop them off farther away." He wrote Pembina Trails school board chairman David Johnson the city's decision will be announced in August. Berezowsky replied to the division's letter to Mayor Sam Katz "regarding priority concerns of snow clearing in and around schools within the Pembina Trails School Division. Previous discussions with school divisions appeared to be centred solely around residential streets for the priority enhancements during winter months," Berezowsky said. "Sidewalks never appeared to be a consideration during those previous talks. We will definitely analyze sidewalk clearing in conjunction with the street-service priority given in the winter months to the various schools. "I will provide you with an update in August 2014 on the status of sidewalks as they pertain to the winter enhanced service in and around schools," he wrote. Pembina Trails superintendent Ted Fransen was delighted. "We're very pleased to hear the city is taking our concerns seriously," Fransen said. nick.martin(a)freepress.mb.ca Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 9, 2014 B1

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Active & Green: Cashengers, Got Potholes?, Commuter Challenge is Back!, Bike Blender Rental
by Beth McKechnie 09 Apr '14

09 Apr '14

Hope you enjoy the latest issue of Active & Green! Check out past issues or subscribe here <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/active-green/>. Please share widely - thanks. Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.<http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f55cc&id=f3af20966b…> *Looking to improve commuter options at your workplace?* Request resources<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>on cycling, carpooling, commuting surveys and tracking progress, among others. Book a presentation<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>on creating a commuter friendly workplace, greening the workplace, and more. Rent our bike-powered blender<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>for your next workplace event -- always a hit! RRC Sustainability staff blend up some fun ------------------------------ *Upcoming Events* Pedestrian & Cycling Strategies Open Houses<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> April 12 & 15, 2014 Precautionary Principle - The Nicole Bruinsma Story<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> April 22, 2014 Earth Day - Winnipeg premiere Film screening & panel Earth Day at Fort Whyte<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> April 27, 2014 City Cycling for Beginners<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> May 3, 2014 Jane's Walks<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> May 3-4, 2014 City Cycling for Commuters<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> May 10, 2014 Commuter Challenge Week<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> June 1-7, 2014 Bike Week<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> June 16-22, 2014 ------------------------------ *10-minute walk* Where can you walk to within 1km in your neighbourhood? 31 restaurants 18 grocery stores 7 schools 14 shops 0 restaurants 1 grocery store 0 schools 0 shops *"Ca$hengers": What's fair? * When you're starting up a carpool with co-workers or others, it can be tricky (or even awkward) figuring out how to split costs. Sound familiar? Try these online tools and apps to help determine a fair fare<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>. If you already carpool, how did you<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> decide on the amount? *Open Houses - April 12 & 15 * Plan to attend one of the upcoming Open Houses<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> on walking and cycling in Winnipeg - this Saturday, April 12, or Tuesday, April 15. Come hear about the draft city-wide bicycle and pedestrian network as well as recommendations for new policies related to Active Transportation. Guaranteed to be way more interesting than it sounds! *Calling all wanna-cyclists* Looking to dust off your bike and try riding again? Maybe you're thinking about starting to cycle to work or school? Sign up for a hands-on-the-handlebars workshop with a CAN-BIKE certified instructor. Two courses are available through the Leisure Guide: City Cycling for Beginners<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>on Saturday, May 3rd, and City Cycling for Commuters<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>on Saturday, May 10th. *Commuter Challenge is back!* It's time to register your workplace<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>for the Commuter Challenge! This annual friendly competition encourages you and your co-workers to walk, run, cycle, bus, carpool, paddle, in-line skate or skateboard to work. Sign up for fun, for your health, for the environment -- not to mention a chance to win some amazing prizes. *Got potholes? * Explore some creative uses for potholes in this fun series of photographs<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> from around North America. *Open call: Jane's Walk 2014* Do you have an idea for a fun, informative, unusual way of looking at your city and neighbourhood? Jane's Walk<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>wants you to organize a walk in your community! *Winter is back (just kidding)* If you missed the International Winter Cycling Congress in February, don't fret. Check out the video<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>, conference photos<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> and presentations<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>from this Winnipeg event. You are receiving this email because you are an Active & Green subscriber. Unsubscribe<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca from this list. Our mailing address is: Green Action Centre 3-303 Portage Ave. Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2B4 Canada Add us to your address book<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/vcard?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f5…> Copyright (C) 2014 Green Action Centre All rights reserved. Forward<http://us2.forward-to-friend2.com/forward?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f55cc&id=f3…>this email to a friend Update your profile<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3…> [image: Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp]<http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm…>

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Vote The WRENCH
by Rivers West 08 Apr '14

08 Apr '14

Hi everyone, The WRENCH has been nominated for the MTS Future First Community Grant. Help them win $ 10,000 by voting now! http://www.mts.ca/mts/future+first/grants#poll Have a good day! -- *Sylvie Fouasse* Rivers West info(a)riverswest.ca (204) 925-2320 ext 108

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Fwd: Call for Nominations: Energy Efficiency or Active / Sustainable Transportation Behavior Change Case Studies (for peer-selection by Tools of Change Landmark panels)
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 08 Apr '14

08 Apr '14

FYI: Tools of Change is soliciting nominations for its 2014 *Landmark* behavior change case studies in two topic areas - (1) home / building energy conservation and (2) sustainable transportation. If you know of anyone working on a particularly effective or innovative approach for changing energy or transportation behaviors, please consider nominating them - or yourself. All nominations must include measured impact results. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jay Kassirer <kassirer(a)toolsofchange.com> Date: 1 April 2014 08:29 Subject: Call for Nominations: Energy Efficiency or Active / Sustainable Transportation Behavior Change Case Studies (for peer-selection by Tools of Change Landmark panels) To: asrts(a)greenactioncentre.ca Having trouble viewing this email? Click here <http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=nmzyc7n6&v=001PSxIp8rnBc…> You are receiving this email from Tools of Change because you subscribed to our newsletter mailing list or recently participated in one of our webinars or workshops. You may unsubscribe<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&mse=001EBMcLcbjBgc3FB4imj3Nmcawz…>if you no longer wish to receive our emails. *Call for Nominations* *Landmark Behavior Change Case Studies(Energy Efficiency and Active / Sustainable Transportation)* [image: Tools of Change social marketing toolkit] *Quick Links* *Tools of Change Website <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001uQTNpmC1GtXmLtw36L0tumL7G_rAKg5a6yqWZubWt6DQ…>* *More On Us <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001uQTNpmC1GtVZKAS2uAEz1uHKsELMdervJcax1x51DV_9…>* *Join Our List* [image: Join Our Mailing List]<http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1011333490061> *Sponsors* We are pleased to acknowledge the generous contributions of the following sponsors: *Government of Canada* Health Canada Natural Resources Canada Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Transport Canada Federation of Canadian Municipalities National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy Suncor *About Us* Tools of Change promotes best practices in social marketing and a healthier, more sustainable future. Our social marketing website was awarded the Society of Environmental Journalists' highest rating as an information source for environmental journalists, and is recognized by the Infography as one of six superlative references on social marketing. We also host a wide range of webinars on health, environment and safety issues. More about us<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001uQTNpmC1GtWBhPSHFkozpDeNgwnq_jNXwXlRKHbsJGx-…> * For immediate Release - March 31,** 2014* *Dear Jackie,* *For Immediate Release. MS Word copies of media release and backgrounder are at *www.toolsofchange.com/en/landmark/<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001uQTNpmC1GtXXbOcWov5auXNnQ-E0pVZTDSpRjkvnTDuL…> Tools of Change is soliciting nominations for its 2014 *Landmark* behavior change case studies in two topic areas - (1) home / building energy conservation and (2) sustainable transportation. If you know of anyone working on a particularly effective or innovative approach for changing energy or transportation behaviors, please consider nominating them - or yourself. All nominations must include measured impact results. Designation as a "*Landmark*" (best practice) case study through this peer selection process recognizes behavior change programs and approaches considered to be among the most successful, innovative, replicable and adaptable in the world. Designated programs gain exposure, credibility and free, on-line program case study materials, which may make it easier for them to attract clients and maintain or increase program funding. Nominations are screened by Tools of Change staff and then the most promising are rated by peer selection panels based on a standard scoring grid. Designated programs are highlighted in our webinars, the webinar transcripts and video recordings, and written case studies. Program organizers get a *Landmark* designation logo for use on websites and in electronic newsletters, providing click-through access to the program's case study materials. The nomination form, which can be downloaded from www.toolsofchange.com/en/landmark/<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001uQTNpmC1GtXXbOcWov5auXNnQ-E0pVZTDSpRjkvnTDuL…>, must be submitted by May 30, 2014. Designations will be announced by October 2014, and case study webinars will be presented between January and May 2015. To view *Landmark* case studies designated in past years, go to www.toolsofchange.com/en/landmark/<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001uQTNpmC1GtXXbOcWov5auXNnQ-E0pVZTDSpRjkvnTDuL…> Help us spread the news. If you know of others who might be interested, forward this to them. If you are a media writer or editor, tell this story. [image: Gray]<http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?m=1011333490061&a=1116968716600&e…> Jay Kassirer, General Manager, Tools of Change *Backgrounder* *About Tools of Change * *Tools of Change* was launched in January, 2000 as a collaborative effort between Cullbridge(tm) and such partners as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Health Canada, Natural Resources Canada, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Environment Canada, and Canada's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. Founded on the principles of community-based social marketing, *Tools of Change* engages program planners and facilitators from around the world to share and learn from their collective experiences. Its mandate is to build the capacity for planning and implementing more successful health, safety and environmental promotion programs. The *Tools of Change* website, sections of which are based on a workbook co-authored by Jay Kassirer and Doug McKenzie-Mohr, currently hosts about 130 full-length case studies. An impact evaluation of site users found that most returned to the site many times, had improved their programs as a result, and had used the site to help explain and justify their ideas to colleagues and decision makers. Many had replicated ideas found on the site. The website was awarded the Society of Environmental Journalists' highest rating as an information source for environmental journalists, and was recognized by the Infography as one of six superlative references on social marketing. *Recent Landmark Designations * The following are some recent examples of programs that have been designated. Home / Building Energy: - *Class 5 Energy*'s comprehensive, long-term approach combines education, training, behavior change and goal setting with progress tracking, recognition, continuous improvement and social media, to reduce energy use in schools, hospitals and other institutional settings. Over eight years in the program, Cambridge-Isanti Public School district reduced energy use per person by about 36% and saved $2.6 million in energy costs. Designated in 2013. - *City of Burlington's Ice Rink Competition* employs a low-cost community-based social marketing approach to significantly reduce energy consumption, associated greenhouse gases and energy costs. With a program return on investment of more than 96%, it shows the substantive impacts that behavioral change programs can have over and above retrofits. The results are based on actual utility bills. The approach is applicable to any high energy consuming asset (facilities and buildings, vehicle fleet) and is scalable. It successfully modified entrenched, long standing staff behaviour towards the desired energy conservation behaviors, improved facility performance, and extended equipment life cycle - all without sacrificing facility service levels and user satisfaction. Designated in 2013. - *Opower* helps individual utility companies to send customized home energy use feedback reports to their residential utility customers. The full-colour reports include a comparison with other similar households, offer tips and strategies to reduce energy use, and provide seasonal energy consumption information. The program delivered 400 GWh (400,000,000 kWh) in energy savings over multiple regions in 2011. - BC Hydro's* Power Smart* program is a great example of applying the "loyalty group" approach to progressively engage participants in changing behaviours. Energy savings for FY2010 were estimated at 5.15 GWh (5,150,000 KWh) Sustainable Transportation - *Stockholm's Congestion Pricing* was introduced in 2006 as a "trial", followed by a referendum. The charges reduced traffic across the cordon by 20%, leading to huge congestion reductions all over the city. Perhaps more surprisingly, the initially hostile opinion turned, and the referendum led to permanent reintroduction of congestion charges. The traffic effects have proved persistent in the years since. Designated in 2013. - *CAC's HSBC Clean Air Achievers *program provides youth with a chance to meet high profile athletes and be inspired by personal messages to adopt healthier, more active and sustainable lifestyles. The program has dual goals of reducing air pollution and increasing physical activity levels via active transportation. For the 2011-2012 school year, program participants had a 30.6% average percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and 45.2% average percent increase in active transportation. Designated in 2013. - *Haliburton Communities in Action* is a rare, well-documented model for promoting walking and cycling in a small or rural community. Designated in 2012. - *Portland's Smart Trips Welcome Program.* Portland has refocused its Individualized Marketing efforts and incorporated an innovative and targeted communication strategy to help new residents develop environmentally-friendly and active transportation habits. As a result, the city's new residents took 10% fewer drive-alone trips and the proportion of their trips taken by green and active methods increased by 14%. This comprehensive approach includes a strong evaluation design and targeted social marketing strategies. Designated in 2012. - *Stepping It Up*, led by the regional transportation authority Metrolinx, illustrates a coordinated, highly replicable, and institutionalized approach for reducing car traffic and increase walking and cycling to school. The program worked with 30 elementary schools in the City of Hamilton and Region of Peel, Ontario. Designated in 2012. - *BIXI Bicycle Sharing*(Montreal) is a great example of how to make urban cycling a more practical and attractive transportation option. BIXI makes it convenient for commuters to cycle rather than drive, especially for frequent, short trips. The system was specifically developed to augment Montreal's existing transit system and between 2009 and 2013 Montrealers made more than 13 million trips with BIXI. It is a turn-key service that is inexpensive and replicable across many countries and cultures. In addition, by making cycling more chic and attractive, BIXI has had a major impact on cycling in North America. Designated in 2011. *Active /Sustainable Transportation Panel, 2013* 2014 will be the seventh year for our peer selection panel for active / sustainable transportation programs. The panel includes members from on-the-ground programs including: - Ryan Lanyon, City of Toronto - Patricia Lucy, Translink It also includes members from some of North America's most proactive consulting, NGO, and government organizations supporting sustainable transportation professionals, including: - Mark Dessauer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation - Jacky Kennedy, Green Communities Canada - Nathalie Lapointe, Federation of Canadian Municipalities - David Levinger, Mobility Education Foundation - Geoff Noxon, Noxon Associates - Phil Winters, CUTR and the University of South Florida - Chuck Wilsker, U.S. Telework Coalition * Home/ Building Energy Efficiency Panel, 2012 * 2014 will be the fifth year for our peer selection panel for home / building energy efficiency programs. This panel includes members from on-the-ground programs and from some of North America's most proactive NGO and government organizations supporting energy conservation professionals, including: - Arien Korteland, BC Hydro - Devin Causely, Federation of Canadian Municipalities - Doug McKenzie-Mohr, McKenzie-Mohr Associates - Edward Vine, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Dan York, IEEE *Help Spread the Word!* Use portions of this newsletter and / or our full case studies in your own newsletters, listservs etc. All we ask is that you include the following short credit: Courtesy of Tools of Change (www.toolofchange.com) which promotes best practices in social marketing and a healthier, more sustainable future. Forward email<http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?llr=nmzyc7n6&m=1011333490061&ea=a…> <http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&mse=001EBMcLcbjBgc3FB4imj3Nmcawz…> <http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?cc=TEM_News_115> This email was sent to asrts(a)greenactioncentre.ca by kassirer(a)toolsofchange.com | Update Profile/Email Address<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=oo&mse=001EBMcLcbjBgc3FB4imj3Nmcawz…> | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&mse=001EBMcLcbjBgc3FB4imj3Nmcawz…>(tm) | Privacy Policy <http://ui.constantcontact.com/roving/CCPrivacyPolicy.jsp>. Tools of Change - Cullbridge Marketing and Communications | 2699 Priscilla Street | Ottawa | Ontario | K2B 7E1 | Canada -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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ITDP's Principles of Urban Development
by Beth McKechnie 08 Apr '14

08 Apr '14

TOD Standard The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy has released a report that outlines core principles of urban design, including those that create pedestrian and cycling networks and strong customer bases for public transportation. http://www.trb.org/main/blurbs/170522.aspx ITDP's Principles of Urban Development for transport in urban life: 1. [walk] Develop neighborhoods that promote walking 2. [cycle] Prioritize non-motorized transport networks 3. [connect] Create dense networks of streets and paths 4. [transit] Locate development near high-quality public transport 5. [mix] Plan for mixed use 6. [densify] Optimize density and transit capacity 7. [compact] Create regions with short commutes 8. [shift] Increase mobility by regulating parking and road us

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Your Brain on Bicycling
by Dave Elmore 04 Apr '14

04 Apr '14

http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/your-brain-bicy cling?cm_mmc=Twitter-_-Bicycling-_-Content-Story-_-yourbrain Your Brain on Bicycling It's no secret that cycling makes you fitter. It also sharpens your thinking and melts away stress. Now researchers are discovering why-and exactly how you can maximize the cognitive benefits of a good ride. Every morning Canadian neuroscientist Brian Christie, PhD, gives his brain <http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/mental-trainin g-cyclists> an extra boost. We're not talking about tossing back multiple strong shots of espresso <http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/nutrition-weight-loss/caffeine- alert> or playing one of those mind-training games advertised all over Facebook. "I hop on my bike, go to the gym <http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/gym-etiquette> for 45 minutes, then ride the rest of the way to work," says Christie. "When I get to my desk, my brain is at peak activity for a few hours." After his mental focus sputters to a halt later in the day, he jump-starts it with another short spin to run errands. Ride, work, ride, repeat. It's a scientifically proven system. In a recent study in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, scientists found that people scored higher on tests of memory, reasoning, and planning after 30 minutes of spinning on a stationary bike than they did before they rode. They also completed the tests faster after pedaling. Grow Your Mind Exercise is like fertilizer for your brain. All those hours spent turning your cranks create rich capillary beds not only in your quads and glutes, but also in your gray matter. More blood vessels in your brain and muscles mean more oxygen and nutrients to help them work, says Christie. When you pedal, you also force more nerve cells to fire. As these neurons light up, they intensify the creation of proteins like brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and a compound called noggin (yes, really), which promote the formation of new brain cells. The result: You double or triple the production of neurons-literally building your brain, says Christie. You also release neurotransmitters (the messengers between your brain cells) so all those cells, new and old, can communicate with each other for better, faster functioning. This kind of growth is especially important with each passing birthday, because as we age, our brains shrink and those connections weaken. Exercise restores and protects the organ, says Arthur Kramer, PhD, a neuroscientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Our research finds that after only three months, people who exercised had the brain volume of those three years younger," says Kramer, referring to a study that examined the brains of 59 sedentary volunteers between the ages of 60 and 79 who either did an exercise program or were inactive for six months. A bigger, more connected brain simply works better. "Adults who exercise display sharper memory skills, higher concentration levels, more fluid thinking, and greater problem-solving ability than those who are sedentary," says Kramer. Ride Your Way Smarter So if a little exercise boosts your mental acumen, will going longer and harder earn you Mensa membership? Not so much, says Christie. More isn't always better, especially in the short term, he says. The same study that reported brain benefits from a short exercise session also revealed that more intense efforts can temporarily compromise memory and information processing, something Christie has seen firsthand. It's clear that physical activity like cycling boosts production of feel-good chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine. Christie's teenage daughter also kicks off her day with exercise-specifically rowing practice, usually with searing interval sets. But instead of leaving her brain firing on all cylinders, the workout leaves her a little stalled out when she arrives at school. "Short term, you're on a U-shaped curve for exercise and mental benefits," says Christie. "Too little and your brain doesn't get what it needs to work optimally. Too much and your body has sapped the glucose and other resources it needs, so it's hindered until it recovers." The sweet spot for sharp mental acuity right after exercise is about 30 to 60 minutes of aerobic riding at roughly 75 percent of your maximum heart rate, or an effort of 7 on a scale of 1 (standing still) to 10 (going all out). Positive Spin Of course, there's a lot more to mental fitness than just improving your smarts. Plenty of science backs the idea that a good ride can also have emotional benefits. Cycling can elevate your mood, relieve anxiety, increase stress resistance, and even banish the blues. "Exercise works as well as psychotherapy and antidepressants in the treatment of depression, maybe better," says James Blumenthal, PhD, professor of behavioral medicine in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. A recent study analyzing 26 years of research finds that even just some exercise-as little as 20 to 30 minutes a day-can prevent depression over the long term. At the moment, scientists don't completely understand the exact mechanisms, but they do know that physical activity like cycling boosts the production of feel-good chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine. "As soon as our lab rats start running on their wheels, they get a 100 to 200 percent increase in serotonin levels," says J. David Glass, PhD, a brain-chemistry researcher at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. As you pedal past the 20-to 30-minute mark, other mood-lifting chemicals like endorphins and cannabinoids (which, as the name suggests, are in the same family of chemicals that give pot smokers their high) kick in. When researchers asked 24 men to either run or pedal at a moderate intensity or sit for about 50 minutes, they found high blood levels of anandamide, a natural cannabinoid, in the exercisers, but not in sedentary volunteers. Even better, regularly riding your bike helps keep hormones like adrenaline and cortisol in check, which means you'll feel less stressed and you'll bounce back from anxiety-filled situations more easily. The sweet spot for sharpening mental acuity right after exercise is about 30 to 60 minutes of aerobic riding at roughly 75 percent of your maximum heart rate. Remember: Although it's healthy, exercise itself is a stress, especially when you're just getting started or back into riding. When you first begin to exert yourself, your body releases cortisol to raise your heart rate, blood pressure, and blood glucose levels, says Monika Fleshner, PhD, a professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. As you get fitter, it takes a longer, harder ride to trigger that same response. "For people who are active, it takes a greater crisis to trigger the cortisol response as compared with sedentary people," says Fleshner. "So now you can go into a stressful environment and be okay. You can endure a lot more before you kick off a stress response." What's the cycling prescription for happiness? The authors of a recent review study on exercise and depression came up with the following guidelines to ward off the blues with aerobic exercise: Do three to five sessions a week. Each session should be 45 to 60 minutes long and keep your heart rate between 50 and 85 percent of your max. Of course, that's just a minimum recommendation aimed at the general public. You can go ahead and ride to your heart's-and mind's-content.

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WFP: Fielding's rapid transit stance on wrong track (Apr.4'14)
by Beth McKechnie 04 Apr '14

04 Apr '14

Fielding's rapid-transit stance on wrong track By: Bartley Kives http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/fieldings-rapid-transit-stance-on-wr… In a mayoral race in which six out of eight potential candidates can be safely described as right of centre, it makes sense for Scott Fielding to try to stand out from the field. The two-term councillor for St. James-Brooklands is positioning himself to be the populist fiscal conservative among a crew of fellow conservatives that either have more elitist trappings or lean closer to the centre. Fielding is no lunch-bucket-carrying everyman. He's a former pharmaceutical sales rep who has interests in a pair of businesses and lives in upper-middle-class Linden Woods. But Scott Fielding's voting record and political philosophy can safely be described as neo-libertarian, even if that's a word he'd never use to describe someone who's in small government and would prefer to see the market provide solutions to public-policy problems. Last week, Fielding was doing his best to prove his populist cred by campaigning against the extension of the Southwest Transitway, the city's first dedicated bus corridor. The 3.6-kilometre first phase of the transitway was completed in 2012 at a cost of $138 million. A seven-kilometre extension to the University of Manitoba comes with a $600-million price tag because it's packaged with two other Fort Garry projects -- a new Jubilee underpass and the Cockburn-Calrossie drain replacement. Fielding, who has never supported rapid transit, launched an online petition that attempts to mine the same anti-elitist sentiment directed against megaprojects such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and Investors Group Field. Fielding wants prospective rapid-transit funding to be spent on road repairs instead and urged Winnipeggers to tell "the politicians, insiders at city hall that we need to address infrastructure, make that our No. 1 priority." As far as campaign strategy goes, it's not a bad gambit to gain attention. Mayor Sam Katz, who may or may not be running again, oversaw the construction of the transitway's first phase despite his well-documented ambivalence to rapid transit. Lawyers Gord Steeves and Brian Bowman, who most likely will run, can be painted as members of the political elite by the mere nature of their profession. Only Charleswood-Tuxedo Coun. Paula Havixbeck is also playing the populist card, though she's also courting union support for her potential mayoral run. Fielding's anti-rapid-transit position, however, runs the risk of driving away potential supporters across the political spectrum who may have seen him as a safe place to park their votes. Although he only garnered support of six per cent of Winnipeggers in the two mayoral-race polls to date, Fielding has room to grow because he has been strong on ethical reform at city hall and chose to break ranks with Katz. His rapid-transit hate-on, however, is a bad move in the long run, as the roads-not-transit argument fails to stand up to logical scrutiny. Winnipeg suffers from inadequate infrastructure because it's too spread out. The lack of density in this city requires too much money to be shovelled into road, sewer and water-main maintenance. And as any student of Winnipeg's recent history can tell you, one of the main contributors to this lack of density is the absence of a rapid-transit network. Winnipeg began pondering rapid transit in the 1950s and '60s, around the same time Toronto and Montreal started building subways. Decades of dithering allowed Winnipeg to be lapped by Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa, which pursued various permutations of light rail, subways and dedicated bus corridors. Development along transit lines and transit-station nodes has improved density in all of these cities. But Winnipeg kept on building roads and focusing on single-family-home development, with disastrous results. This city has started to improve density through modest means, such as insisting on smaller lot sizes for single-family homes and demanding more multi-family housing in new suburbs. But we are desperate for more rapid transit to promote real density. Without mass transit, you cannot build up instead of out. And if you build out instead of up, you cannot afford your roads. What Fielding is promoting spells disaster for Winnipeg. He's selling the promise of better roads when in fact the best way to do so would be to invest in transit. Fielding's ethics are unimpeachable. He is polite and appears popular with the constituents in his ward. But Winnipeg has waited too long for not just the Southwest Transitway, but a full network of transit corridors to endure another rapid-transit debate. Six decades is long enough. bartley.kives(a)freepress.mb.ca Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 4, 2014 B1

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The Uniter: Breaking down barricades
by Beth McKechnie 03 Apr '14

03 Apr '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Terry Zdan <tjzdan50(a)gmail.com> Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2014 10:18:07 -0500 Subject: The U of W Uniter - Breaking Down Barricades http://uniter.ca/view/breaking-down-barricades "I replaced driving with a ten-minute walking commute. The psychological differences between driving through an environment and physically interacting with it on the ground cannot be understated. I now walk downtown with the familiarity everyone else has with their own cul-de-sacs. The normalization of this type of interaction with the city on a daily basis gives you a different appreciation of not only its buildings and its people, but also what it sorely lacks: people living there...." "And herein lies the toxic heart of how urban Winnipeg is approached: for serving the suburban population. And for the suburban population there must be suburban entities. Maybe we knew that already, but in exiling myself from suburban life, it took on a new level of understanding. It sunk in...." -- Terry Zdan 126 Duncan Norrie Drive Wpg MB R3P 2J9 CANADA tjzdan50(a)gmail.com <tjzdan(a)gmasil.com>

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Doctors prescribing bike-share memberships to combat obesity
by Beth McKechnie 03 Apr '14

03 Apr '14

Doctors prescribing bike-share memberships to combat obesity *by *Lauren O'Neil<http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/author/lauren-oneil/> Posted: April 2, 2014 5:57 PM Last Updated: April 2, 2014 5:31 PM http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2014/04/doctors-prescribing-bike-… Doctors in Boston will soon have a new tool in their arsenal when it comes to improving the health of obese patients: the humble, yet powerful bicycle. In an effort to get sedentary Bostonians moving more, as well as provide affordable transportation for low-income residents, The City of Boston and the Boston Medical Center (BMC) have partnered together in creation of program they're calling "Prescribe-a-Bike." The program, launched today, allows all BMC medical professionals to write prescriptions for memberships to a local bike-sharing program called Hubway<https://www.thehubway.com/>, which currently boasts 1,100 bikes at 130 locations around the city. Much like Canada's own Bixi system<http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bye-bye-bixi-retooled-bike-sharing-se…>, Hubway users can borrow a bike from any location and then drop it off at another, providing themselves a convenient and healthy way to get around. Qualified low-income patients will pay only $5 for an annual membership to the program, which entitles them to an unlimited number of trips on Hubway bikes for up to 30 minutes at a time. They'll also receive a free helmet, according to the Boston mayor's office. "Obesity is a significant and growing health concern for our city, particularly among low-income Boston residents," said Kate Walsh, chief executive of Boston Medical Center, in a statement published by the Boston Globe<http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/03/27/new-program-will-allow-boston-m…>. "Regular exercise is key to combating this trend, and Prescribe-a-Bike is one important way our caregivers can help patients get the exercise they need to be healthy." To qualify for a prescription, patients must be 16 years or older either have a household income of no more than 4 times the poverty level or be enrolled in some form of public assistance according to the statement. The program's creators hope to enroll at least 1,000 low-income residents in Prescribe-a-Bike this year, and potentially expand to include more hospitals. "We have already received some calls from other hospitals and health clinics who are interested," said Nicole Freedman, director of bicycle programs for the City of Boston, to Boston Magazine<http://www.bostonmagazine.com/health/blog/2014/03/26/prescribe-bike-bmc-bos…>. "It's a new way to reach out and promote health."

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Job posting - Peg City Car Co-op
by Beth McKechnie 27 Mar '14

27 Mar '14

[please share widely -- thanks!] * Peg City Car Co-op Seeks Fleet Operations Assistant* Are you a reliable self-starter who cares about sustainable transportation? Are you excited to see carsharing grow in Winnipeg? Peg City Car Co-op is busy expanding into more neighbourhoods in central Winnipeg. To help with our growing network of carshare vehicles, we need a dependable person who gets carsharing and how it works. Someone who understands the individual, environmental and community benefits of "Bike. Walk. Bus. And Sometimes, Drive." Check out all of the details here<http://pegcitycarcoop.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Peg-City-Car-Co-op-Flee…> . Deadline to apply: 7pm, Friday, April 11th

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If only the Osborne Underpass could look like this..
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 27 Mar '14

27 Mar '14

http://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/blogues/le-blogue-urbain/403612/ca-roule-po… -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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12 ways to make cities more child-friendly
by Beth McKechnie 26 Mar '14

26 Mar '14

12 ways to make cities more child-friendly MARCH 3, 2014<http://spacing.ca/national/2014/03/03/twelve-ways-can-make-cities-child-fri…> | BY CHRIS BRUNTLETT <http://spacing.ca/national/author/chrisbruntlett/> For far too long, many people have considered family life and urban life as being mutually exclusive. That trend is slowly reversing, as more and more parents choose to raise their kids in urban areas. However, city builders often fail to consider their smallest, most vulnerable users. As Enrique Peñalosa famously said: ""Children are a kind of indicator species. If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for all people." The following slideshow describes twelve ways we can make our cities more amenable to kids. These are by no means a comprehensive list, but are designed as a conversation starter. http://spacing.ca/national/2014/03/03/twelve-ways-can-make-cities-child-fri…

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Winnipeg's first parking protected bike lane
by Beth McKechnie 24 Mar '14

24 Mar '14

Very exciting! See below that the City will be building our first ever parking protected bicycle lane on Sherbrook between Wolseley and Broadway... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: The West Broadway BIZ <director(a)westbroadwaybiz.com> Date: Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 1:06 PM Subject: BIZ Buzz - March 2014 Trouble viewing this email? Read it online<http://secure.campaigner.com/Campaigner/Public/t.show?6ga52--3i85e-p50j5e3&…> THE BIZ BUZZ E-NEWSLETTER MARCH 2014 * HAPPY SPRING!* Although it has not quite sprung yet, it is hopefully just around the corner! As the snow melts, please let us know if you see any damage to bike racks, planters or benches in front of your business or in the area. Village Landscaping has been contracted once again to do our flower planters and hanging baskets, it will be so nice to see some colour and greenery again! Watch for the new community directory coming out next month. They will be delivered to every business and household in West Broadway and Wolseley. Thank you to all those supporting members who have placed an ad in the magazine! Please contact us <director(a)westbroadwaybiz.com?subject=directory>to request a stack and counter top holder for your business. <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjgz-p50j5e5&_v=2> City's 1st Parking Protected Bike Lane! <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh0-p50j5e2&_v=2> We are very pleased to announce the City will be completing the Maryland - Sherbrook cycling corridor this summer, the much anticipated dedicated bike lane for Sherbrook Street will be completed this year. Public Works has decided to construct the City's first Parking Protected Bike Lane between Wolseley and Broadway! This street work will be tied into the road resurfacing of Sherbrook Street this summer. For more details, or to review the conceptual design go to: Walkbike.winnipeg.ca<http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh1-p50j5e3&_v=2> We are taking requests for new bike rack installation for this summer, so please let us know if you are in need of one. <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh2-p50j5e4&_v=2> *Fefu and Her Friends * by Maria Irene Fornes Directed by Hope McIntyre Featuring: Elena Anciro, Julia Arkos, Nan Fewchuk, Megan McArton, Brenda McLean, Tracey Nepinak, Tracy Penner and Kelci Stephenson May 22nd- June 1st, 2014 Ralph Connor House - 54 West Gate Tickets: $15 / $20 Group rates are available for community groups! For more information and to purchase tickets please visit our website at www.sarasvati.ca <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh3-p50j5e5&_v=2>or call (204) 586-2236. <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh4-p50j5e6&_v=2> We are pleased to report streetscaping initiatives from the masterplan document are well underway. Up next, new banners, community kiosks, tree infill and gateway enhancements. It's an exciting time in West Broadway! Any questions or concerns, please send us an email<director(a)westbroadwaybiz.com>or give us a call at 204-779-4100. www.westbroadwaybiz.com<http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh5-p50j5e7&_v=2> *CHECK OUT OUR NEW GRANT * If you are considering making some improvements to your business exterior, there has never been a better time! We are now offering our members two tiers of funding plus we have added a design component! Download the brochure! <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh6-p50j5e8&_v=2> * MHC FOUNDATION UPCOMING SPRING EVENTS: <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh7-p50j5e9&_v=2> * *"Jubilation! Hope Lives! Jubilation! L'Espoir Vie!* Afternoon Concert & Desserts *Sunday, April 27, 2014* Join us for an inspiring afternoon in the beautiful St. Boniface Cathedral, as we celebrate spring with the joyful music of worldwide Christian singer *Christine D.M. Wollmann* Proceeds from the event will support Misericordia Health Centre Foundation. Mingle afterwards with desserts and light refreshments sponsored by local French restaurant Resto Gare Call (204) 788-8469 for tickets * Black Tie Bingo Gala *Presented by Medigas Mb Ltd. Saturday, May 3, 2014 RBC Convention Centre Please email vmirosh(a)misericordia.mb.ca<vmirosh(a)misericordia.mb.ca?subject=black%20tie%20bingo> or call (204) 788-8469 for details * WOULD YOUR BUSINESS LIKE TO BE INVOLVED IN A SHORT VIDEO PRODUCTION?* <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh8-p50j5e0&_v=2><http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjh9-p50j5e1&_v=2> The Marketing Committee is interested in partnering to create more short videos promoting West Broadway businesses, programs and events. Digital Marketing is an innovative and affordable way to deliver meaningful engagement, and market your business. Sharing these videos on websites and social media are great ways to find new customers and promote your brand. Contact us <director(a)westbroadwaybiz.com?subject=digital%20marketing> if you would like to participate! * <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?6ga52-cgjha-p50j5e1&_v=2> * West Broadway BIZ PO Box 26003 676 Portage Avenue Winnipeg, MB R3G 3R3 p 204-779-4100 e director(a)westbroadwaybiz.com You are subscribed to this mailing list as beth(a)pegcitycarcoop.ca. Please click here <http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.fo?6ga52--cbw5-p50j5e6&sl=3b&t=5&_v=2>to modify your message preferences or to unsubscribe from any future mailings. We will respect all unsubscribe requests. ------------------------------ <http://www.campaigner.com/?utm_source=campaigner&utm_medium=email&utm_campa…>

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Reminder: Travel Behaviour Change workshop, Wed. March 26, 1:00-4:30pm
by Beth McKechnie 24 Mar '14

24 Mar '14

Friendly reminder about a Green Action Centre workshop happening this Wednesday afternoon at the EcoCentre. RSVP is required, all are welcome! Two spots still open. cheers, Beth * * * * * III: TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR CHANGE *Wednesday, March 26, 1:00-4:30pm* Human behaviour can seem inexplicable. Sometimes it's a head-scratcher as to why people don't switch to healthier and greener ways to get to work when it is clearly to their benefit. In this half-day workshop, we will explore the many facets of behaviour change from a social marketing, transition and systems perspective. Walk away with strategies you can apply to support your colleagues and create a more commuter friendly and active workplace. *Register today:* Email Beth McKechnie <beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca> or call (204) 925-3772.

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MB Capital Region Transportation Master Plan to be released this spring
by Beth McKechnie 21 Mar '14

21 Mar '14

Capital Region Transportation Master Plan release planned for this spring Posted: March 20, 2014 http://leadingmanitoba.ca/notices_detail.asp?notice_ID=207 Later this spring PMCR will release the Capital Region Transportation Master Plan, a guide to key transportation infrastructure, plans and systems to enable economic opportunity, sustainable growth, and improved mobility of all users throughout the Capital Region now, and in the future. The culmination of a year of study, technical review and community and stakeholder engagement, the plan charts the changing transportation needs of a growing Capital Region over the next 25 years. It builds on the City of Winnipeg Transportation Master Plan (2011) and will include a series of recommendations for integrated land use and transportation planning; highway infrastructure, access and technology; transit; active transportation; and the movement of goods by rail, air and road. Find out more about our commitment to Transportation in the Capital Region: http://build.leadingmanitoba.ca/downloads/report.pdf

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A better way to think about businesses and bike lane battles
by Beth McKechnie 21 Mar '14

21 Mar '14

Hi everyone, I'm forwarding this newsletter (again), as I consistently find Green Lane Project's articles useful. Their focus on cycle tracks / protected bike lanes and a recent emphasis on working with businesses to gain acceptance is particularly relevant for Winnipeg. cheers, Beth View this email in your browser<http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=64bd122c67bd28d620978f4a5&id=44c6dc42cc…> <http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> This week's Green Lane Project news The case for protected bike lanes in one story<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> Mar 19, 2014 01:13 pm *The Rio Grande Street protected bike lane in Austin, Tex.* One of the most interesting transformations in the media world right now is the fact that instead of making a name for themselves by buying TV and newspaper ads that pay other people to do great reporting and writing, companies are increasingly doing the great reporting and writing themselves, in their own name. I've never seen a better example of this phoenomenon than this longform piece by the Traffic Safety Store<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>, an online retailer of construction signs, traffic cones and safety vests, about the American movement to build protected bike lanes. Here's one characteristically thoughtful passage: In order to maintain population growth, cities will need to diffuse... Read More<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> >From DC, a better way to think about businesses and bike lane battles<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> Mar 17, 2014 06:35 am *John Stokes, director of risk management for The Jefferson hotel, on M Street before bike improvements.* Eventually, everyone redesigning city streets runs into the same problem: small businesses rarely support changes to the roads that bring them customers. This isn't because the people who speak for businesses are callous or irrational (despite strong evidence that patrons arriving by bike are often more profitable than those arriving by car<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>). Most businesses tend to resist neighborhood changes for a very simple reason: *their businesses are profitable*. For a business, every change to your surroundings introduces risk. And when you're already turning a profit, what's the point of risk? Face disagreements, don't deny them So... Read More<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> follow on Twitter<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>| friend on Facebook<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>| forward to a friend<http://us5.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=64bd122c67bd28d620978f4a5&id=44c…> You are receiving this email because you either signed up to receive it on GreenLaneProject.org or you attended a Green Lane Project event in the past. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click the unsubscribe link below. The Green Lane Project<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>is a program of PeopleForBikes<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>helping U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. We focus on protected bike lanes, which are on-street lanes separated from traffic by curbs, planters, parked cars or posts. unsubscribe from this list<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>| update subscription preferences<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/profile?u=64bd122c67bd28d62097…> This email was sent to beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca *why did I get this?*<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/about?u=64bd122c67bd28d620978f…> unsubscribe from this list<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> update subscription preferences<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/profile?u=64bd122c67bd28d62097…> Green Lane Project · 207 Canyon Blvd Suite 202 · Boulder, CO 80302 · USA [image: Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp]<http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm…>

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SAVE THE DATE! Winnipeg Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies - Notice of Upcoming Open Houses!
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 19 Mar '14

19 Mar '14

*Please save the dates and spread the word about these two important upcoming open houses about the City of Winnipeg Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies * These public open houses will be your opportunity to hear about the Draft City-wide bicycle and pedestrian network as well as draft recommendations for new City policies related to Active Transportation. There will be TWO open houses: *SATURDAY APRIL 12th - 11 am - 4 pm at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People (MTYP) at the Forks* *TUESDAY APRIL 15th - 3 pm - 8 pm at BOTH the Sinclair Park Community Centre *(490 Sinclair Street)* AND the Manitoba Hydro Place Atrium *(360 Portage Avenue). There is more information and background in the attachment. Beyond these open houses, we, the public can continue to participate in this project in the following ways: * Visit the website www.walkbike.winnipeg.ca · Email walkbike(a)winnipeg.ca · Stay updated about this project by signing up for the SpeakUpWinnipeg mailing list. Thank you again for your participation and help in spreading the word! -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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Ontario's Transportation Minister Glen Murray introduces road safety bill targets distracted drivers, 'dooring'
by Dave Elmore 17 Mar '14

17 Mar '14

http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2014/03/17/ontario_introduces_compreh ensive_road_safety_bill.html Ontario road safety bill targets distracted drivers, 'dooring' The Liberal government on Monday tabled a sweeping road safety bill Monday dealing with pedestrians, cyclists, truckers and motorists, including increased fines of up to $1,000 and three demerit points for distract driving. There are currently no demerit points for distracted driving in Ontario. Distracted drivers on their cellphones and careless motorists who knock down cyclists with their open doors are facing maximum fines <http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2014/03/17/ontario_introduces_compre hensive_road_safety_bill.html> of $1,000 and three demerit points, according to sweeping new road safety rules introduced Monday. Among other things, motorists for the first time would be required to move over a lane for working tow trucks with lights flashing just as they are required now with emergency vehicles. Transportation Minister Glen Murray introduced proposed "comprehensive" legislation Monday dealing with pedestrians, truckers, motorists and cyclists. "Our new legislation, if passed, would keep drivers, cyclists and pedestrians even safer as we get tougher with those who ignore the law," Murray said, adding the changes have been years in the making. Ralph Palumbo, vice-president Ontario, Insurance Bureau of Canada, said it is the demerit points that should make scofflaws think twice about picking up that cellphone or other electronic device knowing their insurance premiums could be affected. "Demerit points will certainly cause an insurer to look at a driver as a greater risk because what it says is that they are not complying with a law," Palumbo told the Star. In Ontario, according the government statistics distracted driving has passed impaired driving as the leading cause of traffic fatalities. The push to toughen up distracted driving penalties follows an unexpected decision by Annemarie Bonkalo <http://www.allthingsnow.com/day/news/shared/42523527/Distracted-driving-fin es-increase-to-280-on-March-18-Toronto-Star> , chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice, who unilaterally decided last month to use her judicial powers to increase the fine for using hand-held devices while driving to $280 from $155, effective March 18. That provision will remain in effect unless the new legislation is passed and changes it. Thanks Dave o _ ( \ _ (X)\ /(X)

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Fwd: CHNET-Works! Update March 13 2014 Bulletin de CHNET-Works! le 13 mars 2014
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 17 Mar '14

17 Mar '14

Some interesting upcoming Fireside chats on Active Transportation and Aging (April 10) and Bringing Health into the Transportation Planning Process (April 24th). See attachment for details. Jackie ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: CHNET-Works! <animateur(a)chnet-works.ca> Date: 2014-03-14 8:40 GMT-05:00 Subject: CHNET-Works! Update March 13 2014 Bulletin de CHNET-Works! le 13 mars 2014 To: Jackie Avent <asrts(a)greenactioncentre.ca> *[image: chnet-works-logo-purple-large]* *C <http://chnet-works.ca/index.php?option=com_acymailing&ctrl=url&urlid=499&ma…>HNET-Works! Newsletter March 13, 2014 Bulletin de CHNET-Works! le 13 mars 2014* We are now booking dates for our April-June series 2014. For more information on partnering on a Fireside Chat, contact Dot Bonnenfant via email: animateur(a)chnet-works.ca Nous sommes en train de planifier les dates des causeries qui se tiendront entre avril et juin 2014. Pour les partenaires qui sont interessés à organiser des causeries pendant cette période prière de prendre contact avec Dot Bonnenfant à l'adresse: animateur(a)chnet-works.ca CLICK HERE FOR A COPY OF THE NEWSLETTER (PDF format) Cliquez ici pour une copie du bulletin (format pdf)<http://chnet-works.ca/index.php?option=com_acymailing&ctrl=url&urlid=535&ma…> -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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The Pied Piper for sustainable transportation
by Dave Elmore 15 Mar '14

15 Mar '14

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-pied-piper-for-sustainable- transportation-and-his-radical-idea-put-people-first/article17496623/ The Pied Piper for sustainable transportation' and his radical idea: Put people first CHRISTINE McLAREN Published Friday, Mar. 14 2014, 2:03 PM EDT If you're lucky enough to catch him on a day off, you might find Gil Penalosa riding his bike through Toronto's Roncesvalles Village - "the best neighbourhood I've ever lived in," he says. Which is saying a lot. Because when he's not on a day off, Mr. Penalosa is likely to be in one of the hundred-plus cities he visits for work. In San Francisco speaking to Google about innovations in transportation technology, for example. Or in Bangalore sweet-talking planners into installing better sidewalks. Or in Copenhagen lunching with the minister of environment before flying to South Korea to transform an entire neighbourhood into a car-free zone for 30 days. "I think of Gil as the Pied Piper for sustainable transportation," says Janette Sadik-Khan, the former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. "He travels the world singing that song and pressing that message and he does it in a really compelling way." He has also lived his message: Mr. Penalosa, 57, helped to transform Bogota when he served as the Colombian capital's commissioner of parks and recreation in the late 1990s. He has since become an evangelist for livable cities that put people, not cars, at the centre of planning. As the executive director of Toronto-based non-profit 8-80 Cities, he has worked with more than 150 cities on every continent, convincing them that rapid improvements to mass transit, bike lanes and pedestrian walkways are not as impossible as they may think. "The biggest challenge is that change is hard," he says. "Anywhere. And the better the city, the harder it is." Many politicians are also "timid," he adds. "The minute they're elected, they're thinking about how to get re-elected, and the way to get re-elected is to do more of the same. Maybe a little bit better but more of the same. But unfortunately now we not only have to focus on doing things right, but also we need to focus on doing the right things." The name of Mr. Penalosa's non-profit - 8-80 Cities - echoes his central message. "If you build a city that is great for an eight-year-old and for an 80-year-old, then you build a city that is going to be great for everybody. They're like an indicator species," he says. "We need to stop building cities as if everybody in them is 30 years old and athletic." By cities, Mr. Penalosa doesn't just mean massive centres: One is just as likely to find him on the ground rethinking the town centre of Timmins, Ont., as in Los Angeles, Paris or New York. 8-80 Cities recently partnered with the Ontario government to bring Open Streets - events that close roads to cars and open them to cyclists, joggers, pedestrians and the like for recreation - to Kingston, Toronto, Thunder Bay and Windsor. "It's not about walking or cycling or parks or sidewalks," he says. "Those are the means. The end goal is how to create a vibrant city with healthy communities, where the citizens are going to be happier." Mr. Penalosa - who uses the word fantastic (emphasis on the "ta") in every other sentence and seldom wastes time taking a breath when he speaks - got his introduction to urban issues early. His father was a Colombian government official who later served as secretary-general of the pioneering 1976 United Nations Habitat Conference on Human Settlement in Vancouver, the world's first international meeting on housing and homelessness. Mr. Penalosa and his brother Enrique tagged along, meeting the likes of Pierre Trudeau and other leaders from around of the world. In Bogota, Gil Penalosa served first under former mayor Antanas Mockus, developing more than 200 parks - a Herculean feat in a city previously bereft of quality public spaces. He also developed Ciclovia: 120 kilometres of road closed to cars every Sunday and on holidays for more than one million cyclists, rollerbladers, runners and strollers. Ciclovia has since been emulated in hundreds of cities around the world. When his brother Enrique (currently the presidential candidate for the Colombian green party) took over as mayor in the next election, Mr. Penalosa continued to work on the car-clogged city, turning it into a poster child for urban change and sustainable transportation. He eventually left Colombia, including a brief stint as the country's trade commissioner in Canada - which led him to a job with the City of Mississauga. He founded 8-80 Cities in 2005, and later moved to Roncesvalles. His three children have grown up and moved on, so today he and his wife Claudia, who works for a bank, live on their own next to "a great park." He loves the farmer's market, the restaurants and shops of their neighbourhood, and getting around by bike, which is his main form of transportation as he doesn't own a car. "The kind of work that I do, I could live anywhere," says Mr. Penalosa. "But I love [Toronto]. It's so multicultural that I feel at home. I never really have felt like that in any other city." There are, of course, a few things he'd fix. The city could use a new mayor, for instance. "[Rob] Ford has been more damaging than anyone could have imagined," he says. "Great mayors need two elements: to have a clear vision of what needs to be done and the political and managerial capacity to do it, and he has none." The city is lacking something else: a ciclovia. But that, says Mr. Penalosa, is soon to come. It would be unwise to bet against it.

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What makes a city work
by Dave Elmore 15 Mar '14

15 Mar '14

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/what-makes-a-city-work-former-new… What makes a city work: Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks he knows The Globe and Mail Published Friday, Mar. 14 2014, 3:05 PM EDT Last updated Saturday, Mar. 15 2014, 3:17 PM EDT If you leave Manhattan for Brooklyn on the No. 3 train, you’ll end up at New Lots Avenue. Here, just under the elevated platform, is where Eddie Di Benedetto has had his pizzeria, Caterina’s, since 1971. “The area was always being plagued with crime,” Mr. Di Benedetto says. The plaza out front of his restaurant didn’t help: it was poorly lit, noisy, and buses roared past every few minutes. “When people got off the train, they rushed to just get home.” Then he and some neighbouring merchants asked the city, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to fix it. “We heard Mayor Bloomberg was very big on plazas and open space,” he says. Across the city, the transportation department was installing pedestrian plazas, making the streets more inviting. “There was a cry for improvement – we heard the cry and we just followed.” Someone heard them, too: The buses took a different route. The city installed a temporary plaza, with seating and umbrellas, for the warmer months. People now linger. Crime is down. “I asked, and we got what we wanted,” Mr. Di Benedetto says. “Even in East New York, my friend. I hear bad things about Mayor Bloomberg, but what we got is an extension of his idealism, right?” This is not how most people think of Mr. Bloomberg, who recently stepped down after 12 years as mayor and who is the city’s richest resident. Under his leadership, New York became a land of wealth and plenty, at least for some – in Midtown Manhattan, glassy new high-rises contain the third homes of Russian billionaires; downtown, tourists order $38 steak frites at Balthazar and walk the High Line, an innovative park built with donations from the rich. Yet the plaza at New Lots Avenue reflects the scope of Mr. Bloomberg’s impact. His administration – freed by his wealth and his lack of political debts – turned New York into a laboratory for urban innovation of all kinds, from small neighbourhood improvements to rezoning vast swaths of land, shaking up its demographics and its economy. The city cut carbon emissions, and got rid of smoking in public. (Tobacco, that is.) Mr. Bloomberg’s administration shared some of its lessons with other civic leaders; Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, has consulted publicly with Mr. Bloomberg. And now the Bloombergians are preparing to share their lessons with the world. Several top lieutenants have moved on to work for Bloomberg Associates, a consultancy that will advise cities free of charge on how to “improve the quality of life of their citizens.” He also sponsors a Mayor’s Challenge, which asks cities (this year in Europe) to innovate in pursuit of €9-million in prizes. Mr. Bloomberg provides an important example for mayors everywhere, at a time when mayors matter: More than half the world’s population lives in cities, and that number is projected to reach 70 per cent by 2050. (According to Statistics Canada, more than 80 per cent of Canadians live in cities and suburbs.) This demands new infrastructure, changes to the physical form of cities and new ways of doing things. What happened in New York may not be the singular recipe for 21st-century urbanism – the city became greener, cleaner and more hospital to the world, but also more expensive and less hospitable to the poor. But the change in New York from 2001 to 2013, driven by faith in hard data, as well as the magic of place, is still the single example that can’t be avoided. After 9/11 Mr. Bloomberg became mayor of New York in 2001 with just 50.7 per cent of the vote, after spending nearly $74-million (U.S.) to get himself elected. Well-known as the force behind his data and media company, he was a political novice, and his challenges were tremendous: New York was reeling from the 9/11 attacks, in fiscal trouble, uncertain about the future. The financial sector seemed ready to disperse to office parks in Connecticut and New Jersey, threatening the city’s economy. The idea of the skyscraper, New York’s central building block, was under threat. “Had things worked a little differently, we would have been looking back on the decline of New York from that moment,” says Justin Davidson, architecture critic for New York magazine. “I don’t think he gets all the credit, but he did a lot of things right.” The city has added hundreds of thousands of new residents, seen real-estate prices skyrocket (and recover, after being hit hard by the recession in 2009), and become much safer and cleaner than it was. How did it happen? Mr. Bloomberg – an entrepreneur who made his $33-billion (U.S.) fortune serving the needs of Wall Street – worked hard to keep Big Finance in the city through tax breaks and personal lobbying; and he made the city’s police department into a globally active anti-terror organization, while overseeing a drop in crime. He also reformed the city’s thorny public education system, with modest improvements in test scores; pushed for an expansion of higher education, including a new grad-school campus of Cornell University; and encouraged a knowledge-economy by courting investments in Manhattan’s “Silicon Alley” and bio-tech. Mr. Bloomberg has a passionate interest in public health, too. Beginning in his first term he pushed a smoking ban in restaurants and bars, making New York the largest American city to do so, and then in parks. The bans were unpopular with restaurateurs and many vocal New Yorkers (“We’re moving towards a totalitarian society,” one city councillor argued when the parks regulation was passed). The scientific evidence was clear, though – and Mr. Bloomberg was committed to making policy through information. One of his favourite aphorisms is “In God we trust. All others bring data.” This attitude came to govern much of the city’s management. He established an Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, whose task was to use public data to improve services – from garbage collection to cutting air pollution. Mr. Bloomberg also aimed for big targets in sustainability, a goal with long-term consequence and very little political payoff. A vision set out in 2007, PlaNYC established a wide range of goals: from new playgrounds, to congestion pricing to deter cars (which never passed), to curbing carbon emissions from buildings (which did). The latter was policy with a real impact – the Empire State Building got a refit that cut its energy use by 38 per cent – but very little reward. “He deserves credit ... this is the unsexy stuff that makes a huge difference,” says Rosalie Genevro, the executive director of the Architectural League of New York, a local non-profit. The city’s real estate landscape saw dramatic shifts as well. A wave of new development transformed swaths of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, creating new homes for some of the 300,000 people who moved to New York in the Bloomberg era. At the same time, rents rose significantly across the city; many New Yorkers now fear being left behind by the city’s economic growth. They see Mr. Bloomberg's agenda as having reshaped the city as a playground for the wealthy and visitors from overseas. Mr. Bloomberg’s successor, Bill de Blasio, ran for office on the slogan “A Tale of Two Cities.” New York in 2001 was among the most expensive cities in North America, and it’s grown more so. The social cost of gentrification has been real. The city now has 50,000 people, a record, in its homeless shelters. Yet the situation is complex: its rental market is highly regulated, and its affordable and public housing programs are by far the largest on the continent. Mr. Bloomberg added 165,000 affordable units, largely in new private-sector market-rate buildings – which often made the surrounding areas more expensive. There is no question that Mr. Bloomberg successfully encouraged economic growth for the city as whole, and partly through some soft tactics: his team was sensitive to urban design and the intangible qualities that make a city great. The Place-Makers In 2009, New York got a new park like no other. The High Line recast an old elevated rail line as a promenade between the industrial buildings in the West Chelsea area of Manhattan. It was initially opposed by the city but won the support of many neighbours, architects and urbanists – including the planner Amanda Burden, whom Mr. Bloomberg appointed as his planning director. Built with help from donors such as Edward Norton, the High Line became an enormous success, overrun by tourists. It also radically gentrified the area: The city rezoned the district for luxury development, and soon star architects like Frank Gehry were designing office and residential buildings. The High Line is now being expanded into a third phase, which will connect directly into Hudson Yards – a $15-billion (U.S.) office and residential development built above a rail yard. That project, co-developed by Canada’s Oxford Properties, was Mr. Bloomberg’s baby. It will house offices for Time Warner, L’Oreal and luxury brand Coach. Presumably, Coach designers will enjoy walking the High Line as much as the wealthy Chinese tourists who are buying their handbags. One central insight of the Bloomberg administration was that visitors, entrepreneurs and knowledge workers would be drawn by the same magnet: a culturally rich and beautiful city with attractive public space. If that seems obvious, Mr. Bloomberg’s people were, in the early days after 2001, going against the grain. It was a moment when many kinds of professional work seemed likely to disperse into the suburbs and beyond. “They were arguing the importance of being in a dense urban place to creative and economic endeavours that don’t look like they need it,” Mr. Davidson argues. “The Internet had decentralized investment. There was this sense that everyone could move out of the city without paying a price in terms of being plugged in and connected.” But New York had to become the place that everybody wanted to be. It did, through some surprising means. Under Mr. Bloomberg, the streets of New York didn’t just take on a different atmosphere. The streets changed, physically. I was working in Midtown Manhattan in 2003 and remember making the mildly unpleasant walk down Broadway, from 34th to 23rd Street; the avenue still lined with wholesalers, the narrow sidewalks often blocked, car and truck traffic belching and racing downtown. People on bikes survived, barely. Now that stretch has been branded as “NoMad,” and the Ace Hotel – which is the physical embodiment of the word “hipster” – is in the middle of it; there are also a bike lane and two public plazas. On one of the plazas, opposite the famous Flatiron Building, you can sit at a cafe table (under a blue umbrella), have a coffee, and check in on free WiFi. Thousands of locals and tourists use that Flatiron Plaza every day, despite the fact that there’s a very nice park right across the street. It provides room for people to gather and be among other people. It also means a bit less room for car traffic. This is all part of the plan for these plazas, implemented by Mr. Bloomberg’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan – who is another hire at Bloomberg Associates. The plazas began quietly, as temporary installations in places where car traffic was confusing. When the experiments worked, they were rolled out more broadly and made permanent. For Mr. Bloomberg’s people, there is a clear link between the private gain and the public good. Many North American politicians haven't understood that public space affects real-estate value, but the Bloomberg administration set out to capitalize on it. Just as Central Park created great wealth in the 19th century, they hoped to do so with new parks in the 21st – about 300 hectares-worth. “Good design is good economic development,” Ms. Burden told the New York Times in 2012. Tourism was another high priority for Mr. Bloomberg’s administration, which saw it as both business and cultural diplomacy. He installed an advertising executive, George Fertitta, to head the local tourism authority, and the city hit a series of new records for visitors: the number rose from 43.8 million in 2006 to an estimated 54 million in 2013, with international visitors increasing by 50 per cent. Those foreigners spend much more money than domestic visitors, and their presence pays untold returns in goodwill and investment. The global super-rich have also been buying real estate, as a forest of luxury buildings pops up in Midtown Manhattan. Mr. Bloomberg has welcomed this: “If we could get every billionaire in the world to move here, that would be a godsend,” he said last fall in response to questions about rising inequality. Those remarks hit a cultural nerve that's been exposed for a decade now. The inner-Brooklyn neighbourhoods that welcomed artists in 2000 are now filling with Wall Streeters; many people argue that the city's pursuit of the affluent is destroying the city's creative energy. The legendary musician David Byrne, who moved to New York in the ’70s when the city was at its lowest, is worried that New York “will be a city closer to Hong Kong or Abu Dhabi than to the rich fertile place it has historically been,” he wrote last fall. “Those places might have museums, but they don't have culture.” Mr. Bloomberg’s strong support for high culture, including his own private donations, can't fix that. The question, in the long term, is whether the city’s considerable draws – and more remote neighbourhoods – will be big enough for a new generation of creators. The Bloomberg Mission Many of the Bloomberg administration's ideas aren't original; rather they reflect some best practices in urbanism around the world. (Ms. Sadik-Khan borrowed some notions about streetscapes from European cities.) And that may mean they will travel well to other cities through the work of Bloomberg Associates. The details are still unclear, but Mr. Bloomberg’s philanthropic efforts – and there are many – suggest some of the routes the consultancy might take. His Bloomberg Philanthropies works on five major themes: the arts, education, the environment, government innovation, and public health. There is the Mayor’s Challenge, which asks cities to “define a serious problem and craft a bold solution.” Each of 20 finalists, to be announced next month, will send a team of four to an “Ideas Camp” to refine them, then resubmit them, and – in October – four winners will take prizes of €1-million, and one will take €5-million. If that process sounds complex, it is; there is a presumption that city governments are not good at innovating. One of the criteria is to say “We are the first city to…” Another asks: “Are you using talent, partners and resources outside of city government in a meaningful way?” What do the results look like? Last year’s finalists, drawn from American cities, included a “well-being metric” to shape policy in Santa Monica, Calif; a revision to recycling programs in Houston that allow citizens to use one bin for everything; and a program called “Providence Talks,” which gives low-income children in Rhode Island language and reading support. That diversity suggests the scope of Bloomberg Associates. “I think it’s great that they’re going to be a voice out in the world,” says Brent Toderian, a leading planning consultant and Vancouver’s former chief planner. “But it’ll be interesting to see how the conversation goes. It’s not necessarily so that every city wants to be like New York. The best conversations are looking at examples from around the world.” And some of the specific planning and urban design policies that worked in New York, Mr. Toderian points out, won’t fly without the dense, diverse cityscape that New York offers. On the other hand, the scale of Mr. Bloomberg’s success has helped create a new climate where cities see each other as peers and share ideas freely. And, as Mr. Davidson says, correctly: “Bloomberg gets a lot of credit for that. The idea that a mayor can do something that has an impact – and large cities have a lot more in common across national borders? That’s powerful.”

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WFP: All over map on Portage and Main (Mar.14'14)
by Beth McKechnie 14 Mar '14

14 Mar '14

All over map on Portage and Main Councillors support reopening, but plans vary By: Aldo Santin http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/all-over-map-on-portage-and-main-250… Hopes for reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians are still alive at city hall but councillors are all over the map on the issue. Three of four councillors on the public works committee -- Jenny Gerbasi, Devi Sharma and Dan Vandal -- voted Thursday to keep the concept alive but later they each had their own version of the wording. It may not have mattered so much to chairman Justin Swandel -- he was the lone voter against the motion. Gerbasi was the most vocal supporter of reopening the intersection, saying city council has to champion the concept if it's ever to become a reality. "I think there is some real momentum on this," Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) said. "It's a question of political will." Gerbasi wanted the committee to vote on a motion that would forward the issue to the standing downtown committee, which would take the lead in pushing it ahead. The intersection was closed off to pedestrians when the property owners on the corner built the underground complex. The deal expires in 2019 but Swandel said any one of the property owners can trigger a 40-year extension. Swandel (St. Norbert) said the city has to first convince the property owners to reopen the intersection or all their efforts will be wasted. Vandal (St. Boniface) repeatedly asked for the wording of the motion before voting; Gerbasi kept changing the wording and said it should include everything everyone was talking about, as long as the priority was reopening the intersection to pedestrians. It was left to the committee clerk to piece together everything that was said and to formally write out a motion to be included in the meeting minutes. Stephanie Voyce of the Downtown BIZ appeared as a delegation in support of the reopening. Voyce said the BIZ favours a one-year pilot opening, where the various options considered in an administrative report could be tried and the impact on businesses on the street and in the underground can be seen. Swandel said Gerbasi was focused on reopening the intersection, whereas he believed the issue should be to develop ways to make the famous corner more pedestrian-friendly, including reopening it to pedestrians if possible. Swandel said all hopes for reviving the intersection die if Gerbasi's narrow goal of reopening the intersection fails. Gerbasi countered there have been numerous studies examining the intersection and they all conclude reopening the intersection is the key to luring more pedestrians, adding other initiatives will only complement the reopening. An administrative report examined options for reopening the intersection to pedestrians but staff comments showed they weren't supportive of the idea. The report ruled out a "scramble" crossing -- where traffic lights in all directions are red for a period of time to allow people to cross as they like -- but said other crossing methods should be studied further before any decision is made to commit to reopening the intersection. A public works official said more than 200,000 people drive through the intersection every day in vehicles, while the department estimated only about 1,000 people would cross the intersection on a daily basis if it were reopened. "That puts everything into context," said Luis Escobar, the city's traffic czar. aldo.santin(a)freepress.mb.ca Different wordings The public works committee voted to support the reopening of Portage and Main to pedestrians. The Free Press asked each of the councillors what they thought was the wording of the motion they were voting on: *Jenny Gerbasi:* "It's not word for word but I can tell you the essence was to take the steps, to bring forward potential steps needed to open the barriers and allow pedestrians at Portage and Main, and then it goes through the different steps that can be taken; it leaves some flexibility on how that happens." Voted in favour. *Justin Swandel: *"From the perspective of opening the intersection, move forward to the standing policy committee on downtown development, heritage and riverbank, with the specific pieces that were in the old report -- consulting with the owners, working with the traffic study; there were two other pieces in there, and then also including the overall design, that was the last piece of the motion." Voted against. *Devi Sharma: *"There were many things that were incorporated into that motion but the important thing is we're moving this forward and to have further discussion, analysis and consultation and that's what it's all about." Voted in favour. *Dan Vandal: *"The spirit of the motion was, with the goal of bringing back pedestrian traffic to Portage and Main, to begin engaging the private property owners and CentreVenture, and... we should also take into consideration making design improvements for pedestrian-oriented design improvements, and when the time is appropriate, public works will do the necessary traffic study so we have some buy-in." Voted in favour. * * * * * Following the meeting, the committee clerk prepared the following motion to be recorded in the minutes: The standing policy committee on infrastructure renewal and public works further directed the Winnipeg public service to commence with the following aiming to potentially open Portage Avenue and Main Street to pedestrian access: 1. Initiate discussions with the relevant property owners adjacent to the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street regarding implementation and process with the goal of allowing pedestrians at grade at this intersection. 2. Engage with stakeholders to include consultations and research as applicable. 3. Prepare terms of reference for a comprehensive traffic study at the appropriate time. -- Santin *Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 14, 2014 B2*

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Calgary organization enlists Dutch students to make city safer for cyclists
by Dave Elmore 14 Mar '14

14 Mar '14

http://globalnews.ca/news/1207586/calgary-organization-enlists-dutch-student s-to-make-city-safer-for-cyclists/ Calgary organization enlists Dutch students to make city safer for cyclists By Phil Heidenreich Global News Safer Calgary is asking some Dutch land use students for input on how to improve safety for cyclists in the city. CALGARY- For the second straight year, the umbrella organization Safer Calgary is getting input from some European students on how to improve cycling safety in Calgary. Safer Calgary is a coalition made up of a number of groups looking to improve safety within Calgary in a variety of ways. Last year, Safer Calgary launched an initiative in which students from the NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands provided input for a series of presentations and symposiums to debate how to improve cycling safety. This year, Safer Calgary enlisted the help of 70 final year students in NHTV University's land use and transportation planning department to study the Calgary communities of Acadia, Bowness, Martindale, Ogden, and Sunalta. "The Dutch are quite famous for their ability to integrate lots of modes of transportation," says Safer Calgary's Greg Hart. "It's just a natural connection." The visiting students will also spend some time in High River to examine possible ways of reshaping the town as it rebuilds from the June floods. Thanks Dave o _ ( \ _ (X)\ /(X)

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Two active transportation initiatives not be missed!
by Rivers West 13 Mar '14

13 Mar '14

*Rivers West is hosting two active transportation initiatives in March:* *How to Develop an Active Transportation Map of your Community *(poster attached) *DATE: *Thursday, March 27th *TIME: *9:00 am ‐ 11:30 am *LOCATION: *Carol Shields Auditorium, Millennium Library, 251 Donald Street *RSVP: *Sylvie info(a)riverswest.ca (204) 925‐2320 ext. 108 *COST: *Free *Presented by: *City of Winnipeg, Green Action Centre, Winnipeg Trails Association & Rivers West *Presenters: *Jackie Avent, Janice Lukes, Anders Swanson, City of Winnipeg representative *Bike Week in Suburbia - Brainstorming Session* *DATE:* Wednesday March 19th *TIME:* 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm *LOCATION:* The Forks Centre Court *RSVP:* Sylvie info(a)riverswest.ca (204) 925‐2320 ext. 108 June 14th to June 20th is Bike Week in Winnipeg, formerly known as Bike to Work Day. The Bike Week Volunteer Organizing Committee have expanded the one day event to a week full of events and activities. There are many exciting downtown events being planned. To reach out to an even broader audience and to recognize that many Winnipeggers live, work and play in suburbia, the Winnipeg Trails Association is hosting a ‘brainstorming meeting’ to discuss ways to promote and build awareness of Bike Week in suburban communities. I.e.: ‘Bike to School / Bike to Soccer Practice / Bike to the Bank / Bike to the Grocery Store’ etc. The more folks we can get on bikes in their communities – the better! Meeting will be hosted by Janice Lukes. -- *Sylvie Fouasse* Rivers West info(a)riverswest.ca (204) 925-2320 ext 108

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AT webinar: The Value of Investing in Complete and Green Streets, Wed, Mar 19, 2-3pm, EcoCentre
by Beth McKechnie 13 Mar '14

13 Mar '14

Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg invite you to join us for a local viewing of the following APBP webinar at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave). This will be followed by group discussion of local applications. Description provided below. RSVPs are appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth (204) 925-3772 ** * * * ** *All In: The Value of Investing in Complete and Green Streets* *Wednesday, March 19, 2014 | 2:00-3:00 pm Central* Changing the way streets are designed and operated requires more than great policy -- a commitment across departments and stakeholder groups is needed to create and implement guidelines that bring policy to life. This webinar explores an excellent example of a comprehensive initiative: Boston Complete Streets. Boston's fully committed, "all in" approach to complete streets helps the city realize the full range of economic and social benefits that arise from investing in streets that are multimodal, green and smart. This presentation offers insights into the collaboration within the city to develop and implement the Boston Complete Street Guidelines. The Guidelines represent a fundamental change in Boston's approach to street design and operations, and showcase Boston's vision for becoming a more walkable, bikable, transit-friendly, and livable city. Presenters from the City of Boston and Toole Design Group will discuss the Guidelines' connection to place-making and Complete Streets policy; the overarching principles of environmental, economic and social sustainability; and the next steps for the Guidelines' development. Download for free or purchase the 1st edition of the Boston Complete Street Guidelines online at bostoncompletestreets.org<http://bostoncompletestreets.org/about/> . [image: Inline image 1]

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Watch for bikes - sign on window of Toronto taxi
by Jessie Klassen 12 Mar '14

12 Mar '14

Here is a window decal from the passenger seat of a taxi in Toronto. *Jessie Klassen* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca>| Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3772 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/>

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Winnipeg Urbanist Meetup
by Beth McKechnie 12 Mar '14

12 Mar '14

** Please share widely ** >From Matt Carreau... The Winnipeg Urbanist Meetup is a monthly gathering along the lines of Green Drinks <http://www.greendrinks.org/> [organized in Winnipeg by the Manitoba Eco-Network <http://mbeconetwork.org/resources/events> on the first Friday of each month] or Secret Handshake <http://secrethandshake.ca/> but designed for folks with an interest in cities and urbanism. The idea is to create a regular space for civic-minded individuals to come together for networking, idea sharing and collaborating on new initiatives that inspire positive urban change. *The first **meetup** has been scheduled for March 28th from 5-8pm at Cousin's on Sherbrook*. Subsequent meetups will be organized monthly. More information can be found at winnipegurbanist.tumblr.com.

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London Borough's set to become "Mini-Hollands"
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 11 Mar '14

11 Mar '14

http://road.cc/content/news/113286-enfield-kingston-and-waltham-forest-get-… -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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WFP: Councillor fears iconic corner could be closed another 40 years (Mar.10'14)
by Beth McKechnie 10 Mar '14

10 Mar '14

[Note the poll results (please vote if it's still open). I'm not sure if the strong response from those who want to keep peds underground at Portage & Main is a comment on Winnipeggers or on the WFP readership.] Councillor fears iconic corner could be closed another 40 years At a crossroads By: Carol Sanders http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/at-a-crossroads-249234051.html The iconic corner of Portage and Main is nearing a turning point, and some city councillors are speaking in favour of taking down the barricades that block pedestrians from crossing above ground. Coun. Jenny Gerbasi is nervous about whether it will happen. "There is a real risk that we could be stuck with this corner closed for another 40 years," said Gerbasi (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry). "To have the most iconic intersection and to have it closed to pedestrians -- it doesn't make sense to anybody. Find me another place in the world that does this." The city's deal with property owners on the corners of Portage and Main, which keeps the famous intersection closed to pedestrians, expires in 2019. It drives pedestrians underground to businesses in a concourse below street level. Each of the property owners can renew its agreement for a further term of 40 years in 2019. On Thursday, an analysis of the Portage and Main crossing will be presented to Gerbasi and other councillors at a meeting of the city's standing policy committee on infrastructure renewal and public works. "We asked them to look at new options," said Gerbasi. One option is a scramble corner, in which all traffic stops and pedestrians can cross any which way through the intersection once signalled. "A scramble corner would slow down traffic massively; that's what the engineers are saying," Gerbasi said. A more viable option would be to reduce the number of vehicles turning where pedestrians are crossing, the report says. The analysis says more study is needed if the city wants to go ahead with reopening the corner to pedestrian traffic. "I think it would be nothing but positive," said Coun. Dan Vandal (St. Boniface). "People on the street is what is needed, especially downtown," to make it more vibrant and safe with "more eyes and ears on the street." Removing the pedestrian barricades would be a good thing, he said. "The barriers look like barriers -- they're not the most attractive look for downtown," said Vandal. Making the area more accessible and attractive should be good for businesses above and below ground, said Gerbasi. "The expectation is that if you bring a whole bunch more people to that part of the city, more are going to go down to the businesses (underground)." The city is in the process of studying how opening Portage and Main to pedestrians would affect business owners in the underground concourse. The last time the matter was considered nearly a decade ago, all but one of the owners was on board with opening the corner to pedestrians. The owner opposed no longer owns the property, said Gerbasi. "I don't think businesses are barriers," said Gerbasi. "What's been a barrier is the political will to sort this out and make it happen," she said. "It's a barrier that's dividing our downtown into sections that people don't go near and avoid on purpose -- from The Forks to the Exchange, they're blocked." Shovelling melting snow away from the statues and benches in front of the Richardson Building every day has made Chris Hay a believer in reopening the corner to foot traffic. The 24-year-old said people approach him with the same question all the time -- how to cross the road. "Every day it happens," he smiled. He directs them to the stairs down to the underground concourse, where the escalator wasn't working on Sunday. "There's issues with the underground system as well," Gerbasi said. "Some people find it very confusing -- especially the visually impaired or blind trying to navigate it," Gerbasi said of the underground system. carol.sanders(a)freepress.mb.ca

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Reminder: Baseline Commuting Surveys workshop, Wed. March 12, 12-1:30pm
by Jessie Klassen 10 Mar '14

10 Mar '14

Just a reminder of a free workshop happening this Wednesday on creating basic baseline commuting surveys. RSVP is required, all are welcome! [image: Inline image 3] *II: Baseline commuting surveys* *Wednesday, March 12, 12:00 - 1:30pm* *Eco Centre Boardroom, 3rd Floor, 303 Portage Ave. * Understanding how your co-workers currently get around will help inform your next steps. This 1-1/2 hour workshop will help you plan and create a basic online survey to determine existing commuting habits and what programs, policies or incentives could have the biggest impact on commuting choices at your workplace. *Jessie Klassen* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca>| Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3772 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/>

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Perceptions of bike-friendly policy impacts on access to transit: the first and last mile
by Beth McKechnie 09 Mar '14

09 Mar '14

PERCEPTIONS OF BICYCLE-FRIENDLY POLICY IMPACTS ON ACCESSIBILITY TO TRANSIT SERVICES: THE FIRST AND LAST MILE BRIDGE (January 2014) http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/research/1104-bicycle-policy-transit-accessib… The coordination of bicycle and transit modes has received close attention from public transit planners and researchers in recent years, as transit agencies around the world have installed bicycle racks on transit vehicles, implemented bicycles-on-trains policies, and made other efforts to facilitate bicycle-transit integration. Many planners presume that the catchment area for transit is enlarged by these efforts, but geographic changes in the size of catchment areas have not been effectively documented. This research project was designed to assess the distances travelled on bicycle by cycle-transit users (CTUs), both those who use bicycles as a means of access to transit stops and stations and those who bicycle to and travel on transit with theirbicycles. A mixed-methods approach was employed, using a literature review, a survey of cyclist-transit users in Philadelphia and San Francisco, and telephone interviews with a subset of survey respondents. Responses provided by CTUs in the two cities allow us to define their characteristics and behaviors in detail. What is more, they highlight two intriguing conclusions: that transit catchment areas can be much larger for cycle-transit users than for traditional transit users who access transit buses and rail on foot, and that the very concept of a cycle-transit catchment area is quite complex because of the variety of travel opportunities that cycle-transit coordination policies present transit riders. CTUs take advantage of larger catchment areas to reduce their travel costs, and they use those catchment areas in curious, less predictable and more varied ways.

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A little 'cheeky' Friday humour
by Beth McKechnie 07 Mar '14

07 Mar '14

Think Bike ad from the UK's AA... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlGmiHKCDI4 Definitely cheeky! cheers, Beth

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Fwd: This week's Green Lane Project news
by Beth McKechnie 07 Mar '14

07 Mar '14

Some good articles, as usual, in this week's Green Lane (cycle track or protected bike lane) Project news. I particularly like this quote: "Every person biking on a sidewalk is really just casting a vote for a protected bike lane." Also, this chart from San Francisco<http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/no-protected-bike-lanes-are-not-to…>comparing the miniscule cost of building a curb extension or a protected bike lane vs a mile of roadway. View this email in your browser<http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=64bd122c67bd28d620978f4a5&id=104ee4aae9…> <http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> This week's Green Lane Project news Temporary curb-protected bike lane in DC<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> Mar 05, 2014 09:25 am You've heard of sneckdowns<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>, those time-traveling bits of infrastructure from the cities of the future that appear on our street corners in the form of piles of unplowed snow? With Washington DC clearing up its latest blizzard, we were pleased to discover a similarly paranormal phenomenon in the bollard-protected bike lane on L Street. (And to discover that, yes, it did actually make the lane more pleasant to ride a Capital Bikeshare bicycle in.) The rise of curbs<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>: happening in most U.S. cities, at least occasionally, whether they intend it or not. *The Green Lane Project <http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>is a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. You **can follow us on Twitter <http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>or Facebook <http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>or sign up for...* Read More<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> No, protected bike lanes are probably not too expensive for your city to build (chart)<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> Mar 05, 2014 04:13 am Last week, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition published a brief exploration<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>of what it called the "myth" that "there's no way we can keep spending so much on bike lanes with so many other pressing needs in San Francisco." To make their point that dramatically improving biking and walking in a city costs almost nothing compared to many other transportation projects -- in San Francisco, one of the bike-friendliest cities in the country, bike projects take up less than 1 percent of the municipal transportation budget -- they listed some typical cost figures. We decided to further explore this question by creating a simple bar chart, based on the same data. We'll let you draw whatever conclusions you see fit. [image: bar chart comparing SF transportation project costs] *The Green Lane Project <http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>...* Read More<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> One weird old trick to find the best streets for protected bike lanes<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> Mar 04, 2014 02:20 am [image: sidewalk biker] *Photo by waltarrrrr <http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>.* Every person biking on a sidewalk is really just casting a vote for a protected bike lane. That's the core of another<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>great idea from Minneapolis's remarkable advocacy coalition Bikeways for Everyone<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>, the group that has made constructing 30 miles of protected bike lanes in the Twin Cities by 2020 its top priority. Here's their map of the six locations in Minneapolis where more than 25 percent of people on bikes tend to ride on the sidewalk<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> : [image: Minneapolis sidewalk biking map] And to get a sense for why, here's the Google Street View for one such location, at NE Lowry Avenue and Central Avenue NE: *Image: Google Street View <http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>.* This concept isn't quite the same as a "desire line<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>," the long-established principle of urban planning that... Read More<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…> follow on Twitter<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>| friend on Facebook<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>| forward to a friend<http://us5.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=64bd122c67bd28d620978f4a5&id=104…> You are receiving this email because you either signed up to receive it on GreenLaneProject.org or you attended a Green Lane Project event in the past. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click the unsubscribe link below. The Green Lane Project<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d6…>is a program of PeopleForBikes<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>helping U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. We focus on protected bike lanes, which are on-street lanes separated from traffic by curbs, planters, parked cars or posts. unsubscribe from this list<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…>| update subscription preferences<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/profile?u=64bd122c67bd28d62097…> This email was sent to beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca *why did I get this?*<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/about?u=64bd122c67bd28d620978f…> unsubscribe from this list<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=64bd122c67bd28d62…> update subscription preferences<http://greenlaneproject.us5.list-manage1.com/profile?u=64bd122c67bd28d62097…> Green Lane Project · 207 Canyon Blvd Suite 202 · Boulder, CO 80302 · USA [image: Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp]<http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm…>

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Fwd: Active Transportation Canada - New Listings: March 6, 2014
by Beth McKechnie 06 Mar '14

06 Mar '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Haynes <activetransportation(a)rogers.com> Date: Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 1:12 PM Subject: Active Transportation Canada - New Listings: March 6, 2014 Winter does not slow down conversations and controversies about our transportation choices. Since the last notice, on February 1, links to more than 50 new articles that have been posted on Active Transportation-Canada. You might not have time to read them all, but here some that I found worthwhile: 1. Calgary crafting strategy for pedestrian promotion<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/calgary-crafting-str…> 2. We're Driving Less, So Should We Stop Building New Roads?<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/03/were-driving-less-so…> 3. A Comparison of Measures of Walkability in Relation to Transportation Behaviors, Obesity and Diabetes in Toronto, Canada<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/a-comparison-of-meas…> 4. Bike Share and Helmet Laws: An Uncomfortable Relationship<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/03/bike-share-and-helme…> 5. Walk 21 Sydney 2014<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/walk-21-sydney-2014.…> 6. America's Cities Are Still Too Afraid to Make Driving Unappealing<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/03/americas-cities-are-…> 7. Winnipeg - Political will a must to spur year-round cycling in city<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/winnipeg-political-w…> 8. Why big downtown developers are betting on cyclists<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/why-big-downtown-dev…> 9. When Will Skateboarding Get the Olympic Seal of Approval?<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/03/when-will-skateboard…> 10. Urban walking is a legal high, so why are cities cruel to pedestrians?<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/03/urban-walking-is-leg…> But if you have some time, just visit the home page and explore for yourself: http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/. If you are interested in Active Transportation isssues, I suspect you will find something worthwhile among the nearly 3,000 items that have been posted. Michael Haynes Director TransActive Solutions

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America's Cities Are Still Too Afraid to Make Driving Unappealing
by Dave Elmore 06 Mar '14

06 Mar '14

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2014/03/americas-cities-are-still-t oo-afraid-make-driving-unappealing/8564/ America's Cities Are Still Too Afraid to Make Driving Unappealing The morning I wrote this I took public transportation to work. I hopped on the bus around the corner from my house, then the train for a few stops farther. I took mass transit because it was convenient, because my card was already preloaded with the cash that diverts from my paycheck, and because the ride gave me 20 minutes to start the day browsing Twitter. Baked into this decision, however, were a number of other nearly subliminal calculations about the alternatives not taken. I did not drive the car (yes, my household has a car) because downtown Washington, D.C., is a hot mess at rush hour, and because parking near the office costs the equivalent of a fancy hamburger a day. I did not bike because it was snowing. (Again. <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/topics/polar-vortex/> ) And I did not walk because the distance was too far. My commuting choices - just like everyone's - are the sum of the advantages of one transportation mode weighed against the downsides of all other options. Or, more succinctly: my feelings about the bus are mediated by what I'm thinking about my car. At a macro level, this decision-process implies that there are two ways to shift more commuters out of single-occupancy vehicles and into other modes of transportation, whether that's biking, carpooling, walking, or transit. We can incentivize transit by making all of those other options more attractive. Or we can disincentivize driving by making it less so. What's become increasingly apparent in the United States is that we'll only get so far playing to the first strategy without incorporating the second. "One of the things I keep looking at is cities like Boulder, Davis [California], and Portland - places well-known for walking and biking," says Daniel Piatkowski, a recent graduate of the design and planning doctoral program at the University of Colorado at Denver. I met him earlier this year at the Transportation Research Board annual conference, where he was presenting on what he's simply come to describe as the <http://amonline.trb.org/2014-1.405766/t-1132-1.418964/525-1.419007?qr=1> "carrots" and "sticks" that might be deployed to get people out of their cars. "We're still not seeing any really significant mode shifts, despite decades of investment," he says, still talking about the cycling capitals of Portland and Boulder. "The crucial component that's missing is that we're not implementing any policies that disincentivize driving." "We're still not seeing any really significant mode shifts, despite decades of investment." We can quibble over how to define "really significant" mode shifts. In Portland, the share of commuters who get to work by bike is about 6 percent <http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/index.ssf/2014/03/portland_bike_share_i s_it_a_go.html> , well above the national average (roughly half a percent <http://traveltrends.transportation.org/Documents/CA10-4.pdf> ). But Piatkowski's latter point is unquestionably true: relative to European cities <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2014/02/9-reasons-us-ended-so-much -more-car-dependent-europe/8226/> , it is exceptionally hard in U.S. communities to implement real disincentives to driving. There are ways to do it. We could reduce parking availability or raise parking rates. We could implement congestion pricing <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/10/only-hope-reducing-traffic /315/> . We could roll back subsidies for gas and highways and public parking garages. We could tie auto-insurance rates or infrastructure taxes to how much people actually drive <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/10/someday-soon-youll-pay-eve ry-mile-you-drive/7113/> . All of these "sticks," to use Piatkowski's term, would have a real impact on how people chose to get around. And that impact would no doubt be larger than what we get from building new bike lanes, sidewalks, or bus stops. But these are the options we almost never choose. For his research, Piatkowski looked at four cities that won grants each worth $25 million to increase biking and walking as part of a federal Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program <http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/ntpp/> . Unanimously, those cities spent almost all of their money on "carrots." Piatkowski couldn't even find much literature on the impact of driving disincentives in the United States because so few are implemented. "On a scale of getting to a place that is like Zurich or Freiberg, one of these really epic walkable, transit-friendly, bikeable places," he says. "We're just so far away from that." . . . . . Piatkowski and his research collaborator, Wesley Marshall, aren't arguing that cities shouldn't deploy carrots like striping bike lanes or improving bus service or paving shaded sidewalks for pedestrians. After all, driving disincentives won't be all that effective if commuters don't have viable alternatives. More likely, these would just harm low-income commuters by increasing the burdens of driving without decreasing the burdens of alternative transportation. The question is really how far we can get down the path of least resistance, pursuing only the politically easy tactics. If the goal at the end of the day is changing behavior, how much can you really achieve by showing people a nice new bike lane? "It's going to be marginal," says Marshall, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at UC-Denver. "You can't expect to put in a bike lane and for it to be a magical elixir in most of the country." That's not always the case. Carrot-like improvements to transit in New York City have significantly changed behavior <http://www.schallerconsult.com/pub/modeshft.pdf> because disincentives to drive are already built into the environment. New York is expensive and crowded, which means that parking is costly and congestion is bad. But elsewhere - in cities where driving is systematically subsidized in so many ways - the disincentives would have to come from more explicit policy. In the absence of such policies, Arlington County, Virginia, offers a good case study for the upper bounds of what's possible with incentives alone. The county's commuter services office runs one of the most advanced travel demand management programs in the country, just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C. "We're afraid to push the disincentive lever too hard." "The stuff we focus on is much more mundane, ground-level tactics," says Chris Hamilton, chief of the county's Commuter Services Bureau. "The Bike Arlington <http://www.bikearlington.com/> guys are just trying to help so many adults over the hump of riding a bike for the first time again." The county runs commuter stores and bike clinics. It teaches people how to swipe transit cards and find the bus. It works with building managers to coax them into putting bike lockers in the basement, and transit screens in the lobby. It prods local employers to subsidize transit cards and bike-share memberships. Through all of this work, Hamilton's office calculates that 42,000 trips a day in the county that would otherwise take place in a single-occupancy vehicle now occur in other modes instead. Three-quarters of those trips are taken by mass transit. All of that has come through lowering the barriers or increasing the appeal of alternative transportation. That's an impressive number. But when asked if he wouldn't rather the county just tax the heck out of parking, Hamilton laughs. He knows that would make his job much easier. "We wouldn't have to do any of this," he says. A creative city might be able to make a disincentive feel like an incentive. Piatkowski points to a <http://www.arb.ca.gov/planning/tsaq/cashout/cashout.htm> "parking cash-out" law in California that requires employers to give workers a cash allowance to not use parking. "The stick then becomes missing out on the reward," Piatkowski says. But why not just wield disincentives as what they honestly are? "Behavior change" sounds vaguely manipulative (whether we're talking about behavior involving automobiles or thermostats <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2011/10/reducing-water-energ y-use-through-peer-pressure/384/> ). But in this context, the disincentives are really about removing subsidies and distortions from the market. Parking isn't really free <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/10/its_parking_stupid/323/> . Gas taxes <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/12/we-urgently-need-fix-gas- tax-2014/7974/> don't actually cover the costs of maintaining our roads. So why is it so hard to disincentivize driving at the same time that we incentivize the alternatives, at least until they're in some better kind of equilibrium? "Because we're afraid," Hamilton says. "Because we don't have the guts to pull the levers on what we want. We know that we want a walkable, bikeable, transit community. We're building it. But we're afraid to push the disincentive lever too hard."

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Bicycles 2013: Planning, Design, Operations, and Infrastructure
by Beth McKechnie 05 Mar '14

05 Mar '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Terry Zdan <tjzdan50(a)gmail.com> Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 10:14:27 -0600 Subject: Fwd: Bicycles 2013: Planning, Design, Operations, and Infrastructure *Bicycles 2013: Planning, Design, Operations, and Infrastructure <https://odlinks.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTUxYTNjO…>* [image: http://www.trb.org/Resource.ashx?sn=cover_TRR2387small]<https://odlinks.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTUxYTNjO…> TRB's Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2387 consists of 17 papers that explore bicycle-specific traffic signals; automated collection of cyclist data; the role of the bicycle in the limitation of transportation poverty in the Netherlands; passing events in mixed bicycle traffic; driver and cyclist... Happy Trails -- Terry Zdan 126 Duncan Norrie Drive Wpg MB R3P 2J9 CANADA tjzdan50(a)gmail.com <tjzdan(a)gmasil.com>

2 1

A bit long but worth the read
by Dave Elmore 04 Mar '14

04 Mar '14

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/bike-blog/2014/mar/04/cycling-cities-sear… Cycling in cities: the search for the world's most bike-friendly metropolis Is urban cycling worth the risk? Only one way to find out: saddle up and plant two wheels in seven cities around the world A cyclist passes a steam vent in the financial district of Toronto; not a welcoming city on two wheels. Photograph: Andy Clark/Reuters. Story courtesy of Mosaic <http://www.mosaicscience.com> It was just another morning commute. That is, until a bus driver ran a red light, turned right, and drove straight into Ann-Doerthe Hass Jensen. The bus knocked the social worker off her bike, trapping her underneath, a wheel pinning down and crushing her left foot. It was a school bus heading to a Copenhagen kindergarten, and the children aboard were screaming. Ann was rushed to hospital in excruciating pain, every bone in her foot shattered. In the six weeks of hospitalisation that followed, part of Ann's foot was amputated. Salvageable bones were wired back into place and skin grafts were taken from her thigh to replace the torn and missing flesh. "I'm pretty lucky," says Ann. "People normally die when this happens." It was a year before she could walk again. During that year, she had to take a taxi to work every day. "I hated it," she says. "Here, the taxi drivers are a menace, and I was really scared of accidents." She also hated having to wait. Travelling by bike in Copenhagen is often the fastest way to get around, which is the top reason that Copenhageners cycle. Ann's physiotherapy was tricky. The missing portion of her foot is a crucial stepping point, and its absence affects her balance. But walking wasn't the only part of her rehabilitation. In Copenhagen – where people own 5.2 bicycles for every car – over a third of residents pedal to work, school or college. So rehabilitation often literally means getting you back in the saddle. The city helped Ann get a specially adapted Nihola cycle: a sturdy, stable threewheeler that has allowed her to regain independent mobility. In cities <http://www.theguardian.com/cities> across the world, researchers, planners and policymakers are examining the many potential plus points of cycling <http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/cycling> . Increasing the proportion of people who cycle or walk, rather than drive, could not only reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, but also lower people's risk of developing a number of diseases. But at what cost? To what extent does cycling in cities expose you to the risk of injury or death? What makes some cities so much safer and attractive for cyclists than others? The drastically different design and policy approaches taken by large cities in Europe and North America provide some stark comparisons on cycling safety, equity and its impact on public health. To weigh up the risks and benefits of city cycling, and explore what can be learned where public health, urban design and transport engineering meet, I did what I had to do: I hopped on a bike. Paris has become accustomed to bicycles In Paris, new bike lanes are pervasive. Though many of the streets are centuries old, sometimes cobbled, and claustrophobically narrow, bike lanes have been prominently marked. There are also some segregated cycle paths, often crazily disconnected – disappearing and appearing again in a seemingly random fashion. Skinny one-way streets might have bike lanes on the right, so you cycle with the direction of the traffic, or on the left, so you're in the contraflow. On some major streets, like Boulevard Saint-Michel, there are special lanes shared by bikes and buses. Though I felt less squeezed cycling in these wide lanes, where traffic was much lighter than the adjacent lanes for cars, I did feel a little intimidated about sharing the lane with buses. That said, the Parisian bus drivers gave me plenty of space, and didn't behave aggressively. I did get a sense that traffic here has become accustomed to bicycles. There are some off-street cycle paths too. Zooming alongside the Seine on the elevated bike path, totally segregated from motorised traffic, was pure delight. Vélib bikes, from Paris's bicycle sharing system, were in use everywhere. I saw men in suits, teenagers, women in chic business attire, pensioners, and female university students riding side by side on the bikes. Posting celebrity Vélib' sightings on social media has apparently become something of a local pastime. The bikes are such a fixture that I saw one young man taking a break on a parked Vélib', feet on the handlebars, chatting on his mobile phone. In the midst of Paris's cycling revolution, it seemed fitting to meet Ari Rabl at Le Procope, a city restaurant where some of the leaders of the French Revolution gathered. With Audrey de Nazelle, a lecturer at the centre for environmental policy at Imperial College London, Rabl, a consultant and retired scientist at the centre energétique et procédés of the École des Mines in Paris, has looked at the health benefits when people move from cars to walking or cycling. Rabl explains that they found that the population-level costs due to fatal accidents are outweighed at least tenfold by the health benefits of walking or cycling. Monetising the costs and benefits, Rabl and De Nazelle estimated that for a driver who switches from driving to cycling for their 5km commute, the overall health benefit from physical activity is worth about €1,300 (£1,070) per year. Of course, it's important to point out that while fatal accidents might be reported as small "population-level costs" in public health studies, they have tragic, catastrophic costs for individuals and their loved ones. Many Danes don't even consider cycling exercise Four days earlier, and some 1,000 or so kilometres north-east, I'm sitting in a conference room at the University of Copenhagen's department of public health, overlooking the picturesque Lakes area. Around the table are health researchers Astrid Ledgaard Holm, Henning Langberg and Henrik Brønnum-Hansen. Ledgaard Holm, a doctoral student, has modelled the health impacts of increased cycling. Accounting for physical activity, exposure to accidents and air pollution, she and colleagues found that the overall burden of disease – including heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, breast cancer, colon cancer, cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer – was reduced in people who cycled. The positive health effects of increased cycling were more than a third larger than the potential loss of health from bicycle accidents and air pollution. Other studies investigating the health impacts of cycling have found similar positive benefits, although the magnitude varies. In a different study based in Copenhagen, researchers analysed data from over 13,000 women and 17,000 men to explore the impact of physical activity on mortality. Even after adjusting for other factors, such as physical activity in leisure time, they found that people who did not cycle to work experienced a 39% higher mortality rate than those who did. In other words, cycling improved longevity. One of the most interesting insights the Danish researchers share is how they've discovered that many Danes don't consider cycling exercise. "People here can easily be riding back and forth 5 km per day, and if you ask them on a questionnaire if they are physically active, they will say 'No, I don't do any exercise'," says Ledgaard Holm. For many here, she says, it's not a choice of activity, but your mode of transport. What's immediately striking about cycling in Copenhagen is the incredible diversity of individuals on bicycles. Embedding myself in the morning rush-hour traffic on Nørrebrogade, one of Copenhagen's busiest cycle routes, I see a woman in a long flowing black jilbab pedalling a cargo bike with two small children in the basket. I see men of all ages in suits; women in dresses, high-heeled boots and smart coats, flowing garments protected from the spokes by metal skirt guards on the wheel hub. I see university students and children cycling to school; toddlers strapped into child seats on the front or back of mum or dad's bike; and baskets of children pedalled along in sturdy Christiana or streamlined Bullit bikes. Some children ride the cycle paths independently. Others are shepherded by parents cycling alongside, who guide their charges with the occasional gentle hand on the back. While cycling to interviews at the University of Copenhagen one morning, I happen upon a makeshift memorial on the side of the street. At the intersection of Store Kongensgade and Dronningens Tværgade in the city centre, a stretch of tarmac the length of a body is adorned with fresh flowers and candle jars inscribed with handwritten notes. I discover later that it's where a 20-year-old woman on her bike was struck and killed several weeks earlier by a tourist bus making a right-hand turn. Decades after streets were first painted with white crosses to mark fallen cyclists, cycling accidents, although rare, are still not taken lightly here. Only one Copenhagen cyclist was killed in 2012, and no year from 1998 to 2012 has seen more than seven cyclists killed in the city, according to Statistics Denmark. These figures are quite something in a city where the population cycles an estimated 1.27m km every day. The risk associated with being a cyclist in Copenhagen "has dropped by more than 70% over the last 15 years" according to Niels Torslov, the city's traffic director. "And it's a very strong story about finding the right measures, and designing a road space in a way that protects the users, especially those cycling." The use of cycling helmets is growing among Copenhageners, noticeably more than in Amsterdam, where helmet wearing is still very much an exception. At the time of her accident, in 2006, Ann-Doerthe Hass Jensen was wearing a helmet, though clearly, as she says herself, a helmet protects your head but not your feet. She says that working at Copenhagen's Centre for Rehabilitation of Brain Injury, as she does, makes you fanatical about helmets. "There is no way I would not have a helmet on," she says. After several days of exploring Copenhagen by bike, I meet Ann at the centre, where she leads me outside to see her specially adapted tricycle. Her sense of pride is palpable. It takes her between 30 – 40 minutes to make the trip from home to work. "The first few times I got back on a bike again, it was hard. Really, really hard," she says. "There was a lot of crying." Now, though, there is no stopping her. In her first year of recovery, Ann's rehabilitation team felt she needed to re-establish both the freedom of mobility and the quality of life that her bicycle had previously allowed. It wasn't easy. Beyond the physical challenges of getting Ann back in the saddle, there was another hurdle: her enormous fear. "I had to work with a psychologist … because I was scared like hell," she says. Using cognitive therapy, she and her psychologist worked through the entire experience, going over the incident report in excruciating detail. Pushing through that fear was tough. "It wasn't my perception that was off that day. It was somebody who actually did something wrong. And it took me a while to get my confidence again," she says. Ann's fear was not unreasonable. Her experience wasn't just an accident. It was the action of a negligent driver, whose licence was revoked when the case came to court two years later. Of all the cities, London was the most terrifying Research shows that perceived safety is at least as critical as measured safety to the willingness of citizens to hop on a bike. For me, of all the cities I cycled in, London was the most terrifying. Cyclists were prevalent in the centre of the city, and what immediately struck me, beyond the dense, fast-moving traffic they were attempting to navigate, was the rapid speed they were cycling at. In impromptu interviews with cyclists stopped at traffic lights, I asked one woman why she cycled. Her answer: "I hate the tube, it's really unhealthy and sweaty and overcrowded." Asked if she felt safe cycling, she said, "No. That's the honest answer." But her sentiments weren't shared by everyone I asked. A student who had just moved to London said, "It's about five to 10 years ahead of New York," adding that she felt quite safe cycling on London's cycle superhighways. I, on the other hand, did not. I spent some time watching cyclists crossing the Southwark bridge section of one of the cycle superhighways. Riding along CS7's blue-painted bike lane on a "Boris bike (Mayor Boris Johnson's cycle hire scheme was introduced in 2010) largely unseparated from mixed, fast-moving traffic, made me anxious and uneasy. What's more, I suffer from asthma, making me a bit of a human canary for air pollution. After the noticeably clean air of Copenhagen, the polluted air of London made for laboured breathing. London is beginning to make progress on provisions for cyclists, and there are good sections of the growing infrastructure, but I saw plenty of room for improvement. On both sides of Southwark bridge, the short, separated span of blue bike lane, protected by a concrete barrier, fed straight into a bus stop. This forced cyclists to choose between two unappealing options: wait like a sitting duck behind the bus while it stops, or pull out into traffic to overtake, and risk being in one of the bus's many blind spots when it pulls out from the kerb. Peter Wright is the delivery planner for cycling at Transport for London (TfL), the local government body chaired by Johnson. Wright explains that bus-stop bypasses are planned, "to try and avoid conflict so that cyclists don't have to come out into general traffic". A similar hazard was delivery vehicles parked in bike lanes, a common sight in London and Paris. In November 2013, when asked about the spate of cycling deaths, Johnson told the Guardian <http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/14/boris-johnson-london-cycling…> that if cyclists did not follow the rules, "there's no amount of traffic engineering that we invest in that is going to save people's lives." To be fair, London's Mayor – a cyclist himself – is making gradual progress. In 2013, TfL announced its safe streets for London plan, which aims to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured by 40% by 2020. Ben Plowden from TfL surface transport said: "In 2015, we will be spending £145m a year on cycling, or roughly £18 a head, up with the best in Germany and almost on a par with the Netherlands. This represents around 2% of TfL's overall expenditure and is roughly proportionate to the current 2% mode share of cycling." He added that cycle spending would total £913m during the next 10 years, more than treble previously planned levels. Safety in absence? It is not completely clear how and why accident rates change as the number of cyclists varies, but a safety in numbers effect seems to occur: safety improves in a city as the total number of cyclists increases. This effect has been seen in studies in Denmark, the Netherlands, 14 other European countries, Australia and 68 cities in California. "It is likely that causation runs in both directions: safer cycling encourages more cycling, and more cycling encourages greater safety," writes John Pucher, professor of urban Planning at Rutgers University, New Jersey, in his recent book City Cycling. Motorist behaviour probably contributes to this phenomenon. In places like Copenhagen – where four out of five individuals have access to a bicycle – most drivers are also cyclists, and so are accustomed to sharing public space with bicycles. It can be difficult to compare safety between cities because of the lack of consistency in data collection and because of the need to frame injuries and deaths within the context of exposure – the overall numbers of trips, total distance or time spent cycling. Under-reporting of cycling crashes is also a well-documented problem. Nevertheless, Pucher's 2012 book written with Ralph Buehler listed figures for annual fatalities per 10,000 daily cyclists: Copenhagen 0.3, Amsterdam 0.4, Vancouver 0.9, Toronto 1.3, Portland 1.9, Montréal 2.0, Paris 8.2, London 11.0 and New York 37.6 (all 2010 except Paris, London and New York, 2009). Unless you are travelling at breakneck speed, though, there is nothing inherently dangerous about cycling – it's the environment you're in that creates danger. Ian Roberts, a professor at the nutrition and public health intervention research unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, began his career as a paediatric trauma doctor. "I saw lots of children hit by cars," he says, "and it really is awful." He describes these deaths as "kinetic energy disease" – a reference to the idea of mismatched masses in motion. When one of those masses is protected by metal casing, but the other isn't, it's clear who is more likely to be hurt. One of the trends Roberts has puzzled over is the long-term decline in the death rates of British pedestrians, despite an increase in motorisation. "Road safety people would point to it as an example of how roads are getting safer. But I was a little bit sceptical … because [the] volume of kinetic energy on the road was going up." An alternative hypothesis was that in industrialised countries, there were fewer people walking, something investigated in research he conducted while working in New Zealand. "Over the years it became obvious that people were walking and cycling less than ever before in the history of humans on the planet," says Roberts. "The world was not getting safer, it was getting more hostile, and people were voting with their feet by getting out of the way." The bicycle-as-vehicle philosophy In North America in the 1970s, cyclists – or at least the most vocal advocacy groups purporting to represent them – did not want to get out of the way. So-called vehicular cycling was emerging, a philosophy that has influenced transport policy in both North America and Britain. Fathered by the Californian industrial engineer and cycling activist John Forester, vehicular cycling encourages cyclists to travel on the road in mixed traffic. On his website, Forester writes: "Vehicular cycling, so named because you are acting as the driver of a vehicle, just as the traffic laws require, is faster and more enjoyable, so that the plain joy of cycling overrides the annoyance of even heavy traffic." In 1970s California, lots of athletic cyclists were forming touring groups for riding fast on roads, explains Anne Lusk, a research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health. Back then, she says, such groups may have legitimately feared that US adoption of Dutch-style cycle paths would restrict bike access to roads. "At the time, paths were becoming crowded by joggers, walkers, inline skaters and baby-carriage pushers," says Lusk, so cycling advocates fought forcefully against proposals for cycle paths. The vehicular cycling philosophy became incorporated into US guidelines for transport design, and its influence was felt for decades, limiting the building of physically separated cycle tracks and putting cyclists on the road with cars. "It's something that really stuck in North America," says Meghan Winters, assistant professor in the faculty of health sciences at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Asked if the philosophy of vehicular cycling is evidence-based, she says no. "But it's something that was sticky and was adopted very broadly for very, very many years," she adds. Forester's teachings included how to operate as a motor vehicle, with skills like not riding in the door zone (the area next to a parked car where an opened door could hit a moving cyclist). They were useful, says Lusk, in that they did teach people how to bike with cars if they had to. But she does not endorse Forester's view that there should be no cycle lanes painted on the road, no separate cycle tracks and no cycle symbols. Lusk, and other researchers who have studied the particular needs of certain groups of cyclists – such as women, children, elderly people and parents transporting children – point out that many of these riders cannot operate as a vehicle as confidently as, say, a fit young man on a racing or touring bike. Utilitarian cycling, with bike-specific transport infrastructure, is about being inclusive, addressing the needs of cyclists young and old, male and female. The need for speed is not universal among cyclists, nor is feeling comfortable cycling in heavy, motorised traffic. It's precisely the recognition that cyclists come in all shapes and sizes, and with all kinds of needs, that has driven the last several decades of cycling infrastructure and policy in Denmark and the Netherlands. Tom Godefrooij of the Dutch Cycling Embassy writes: "Cycling is too important as a mode of transport to leave it only to the daring helmeted cycle warriors in conspicuous jackets. Cycling should not be elitist, but for all." How northern Europe shunned the car Outside Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, I see a worker giving his colleague a lift to a plane on the back of his bike, an example of just how deeply embedded cycling is in Dutch culture. A bicycle is by far the best and quickest way to get around Amsterdam, local journalist Bennie Mols tells me. One new hazard he laments is tourists on bikes, who lack the understanding of how and where to ride. His description stirs a guilty pang. I learn quickly (but too late) that the hand signal for stop is essential in busy bike traffic. Failing to use it as I slow down to navigate, I cause a near-collision as a herd of bicycles behind me screeches to a halt, one woman yelling "seriously?" at me multiple times as she skids to a stop on the grassy verge. Wishing I could dissolve into the bike path, I sheepishly review the hand signals in my guidebook. It's a mistake I don't make again. Amsterdam and Copenhagen weren't always the cycle-friendly cities they are today. In the Netherlands, as car-buying wealth grew in the postwar era, cycling rates dropped precipitously from about 85% of all trips in the 1950s to about 20% in the early 1970s. As the numbers of cyclists fell, discontent grew over the increasing numbers of cyclists and pedestrians killed in traffic accidents. A journalist whose daughter had been killed in traffic launched the 'Stop Kindermoord' (stop the child murder) movement. There were widespread street protests. Danish transport policy reached a tipping point in the 1970s and 1980s, when the nation veered away from urban planning dominated by provisions for motorised vehicles, towards the establishment of cycling-specific infrastructure and traffic calming. As Stop Kindermoord emerged in the Netherlands, a corresponding movement grew in Denmark. The public rose up against a proposal to build a major motorway alongside a picturesque area of Copenhagen known as the Lakes. Massive demonstrations ensued. It was during this era that protesters began painting white crosses on the streets where cyclists had been killed in traffic. So while most other developed nations continued through the 1980s and beyond with road transport design that prioritised the needs of motorised vehicles, a dramatic change was taking place in northern Europe. The shift in thinking catalysed by public protest was that, rather than requiring children and cyclists to adapt to motorised traffic, traffic should adapt to children and cyclists. Northern Europe's shift towards a safer, more convenient infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians created an unplanned natural experiment – albeit one fraught with uncontrolled variables including car taxes, climate, topography, political differences and dependence on the car industry for employment. Nevertheless, in cities orientated towards motor vehicles, the limited provision of transport routes that safely accommodate bikes and a default assumption that riders will adopt vehicular cycling have resulted in stagnantly low numbers of (mostly male) cyclists, for the best part of three decades. "There are dramatic differences in terms of cycling rates and cycling safety between those two places [northern Europe and North America]," says Meghan Winters. "So I think the evidence clearly illustrates which one of these strategies is effective if your goal is to get large segments of the population cycling, and cycling safely … In a sense, this is a global experiment on that, and I think North America may be coming around now," she says. Perhaps. But there's a long road ahead. Montréal is the most cycle-friendly Canadian city It's the summer of 2013, and Toronto traffic is a mess. In the midst of major street reconstruction and resurfacing, traffic queues bumper to bumper heading south on Bay Street, near City Hall. There are a few demarcated bike lanes, and only one separated bike path (not including completely off-street routes such as the largely recreational path along the lakeshore). Taxis weave in and out of lanes, sometimes coming very close to the kerb – the space shared with bicycles. It feels like a hostile environment for cyclists, and I do not sense much tolerance of bikes from motorists. One of the cyclists I speak to in an impromptu interview says that it's pedestrians rather than vehicles that he worries about most. Other hazards for Toronto cyclists include streetcars. Their tracks, which can trap a bicycle wheel if crossed in parallel, are particularly nervewracking. Toronto is not an unfamiliar city to me – I lived here for more than a decade – but returning to cycle downtown is not a pleasant experience. In Vancouver, however, there's a shift in transportation thinking. I note a growing number of bike lanes, segregated bike paths, and painted bike boxes at junctions, which give cyclists a safe place to await a green light and turn safely, ahead of motorists. Though recreational cycling in places like Stanley Park has been possible for decades, it's cycling as transportation that is the focus of the Vancouver city council and mayor Gregor Robertson, who cycles to work. Some of the new separated bike paths feel very safe and easy to use. But there are still places where lanes end in a fairly hazardous way, such as one junction where the bike lane ends abruptly only to reappear a few metres later in the middle of two lanes of car traffic. Cycling along Dunsmuir and over the bridge viaduct on the fully segregated bike lane feels incredibly liberating. Perhaps I'm pushing my luck riding a bike around downtown Vancouver on Friday the 13th, but where the bike routes are marked, or traffic is calmed, I feel relatively safe. The science of urban cycling is messy, but the case for separated bike lanes combined with traffic-calming measures (to reduce vehicle speed) is mounting. A 2009 paper that examined findings from 23 studies from across the world suggested that "purpose-built bicycle-specific facilities reduce crashes and injuries among cyclists". Recent research in Vancouver and Toronto by a collaboration of 14 researchers, including Winters, found that "at local street intersections, traditional stops are safer than traffic circles [roundabouts], and at non-intersections, cycle tracks alongside major streets and traffic diversion from local streets are safer than no bicycle infrastructure". Many more studies are forthcoming from the Canadian Cycling in Cities research group. Montréal is the most cycle-friendly Canadian city I visit. Even where bike lanes are not explicitly marked, motorists are generally patient and considerate in terms of sharing space with cyclists. Though definitely more hilly than Amsterdam and Copenhagen, the undulating topography doesn't seem to be an impediment to Montréalers. Montréal means 'Mount Royal', referring to the steep – if not entirely mountainous – hill and park near the centre of town. The Plateau area, an uphill climb from the city centre, is one of the most heavily cycled parts of the city. It hosts the city's oldest major bike path, along Rue de Brébeuf, a route that spans the entire island of Montréal. During morning rush hour, I see a steady stream of bikes along Boulevard de Maisonneuve, one of several bidirectional, fully segregated bike paths with bike-specific traffic lights. Bikes are also allowed in Montréal's parks, many of which have trails for recreational or commuting use. It was in Montréal, the only large North American city to have cycling infrastructure dating back to the 1980s, that Anne Lusk and colleagues tested the safety of separated cycling infrastructure versus road cycling. They found that separated cycle tracks have lower crash and injury rates (or at least no higher) than the street, and have seen a similar trend in the USA. And research by Winters and colleagues adds to the evidence, finding that bicycle-specific infrastructure that reduces interactions between cyclists and motor vehicles can reduce the occurrence of injuries, potentially by more than 50%. Summary So, how do we make our cities better for cyclists? Safe-cycling cities, policies and legislation already exist, and can inspire others. In Oregon, Portland's vulnerable user law, for example, is modelled on a European safety concept, says lawyer Ray Thomas, a partner at Swanson, Thomas, Coon and Newton – who specialises in cycling law. In Copenhagen, in one of many chance interviews with cyclists on city streets, I happen upon a young American student – Mike Milan, from Greenville, South Carolina – who is studying architecture there. "As I've learned in my urban design class here, Copenhagen has tried to slow down the city to a human pace, and a human scale," he says. His thoughts conceptually crystallise the city's transport philosophy, and are equally applicable to Amsterdam. "Making people feel safer on bikes should not mean equipping them with high-vis and reflective helmets," says Jack Harris, owner of London's Tally Ho! Cycle Tours. "We need infrastructure that allows a broader cross-section of society to get onto a bike." The places that are serious about encouraging cycling as a safe, accessible and pleasant mode of transport have some tough decisions to make about vulnerable users, including cyclists, in the allocation of urban space. At the Copenhagen rehabilitation centre where Ann-Doerthe Hass Jensen works, her physiotherapist colleague Daniel Thue Bech-Pedersen says: "Our main goal of rehabilitation is to allow any individual to be more active again." This can mean being active for work, for leisure, for getting yourself around. "When you can transport yourself and make sure you lower your risk of having another stroke or whatever," he says, "then one plus one equals three." Ann suffers chronic pain from her foot, wears special orthopaedic shoes and walks with a cane, so getting back to cycling made a massive difference to her mobility. It also gave her back her independence. On her cargo trike, she can take her two-year-old niece out on excursions, something that would be impossible on foot or by bus. Asked how she feels at this point along her recovery and about riding to work each day, she replies without hesitation: "I love it." Her tricycle has given her much more than just a means of getting about. Being mobile means being independent, but even more, it means being free.

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WFP: Peak car is upon us (Mar.1'14)
by Beth McKechnie 02 Mar '14

02 Mar '14

[Really nice to see the mention of Peg City Car Co-op<http://pegcitycarcoop.ca/> add to this article but we actually have 9 cars now and will be expanding again this spring. -cheers, Beth] 'Peak Car' is upon usSeveral analysts believe auto sales growth has reached its limit as an increasingly urban world rejects hassles, expenses of car ownership By: Jeff Green and Keith Naughton http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/peak-car--is-upon-us-247991961.html SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- The world that Henry Ford put on wheels is poised to stall. Several auto-industry analysts predict "peak car," a point at which annual global sales growth will top out, in the next decade. Researcher IHS Automotive, for one, sees annual sales cresting at 100 million within that time. Pollution and gridlock are putting a damper on driving in the globe's growing megacities. More young North Americans are opting for public transport, bikes and vehicle-sharing. Cars on the road are lasting longer than ever. All of that may herald a new era for an auto industry weaned on a century of global growth. Peak Car is at odds with the ambitious expansion plans of global automakers, which IHS says are gearing up to produce more than 120 million vehicles by 2016 -- almost 50 per cent more than last year's worldwide sales mark of 82 million. Driving this upheaval is a rapidly emerging reality: The vehicle that ushered in an unparalleled era of personal mobility in the last century is, in many cases, no longer the most convenient conveyance, particularly as more of the world's population migrates to big cities. No one is predicting car sales will suddenly fall off or that today's car companies are now dinosaurs. What experts do see is a reckoning for car companies, which may have to adapt to a world with less car-buying and more car-sharing, more cars that drive themselves and fewer hot rodders on the highway. "The key question is: Do you sell cars or do you sell mobility?" said Tim Ryan, New York-based vice-chairman of markets and strategy for consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers. "If you ignore these megatrends, you run the risk of becoming irrelevant." Many automakers are preparing for changing markets with cars that can be shared, or speak to one another in a bid to keep traffic from jamming. General Motors' EN-V autonomous two-seater, a vehicle engineered jointly with Segway that can detect and avoid obstacles, is being tested in Tianjin, China. "We have looked at the urbanization trend very closely," said Jim Cain, a spokesman for Detroit-based GM. "It's driven experiments like our EN-V program in China and our involvement in services like car sharing." The case for growing gridlock has been presented by PricewaterhouseCoopers, among others. Today, half the world lives in urban areas. During the next decade, there will be a 25 per cent to 50 per cent increase in urban dwelling, as about 1 billion people move into cities, PwC estimates. In 25 years, there will be 9 billion people living in urban areas -- more than the entire population of the Earth today. If they are all driving cars, gridlock could block the path of food, water and emergency medical treatment in urban areas, said Ryan. "People won't stand for spending 25 per cent of their life commuting. The way they will get around will be different." In the U.S., 44 per cent of people would prefer to live in a city with automated "driverless" cars that would reduce congestion, according to a new survey from Intel. Already in the U.S., where automotive ownership has long seemed a birthright, almost one in 10 households doesn't have a car, up 5.7 per cent over the last five years. More young people aren't getting a driver's licence, once a rite of passage. In 2010, 69.5 per cent of 19-year-olds in the U.S. had a driver's licence, down from 87.3 per cent in 1983, said Michael Sivak, director of sustainable worldwide transportation at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor. Better-built cars are damping demand for new ones: The average age of autos on the road today has reached a record 11.4 years, researcher R.L. Polk & Co. says. Alternatives to auto ownership are emerging, such as ride-sharing companies. In Winnipeg, Peg City Car Co-op operates a fleet of eight cars that's shared among more than 140 members. Ultimately, urban dwellers will order a ride to work on their phones, get picked up by a driverless car and whisk through traffic controlled by satellites and sensors that get them to the office safely and quickly, said Thilo Koslowski, auto analyst for researcher Gartner Inc. of Stamford, Conn. U.S. regulators said this month they've begun working on rules to let vehicles communicate via wireless chips while on the road. For the world's automakers and suppliers, that means making cars won't be enough anymore, Ryan said. They have to transform into transportation-service providers that cater to consumers who don't want the hassle and expense of owning a car and instead just want to rent one that comes when summoned. Many are laying the groundwork. Preparing for driverless cars and vehicles that talk to each other makes up a significant portion of the $100 billion the global auto industry spends on research and development, a study last month by the Center for Automotive Research, or CAR, found. Ford executive chairman Bill Ford, great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, in 2009 formed Fontinalis Partners to invest in mobility technology such as bike-sharing service Zagster and ParkMe parking-assistance software. "We're going to have these megacities and they are going to have lots of infrastructure issues, not just transportation, but clean water and food distribution," Ford said in a July 2011 interview, outlining issues the Dearborn, Mich.-based company said this month it's continuing to examine. "If you look at every auto company's business plan and extrapolate it out over the next 10 years, it certainly didn't take me long to start asking the question: Where will all those cars and trucks go?" One answer: For every vehicle that is used in a car-sharing fleet, automakers will lose 32 vehicle sales, a study by AlixPartners concluded. The Southfield-based consulting firm, which advised GM on its bankruptcy, estimates car-sharing has cost makers 500,000 vehicle purchases since 2006. Self-driving "autonomous" cars will be the "killer app" that enables car-sharing companies to blossom, AlixPartners said. By 2020, it said, four million Americans will car-share, up from 1 million now. That coming boom in autonomous cars has created an opening for technology companies that view mobility differently than automakers do. Google Inc. has logged hundreds of thousands of miles road-testing its own driverless cars, CAR says. "The auto manufacturers may need to have a different generation of senior executives and CEOs because today's generation gets more excited about the sheet metal of a production car versus the bits and bytes," Gartner's Koslowski said. "If the industry doesn't work fast enough, the Googles and Apples of the world will fill the void." *-- Washington Post-Bloomberg* Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 1, 2014 D5

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a little humour
by Cyndi Otfinowski 28 Feb '14

28 Feb '14

Hi, I hope this is not an abuse of the network, but I thought a little humour about winter driving (or not) might be appreciated. Rick Mercer on: Rick's Rant: "Winter Driving". http://youtu.be/fgUosngyAu0 Sincerely, Cyndi

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Fwd: Invitation to Bid - Winnipeg Trail Signage
by Anders Swanson 27 Feb '14

27 Feb '14

FYI. See below. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Melissa Sitter <executive_director(a)trailsmanitoba.ca> Date: Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 11:34 AM Subject: Invitation to Bid - Winnipeg Trail Signage To: Cc: margaret(a)trailsmanitoba.ca Hi Everyone; Further to our meeting on January 6th, we have an opportunity to hire a consultant to develop a signage strategy for the Winnipeg Trail. The project description is included in the attached invitation to bid. The purpose of this project is to answer the preliminary questions that arose at our meeting, such as what types of signs should be used (e.g.: reflective or aluminum; TCT logo only or TCT logo with directional arrows or a customized sign), how many signs of each type, where should they go, and provide a cost estimate for the project. Please share the invitation widely. I'm available to answer questions about these projects. Thank you, Melissa Melissa Sitter Executive Director *Trails Manitoba/Sentiers Manitoba* 3-303 Portage Avenue Winnipeg, MB R3B 2B4 204-786-2688 www.trailsmanitoba.ca *"In every walk with nature one receives * *far more than he seeks."* - John Muir

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Fwd: A Dialogue on Public Health and its Relationship to Sustainable Development
by Jackie Avent (ASRTS) 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

Some of you may be interested in the content of these lectures and discussion. Jackie ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tim Walker (Basecamp) <notifications(a)basecamp.com> Date: Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 1:13 PM Tim Walker posted this message on Basecamp. *For anyone who may be interested. A Dialogue on public health and its relationship to sustainable development in Winnipeg, in Manitoba, in Canada, and globally is happening soon..........* "I want to engage the audience in a dialogue on important, challenging and controversial issues of public health - and its relationship to sustainable development in Winnipeg, in Manitoba, in Canada, and globally". - Dr Joel Kettner Former Chief Public Health Officer for Manitoba Current Director of The Canadian Public Health Association *Public Health in the 21st Century. Presentation and Community dialogue every Tuesday in the Month of March. *in Convocation Hall at the U of W. 2nd floor Wesley Hall (the castle like building). Public Health | What is it? Who needs it? Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at *7:30 p.m.* Priorities for Prevention in Manitoba Our Provincial Profile Tuesday, March 11, 2014 at *12:30 p.m*. Public Health How can we prevent the threats that we do not see or know? Tuesday, March 18, 2014 at *12:30 p.m.* Principles, Power and Public Policy The Peculiar Ethics and Politics of Public Health Tuesday, March 25, 2014 at * 7:30 p.m*. "Manitoba has significant inequalities in health status, associated with racial, gender, socio-economic and geographic factors." "Dr. Kettner will explore how we can understand the related roles and opportunities of public health and social development in tackling big issues such as poor health status, poverty, and illiteracy - within Manitoba - and within and between countries." RSVP Appreciated by: Jennifer Ledoux je.ledoux(a)uwinnipeg.ca 204-786-9157 -- *Jackie Avent* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 *|* 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/>

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Free Commuting Ambassador Session THIS Wednesday, 1- 4:30pm
by Jessie Klassen 24 Feb '14

24 Feb '14

Just a reminder of a free half-day session coming up* this Wednesday* on becoming a Creative Commuting Ambassador at your workplace (info below). All are welcome, please RSVP by emailing <jessie(a)greenactioncentre.ca> or calling 204-925-3772. Two related sessions that are coming up include creating baseline commuting surveys<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/creative-commuting-ambassador-training/>(March 12, 12:00 - 1:30) and behaviour change<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/creative-commuting-ambassador-training/>strategies(March 26, 1:00 - 4:30). [image: Inline image 1] I: Tools and hands-on training *Wednesday, February 26, 1:00 - 4:30pm* Become a Creative Commuting Ambassador at your workplace! Get the tools and guidance to support your co-workers to get the most out of their commutes. >From a basic primer on different types of bike infrastructure to transit tools, such as Navigo, BUStxt and transit apps, to understanding carpooling vs carsharing. *Jessie Klassen* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca>| Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3772 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/>

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WFP: In conversation with Bartek Komorowski [winter cycling conference] (Feb.22'14)
by Beth McKechnie 23 Feb '14

23 Feb '14

In Conversation with Bartek Komorowski By: Estefania Wujkiw *http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/in-conversation-with-bartek-komorowski-246651851.html <http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/in-conversation-with-bartek-komorows…>* For the 170 delegates who attended last week's International Winter Cycling Congress, the challenges facing Winnipeg proponents couldn't have been more apparent. Frigid temperatures. Plenty of snowfall. Slippery streets. But Bartek Komorowski, who was one of the invited experts to the conference, believes the obstacles can be overcome. He works at Vélo Québec as the project leader in the research and consulting division. He has extensive experience on projects about active transportation and sustainable urban development for cities, including Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.ã He sat down with Free Press intern Estefania Wujkiw and explained that biking is not about income, but about convenience. Biking is not only fast, but environmentally friendly and cheap, because it doesn't require any fancy gear. *FP: What do you hope to see in Winnipeg?* Komorowski: I would hope to see more cycle tracks hopefully, and maybe a cultural change as well. I think a lot of people are telling me here that Winnipeg is very much a car city and there is a bit of friction between cars and bicycles. But that can change. Right now in Montreal, it is better than it used to be. Apparently, the people that started, when they would go out and bike on the streets, they would get things thrown at them out of cars back in the '70s. *FP: What are the prejudices of winter cycling?* Komorowski: What really fascinates me is that Canadians generally have no issue with doing winter sports. We go skiing, snowshoeing and that's OK, yet cycling for some reason, it is too cold to cycle. If you are dressed reasonably, it is no different. The benefits of cycling in the winter are exactly the same as the benefits of cycling in the summer. In my case, I keep riding through the winter because it's the fastest option to get to work. I could drive, but there's no parking around where I work. I could take transit, but that would take about 45 minutes, or I could ride my bicycle and it takes me about 15 (minutes). *FP: What has been the craziest idea you've heard at this event?* Komorowski: The most out-there idea I've heard of was a presenter from Finland saying that they are working on a cellphone app which will track cyclists with a GPS. When a few cyclists are approaching an intersection, they will turn the light green. In Copenhagen, for example, they have green way, so they time the traffic light to the speed of a bicycle. But this is even better because this is dynamic. If there are unexpectedly a bunch of cyclists heading towards an intersection, that intersection will turn green for them. They are working on it, incidentally, in Oulu, which is actually where Nokia cellphones come from, so it makes sense that they would do that there. *FP: What best practices were discussed?* Komorowski:ã The key practices are building separated paths, also prioritizing. You have a network and then you have to decide what are you gonna maintain first, what are you gonna maintain second and third. If you try to do everything at once and you don't have a plan, then it doesn't work and nothing gets done. That's really a big message that a lot of people here had. Then there are technical things like different techniques, like using salt or sand, or scratching the surface to make grooves. Those all depend on the type of climate you have. By exchanging (ideas) we can avoid making mistakes. *FP: Is the overall experience different between winter and summer cycling, besides the obvious cold weather?* Komorowski: I heard that there's apparently a Norwegian saying that "there is no such thing as bad weather, there is only bad clothes." It's really not that different from cycling in the summer; you just have to dress appropriately. The only place where it's sort of painful is any part of your face that is exposed. In terms of your technique, you have to be a little more careful in the winter, and it's probably best to go a bit slower because there can be unexpected circumstances. If you have studded tires, you can stop on a dime, but a car might skid. In places where you are sharing the road with cars, you have to remember that. *FP: Do you have any advice for beginners?* Komorowski: It is possible to bike in the winter; it is not insane to do it. You dress the same way you would as if you were going cross-country skiing. Maybe if you have a road bike with slick tires, that's not the best. (Try) a slightly bigger tire or with a bit of tread or even a winter tire. Just do it. Go slow when you start just to get a feel for it. Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 22, 2014 D3

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Protected intersections for bicyclists -- 6 minute video presentation
by Kevin Miller 21 Feb '14

21 Feb '14

http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/next-breakthrough-bike-friendly-world-pr otected-intersections-video.html

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Active Transportation-Canada
by Beth McKechnie 20 Feb '14

20 Feb '14

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Terry Zdan <tjzdan50(a)gmail.com> Date: Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 3:18 PM Subject: Active Transportation-Canada Active Transportation Listserv Members: It is past due for a reminder of the new articles that have been posted on Active Transportation-Canada. Since the last notice, on February 1, links to more than 65 new items have been added. We all have our favourites, but here are a few that I found worthwhile reading: 1. Brisk Walking Delays Cognitive Decline in Older Adults <http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/brisk-walking-delays…> 2. Calgary - 1st Street cycle track to be debated by city committee<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/calgary-1st-street-c…> 3. Montreal winter Tour de l'Île kicks off inaugural edition<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/montreal-winter-tour…> 4. Bike share program coming to Hamilton this summer<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/bike-share-program-c…> 5. Edmonton's bike-lane plan unproven and costly<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/edmontons-bike-lane-…> 6. Call for Proposals: Present at the 2014 Ontario Bike Summit<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/call-for-proposals-p…> 7. Cycling infrastructure more economic than for other transport<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/cycling-infrastructu…> 8. Bike lane removal and relocation peddled by Edmonton councillor<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/bike-lane-removal-an…> 9. Build it and they will come: Peak car culture<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/build-it-and-they-wi…> 10. Canada - The Federal Election and Cycling<http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/2014/02/canada-federal-elect…> Or, just visit the home page and explore for yourself: http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.ca/. If you are interested in Active Transportation isssues, I suspect you will find something worthwhile among the more than 2,800 items that have been posted. Michael Haynes Director TransActive Solutions -- Terry Zdan 126 Duncan Norrie Drive Wpg MB R3P 2J9 CANADA tjzdan50(a)gmail.com <tjzdan(a)gmasil.com>

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WFP: Leadership makes wheels turn - Political will a must to spur year-round cycling (Feb.18'14)
by Beth McKechnie 18 Feb '14

18 Feb '14

Leadership makes wheels turn Political will a must to spur year-round cycling in city ON ARCHITECTUREBy: Brent Bellamy http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/leadership-makes-wheels-turn-2459… Winnipeg played host last week to the second International Winter Cycling Congress. Nearly 200 delegates from across North America gathered to discuss the challenges of urban winter cycling and celebrate the benefits it can have for northern cities. The health and quality-of-life-benefits cycling as urban transportation can bring to the citizens of a city are obvious. Numerous studies show commuters who cycle are generally healthier; they feel less stress, sleep better and have more energy. Physically active employees often show improved productivity, reduced absenteeism and turnover. Beyond improving the well-being of its citizens, many cities that struggle to keep up with infrastructure deficits are beginning to understand the positive role investment in active transportation can have in building a sustainable city. As we construct sprawling suburbs, greater commuting distances increase vehicle time on the road, which, in turn, increases congestion levels. The response is often to build new roads or expand existing ones to accommodate higher traffic volumes at peak times. This increased capacity then drives new development even further out and the cycle begins again. By investing in initiatives such as public transit and cycling infrastructure, cities can begin to affect the urban-sprawl spiral, while incrementally reducing road construction and maintenance costs. At less than a tenth of the cost of a new road, construction of fully segregated bike lanes is an attractive option for cities interested in sustainable growth. For the first time, vehicle-ownership levels are declining in Canada and young people in particular are looking for alternative transportation options. Enticing even a small percentage of commuters to choose cycling can significantly affect overall traffic congestion. A study by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration indicated reducing the number of cars by only three per cent can lower peak rush-hour traffic by nearly 30 per cent. Realizing the benefits of reduced infrastructure spending through the provision of alternate transportation options is only effective if the strategy is successful year-round. A harsh winter climate is an obvious barrier to achieving these results. Delegates at the Winter Cycling Congress were inspired by the successful growth of four-season cycling in Minneapolis, a sprawling suburban metropolis that has been named the best cycling city in America, despite winter conditions similar to those in Winnipeg. Political leadership in Minneapolis has been dedicated to transforming the city's urban-cycling culture, making it a central component of overall transportation planning and a primary tool in its urban-design strategy. Widespread construction of dedicated bike lanes, urban zoning requirements for bike parking, rapid transit with bicycle-carrying capability and the implementation of a successful 170 station bike-share program has led to a 78 per cent increase in commuter cyclists since 2007. Despite being America's coldest major metropolitan area, winter cycling rates are growing three times faster than those in summer. Today, five per cent of Minneapolis residents bike to work (twice that of Winnipeg) and nearly 40 per cent of those cycle through the winter months. The most significant barrier to winter cycling participation is not temperature, but the perception of safety. Riders generally feel cold can be accommodated with proper clothing, but unsafe road conditions pose a deterrent that is difficult to overcome. The Twin Cities has addressed this issue by developing a system of paths that physically separate cars and bikes. Smaller street-side bike lanes connect to an innovative system of 'bicycle freeways' linking downtown and the suburbs along former rail lines. The eight-kilometre Midtown Greenway carries as many as 4,000 cyclists per day. The city has committed to clearing these paths within 24 hours of a snowfall, providing winter cyclists with a safe and efficient commuter path in all seasons. With winter participation rates growing, Minneapolis cyclists are experiencing safety in numbers as greater presence in the streets has heightened overall awareness and lowered accident rates. Similarly, in Montreal, a city that keeps 60 km of bike lanes clear from snow all winter, participation has grown by 70 per cent since 2009 with the number of accidents remaining constant. Winnipeggers often hide behind the excuse of cold winters to resist new ideas for improving our city's urban quality. Minneapolis should inspire us to embrace northern-city living and reap the benefits of becoming a year-round cycling community. The conditions for developing a four-season cycling culture in Winnipeg are more favourable than they were in Minneapolis. Our city is denser, it's smaller with far shorter commuting distances, a more highly concentrated downtown workforce and stronger initial participation levels. Both cities have ample sunshine and flat topography, each with rail lines and hydro corridors that could serve as 'bicycle freeways.' Climate and urban form are not the most important factors in developing an urban cycling culture. The common characteristic shared by all bike cities is political leadership that makes active-transportation policy a priority. These cities achieved high numbers of commuter cyclists through deliberate municipal-development decisions. They serve as a model for winter cities such as Winnipeg, demonstrating what is possible with strong political leadership committed to sustainable urban growth and healthy cities. Brent Bellamy is senior design architect for Number Ten Architectural Group. bbellamy(a)numberten.com Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 18, 2014 B5

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AT Webinar: Design for Cyclist and Pedestrian Comfort, Wed, Feb 19, 2-3pm, Ecocentre
by Beth McKechnie 18 Feb '14

18 Feb '14

*Apologies for the late notice regarding tomorrow's webinar due to being away at the excellent Winter Cycling Congress last week followed by the holiday Monday.* <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg invite you to join us for a local viewing of the following APBP webinar at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave). This will be followed by group discussion of local applications. Description provided below. RSVPs are appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth / Jessie (204) 925-3772 ** * * * ** Design for Cyclist and Pedestrian Comfort Wednesday, February 19 | 2:00-3:00 pm CT Learn what tools some communities are using to make qualitative assessments of cycling and walking facilities. Case studies include San Francisco's Bicycle and Pedestrian Environmental Quality Indices and the Traffic Stress model developed at the Mineta Transportation Institute. *Presenters:* - Conor Semler, Kittelson and Associates - Megan Wier, San Francisco Department of Public Health - Peter Furth, Professor of Civil Engineering, Northeastern University

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New report: Best Complete Streets Policies of 2013
by Beth McKechnie 18 Feb '14

18 Feb '14

*The Best Complete Streets Policies of 2013,* released today by Smart Growth America's National Complete Streets Coalition, highlights *15 communities that led the nation *in creating comprehensive Complete Streets policies last year. See the winning communities and download the full report: http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/complete-streets-2013-analysis

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Now here is a bike trailer!
by Dave Elmore 15 Feb '14

15 Feb '14

http://cdn2.tinyhouseliving.com/wp-content/uploads/bicycle-micro-gypsy-wagon -8-700x611.jpg bicycle-micro-gypsy-wagon-3 bicycle-micro-gypsy-wagon-4

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Car Free Hamburg
by Dave Elmore 15 Feb '14

15 Feb '14

http://www.02b.com/en/notices/2014/01/hamburg_sets_out_to_become_a_car-free_ city_in_20_years_6403.php Hamburg sets out to become a car-free city in 20 years Hamburg is virtually to become a car-free city in 20 years Hamburg City Council has disclosed ambitious plans to divert most cars away from its main thoroughfares in twenty years. In order to do so, local authorities are to connect pedestrian and cycle lanes in what is expected to become a large green network. In all, the Grünes Netz <http://www.hamburg.de/gruenes-netz/> (Green Web) plan envisages eliminating the need for automoviles within two decades. By connecting the entire urban centre with its outskirts Hamburg is expecting to smooth inner traffic flow. In all, the northernmost city is to lay out new green areas and connect them with the existing parks, community gardens and cementeries. Upon completion of the plan Hamburg will pride itself on having over 17,000 acres of green spaces, making up 40% of the citys area. According to an official, the ambitious plan will reduce the need to take the car for weekend outings outside the city. The entire city centre is to be linked with its outskirts by an extensive network of pedestrian and cycle lanes Although vehicles are not to be banned from the main thoroughfares, the council expects residents and tourists alike to be able to explore the city exclusively on bike and foot. At the same time, the green ring will play a crutial role to help the metropolis fight against rising temperatures and urban flooding. The average temperature in Germanys second-largest city has risen by 9 degrees Celsius in scarcely half a century, experts warn. As regards to leisure, the interspersed patches of green areas will let residents "hike, swim, do water sports, enjoy picnics and restaurants, experience calm and watch nature and wildlife right in the city.

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