- AT-Network - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

City of Winnipeg News Release - Update on Sherbrook Street closure
by Beth McKechnie 01 Apr '12

01 Apr '12

_____________________________ From: City-MediaInquiry Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 11:01 AM Subject: City of Winnipeg News Release - Update on Sherbrook Street closure For Immediate Release Friday, March 30, 2012 Update on Sherbrook Street closure Winnipeg, MB – The public is advised that on Thursday, March 29, one lane of traffic reopened in each direction on Sherbrook Street, allowing for two-way traffic between Elgin Avenue and William Avenue. Since Wednesday, March 21, Sherbrook Street was completely closed to vehicular traffic between Elgin Avenue and William Avenue as a safety precaution due to collapsed excavation shoring at the Health Sciences Centre worksite. Pedestrian access is now available on the east side of Sherbrook Street, but there is no access on the west side. Cyclists will share traffic lanes with vehicles. Motorists are urged to allow additional travel time and to use Balmoral Street and Arlington Street as alternative routes while the temporary road closure is in place. Transit service has returned to regular route. Please check www.winnipegtransit.com for further route updates. More information will be provided to the public as it becomes available. -30-

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The Great Hike Kickoff 2012
by Beth McKechnie 30 Mar '12

30 Mar '12

------------------------------ *From:* Margaret Boyechko [mailto:margaret@mrta.mb.ca] *Sent:* Thursday, March 29, 2012 2:12 PM ***Subject:* The Great Hike Kickoff 2012**** ** ** Check out the attached and come join us on April 12, 2012 – it’s a fun thing!! No registration required – hope to see you there.**** ** ** Margaret Boyechko**** Administration Assistant/Bookkeeper**** ****Manitoba**** Recreational Trails Association**** 1007 Century Street**** ****Winnipeg**, **MB** **R3H 0W4******** 204-633-9879**** 204-945-1365 (fax)**** www.mrta.mb.ca**** *"In every walk with nature one receives ***** *far more than he seeks."* - John Muir****

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Kickstarter -Walk Your City: Guerrilla Wayfinding
by Shoni Litinsky 30 Mar '12

30 Mar '12

This video has been getting a lot of attention over the past few days. The Walk Your City project is trying to raise money to build an opensource Guerrilla Wayfinding website that will allow people to print off walkability wayfinding signs. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cityfabric/walk-your-city An interesting watch and inspiration as a creative idea to raise funding and the profile of active travel needs. S

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WFP: Rubber could fix sidewalks, put bounce in our steps (Mar.27'12)
by Beth McKechnie 29 Mar '12

29 Mar '12

Rubber could fix sidewalks, put bounce in our steps By: Benjamin Gillies http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/rubber-could-fix-sidewalk… Winnipeggers were eager to get out of the house to take advantage of the nicer weather in recent weeks, only to find the freezing and thawing -- and the presence of pushy tree roots -- caused many sidewalks to fracture and shift over the winter, making them not only a nuisance to replace, but also a potential danger. Almost exclusively, concrete and asphalt have traditionally been used for sidewalk construction in North America. Yet, neither is particularly well-suited to the task. Both materials are brittle, prone to cracking when trees grow beneath them and vulnerable to weather damage. Their lack of porosity deprives the soil of groundwater and increases runoff problems. In the early 2000s, entrepreneurs in the United States sought to better meet pedestrian needs by finding a type of pavement less likely to break. Searching for a malleable material, they ground up discarded tires and designed resilient rubber panels that are harder than a running track but softer than concrete or asphalt. This solution proved extremely effective. Not only did the rubber bend to accommodate tree growth, but when roots became too unruly, the individual panels could be removed, the path re-graded, roots trimmed and the same panels re-laid. In fact, city workers discovered roots actually grew more slowly beneath rubber as water could seep through the seams between the panels, reducing the need for roots to spread in search of sustenance. It was also realized that once installed, the ease with which the panel sidewalk could be disassembled and reassembled made it faster and less expensive for utility companies to complete any maintenance or other underground work than having to dig up or drill into concrete slabs. Best of all, the alternative material was good for its users, as walking or running on a rubber, shock-absorbing surface is easier on one's joints and more forgiving when someone falls. Cities using the rubber sidewalks often experienced a reduction in liability claims from pedestrians tripping, as broken and uneven concrete sidewalks were no longer a hazard. Recognizing these benefits, in the past decade rubber walkways have been put down in nearly 100 American municipalities. Canadian cities, however, have been slower to explore their potential. A handful, including Kelowna, Vancouver and Calgary have launched pilot projects. Yet, with Canada's extreme temperatures, a material less susceptible to weather damage may be even more advantageous here than it is down south. After all, the annual freezing and thawing process can force the replacement of concrete walks in as few as three years. Tests have shown rubber stands up well against excessive heat and cold, and the panels are estimated to last up to two decades without cracking. Additionally, where installed, the panels remain undamaged by snow-clearing equipment and have been designed so as not to be slippery in winter. This means that while they're about a third more expensive than concrete initially, over the long run they are very likely the most cost-effective and safest option. It is often said Winnipeg has only two seasons: winter and construction. To curb the disturbance and costs of this second season, the city should do what it can to find building materials that withstand our climate without frequent replacement. To that end, rubber-panel sidewalks seem a highly promising alternative for future development. With rubber proving itself so favourable elsewhere, the municipal government ought to consider launching its own pilot project to see if it could be a good fit here. The result could be fewer injuries and fewer scarce funds devoted to maintenance. Like the new sidewalks themselves, that is bound to put a little spring in anyone's step. *Benjamin Gillies is a political economy graduate from the University of Manitoba, where he focused on urban development and energy policy.*

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Copenhagen Economics: Cars are a Net Loss, Bikes a Benefit
by Shoni Litinsky 29 Mar '12

29 Mar '12

>From the Sustainable Cities Collective<http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/pmlydon/38206/copenhagen-economics-c…> : A study commissioned in 2010 by Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard, Mayor of Copenhagen found that *driving cars offers up a $0.20 net loss for each mile driven*. But the major form of transportation in this city of 1.2 million is not the car, but the bicycle. This leads us to what is perhaps the more amazing fact from this study…* bicycles offer a $0.35 net benefit to the economy per mile ridden*. *Math Note: 1 DKK = 18 cents (2010 currency rates) | 1.61km = 1mi* Other neat facts about Copenhagen from this study: - *Sixty-Eight Percent* - An astounding 68% of residents bicycle at least once a week - *Most Popular Commute Choice* - Citywide, 35% of residents bicycle to and from work/school, more than any other transportation method - *Sorry Cars, You’re Outnumbered* – When taking trips of under 6 miles, bicyclists outnumber cars 3 to 1 - *Rain, Sleet, or Snow* – Most commuters cycle year-round, even with an average low of 28-degrees Fahrenheit during snowy winter months and 2.5 inches of rain during summer months - *Kids Rule* – A full 98% of children in the city own a bicycle See full study here<http://www.kk.dk/sitecore/content/Subsites/CityOfCopenhagen/SubsiteFrontpag…> -- *Shoni Litinsky* | Active and Safe Routes to School Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/> Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>

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Why bicyclists are better customers than drivers for local business
by Beth McKechnie 28 Mar '12

28 Mar '12

Why Bicyclists Are Better Customers Than Drivers for Local Business by Tanya Snyder <http://dc.streetsblog.org/author/tanya-snyder/> Friday, March 23, 2012 http://dc.streetsblog.org/2012/03/23/why-bicyclists-are-better-customers-th… <http://dc.streetsblog.org/author/tanya-snyder/> Do local and state officials tune out when you try to talk to them about bicycling? Are they unconvinced by arguments about public health, transportation options, or clean air? Do business leaders send you packing when you suggest building new bike lanes and bike parking, fearing that the loss of car parking will keep customers away? Then show them the money. Bikes can mean big business, and businesses are beginning to realize it. At a Bike Summit panel Wednesday on the economic boost cycling can provide cities, speakers highlighted another strong message cyclists can bring to politicians when making their case for investment in bike/ped facilities. Far and away, the biggest reason business owners resist the addition of bike infrastructure is that they’re afraid it will limit parking. Once they realize they can get 12 bike parking spaces for each car spot, sometimes they begin to change their tune. Even better, they begin to discover that cyclists can be their best customers. “We tend to shop closer to home and shop more often,” said April Economides, a consultant who helped the city of Long Beach, California build bicycle-friendly business districts<http://www.bikelongbeach.org/Planning/Read.aspx?ArticleId=20>. Rather than jumping in the minivan and heading to the suburbs to go to the big shopping malls, cyclists patronize the businesses in our neighborhoods. Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster understands the value of bikes: “I see parts of the city on my bike that I would never even notice if I was just driving,” he said. “It’s a way for me personally to get closer to the city.” That closeness has a dollars-and-cents value. Cyclists travel at what Portland Bike Coordinator Roger Geller calls a “human-scale speed” that allows them to “stop and buy something.” Besides, Economides said, if you’re car-free you’ve got an extra $6,000 jangling around in your pocket that you otherwise would have spent on gas and car maintenance (actually, $8,776 if you believe AAA<http://newsroom.aaa.com/2011/04/cost-of-owning-and-operating-vehicle-in-u-s…>). According to researchers with Intelligent Communities, a program of the National Building Museum, only 16 percent of household car expenses stay within the local economy<http://www.govtech.com/e-government/IBM-City-Forward-Launched.html> . The four bicycle-friendly business districts Economides helped develop in Long Beach provide a model of how to encourage cycling without adding infrastructure. Local businesses see bike access as a boon for local shopping and dining. They have an informal merchant bike-share program, so the business owners themselves can enjoy the benefits of biking around town. The program created the nation’s largest citywide bike discount program <http://www.bikelongbeach.org/Events/Read.aspx?ArticleId=48>, where customers get better prices if they arrive by bike. The program also brought the districts community bike rides, free bike repairs, bike valets at local events, and even free bike portraits, where you can get your picture taken with your bike (see left). The programs have brought a flood of new customers into participating stores. Two of the four districts didn’t even have a lot of good bike infrastructure to begin with – but there’s more demand for it now, even from businesses that used to be bike-averse. Long Beach got a stimulus grant to create the districts, and the term of the grant expired just last week. But Economides said participating merchants are now so jazzed about cycling that they’ll carry on the work. And it’s a diverse group of businesses: Organizers reached out to Spanish- and Khmer-speaking merchants in the area and got their full participation. They also left paper flyers and postcards on people’s doorsteps, since not everyone is wired. “Open Streets,” or ciclovias – events where streets are closed to motorized traffic and become the domain of bicyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders, rollerbladers, jugglers, dog-walkers – are another way to bring money to local businesses. Washington University in St. Louis was able to quantify the economic benefit <http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/23216.aspx> of Open Streets programs: 73 percent of Open Streets participants spent money at a restaurant or store on the route, and 68 percent became aware of a restaurant or store that was new to them. Business Improvement Districts are another good place to seek support for pro-bike policies, said Andy Hanshaw of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition. Local shopping and dining is what they’re all about, and they might be happy to sponsor community bike rides and new bike parking. After all, in downtowns turning car lanes over to people can be a great moneymaker. Its most stunning success, perhaps, has been Times Square, “the ultimate end vision of how to pedestrianize the most pedestrian-heavy place in America,” according to Mike Lydon of the Street Plans Collaborative. According to a recent study commissioned by the local BID, Times Square helps generate more than one-tenth of the city’s economic activity<http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/times-square-lights-up-citys-e…>– on less than one percent of its land. >From park(ing) day<http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/09/16/parking-day-once-again-sweeps-the-glo…>, where people create ephemeral parks in parallel parking spaces, to parklets that make those tiny parks more permanent, to pop-up cafés<http://www.streetsblog.org/2010/08/12/dot-unveils-new-pop-up-cafe-in-financ…>, adding outdoor public space draws people and adds life to the street. Those spaces also often become de facto additional seating for nearby establishments, giving them more capacity for free. “Bicycling, just like walking, helps make a Main Street more vibrant,” said Economides. “It adds more eyes and ears to the street, so it makes it safer. So think about a mom pushing a stroller. She’s going to want to walk down a block that has more people walking and bicycling; she’ll feel safer. And you do want to attract women and moms. We’re a pretty important shopping base.” Rory Robinson of the National Park Service found many other examples<http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/benefits.htm>of bicycling spurring economic revitalization, like the opening of the Mineral Belt Trail in Leadville, Colorado, which led to a 19 percent increase in sales tax revenues, helping the city recover from a mine closure in 1999. The 45-mile long Washington & Old Dominion Trail in the D.C. suburbs brings an estimated $7 million into the northern Virginia economy, nearly a quarter of that from out-of-towners. And downtown Dunedin, Florida was suffering a 35 percent storefront vacancy rate until an abandoned CSX railroad track became the Pinellas Trail. Storefront occupancy is now 100 percent, Robinson found. “Business is booming.” And the economic benefit of bicycling for communities doesn’t end with cyclists’ expensive cappuccinos and impulse buys. Properties near bike paths increase in value 11 percent, said Economides. Realtors and homebuilders consistently find that access and proximity to walking and biking facilities, especially greenways, makes homes easier to sell. A reporter for the Indianapolis Star said it best<http://saveourtrails.ca/money/property_values.htm>in 2003: “It may not have sand and crashing waves, but the Monon Trail is the equivalent of beachfront property in the Indianapolis area.” Add to that the fact that bike lane construction creates about twice as many jobs<http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/01/07/combat-joblessness-stripe-a-bike-lane/>as road-building for the same amount of money, and you’ve got yourself a great economic argument to take to local leaders and politicians when you ask them to support walking and biking – even (or especially) in tough economic times. Tanya Snyder <http://dc.streetsblog.org/author/tanya-snyder/> became Streetsblog's Capitol Hill editor in September 2010 after covering Congress for Pacifica and public radio. She lives car-free in a transit-oriented and bike-friendly neighborhood of Washington, DC.

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WFP: Osborne Bridge construction resumes Friday (Mar.28'12)
by Beth McKechnie 28 Mar '12

28 Mar '12

Osborne Bridge construction resumes Friday THE end of winter means it's time for Winnipeg's other season -- road construction, which begins in earnest Friday with the resumption of the Osborne Bridge rehabilitation. The $17.2-million project, which involves the resurfacing and widening of Osborne Street from Broadway to River Avenue, began last year with work on the east side of the bridge over the Assiniboine River. Work on the west side of the bridge will begin on Friday, reducing traffic to three lanes, the public works department announced in a statement. One lane will be for northbound traffic, a second for southbound and a third will alternate, depending on the time. The city employed this system last year. The pedestrian underpass on the north side of the Assiniboine River will remain open as long as river levels are low enough. As of Tuesday, the level was 7.3 feet at the James Avenue pumping station, or 1.2 feet below the Assiniboine Riverwalk. If river levels rise, the city urges pedestrians and dismounted cyclists to exercise caution when they cross the street. The city hopes to complete construction by September and reopen two lanes of traffic in each direction while crews erect a barrier in the middle of the bridge to separate traffic. The entire project is expected to be finished in October, with three southbound lanes, two northbound lanes and both a bike lane and sidewalk in each direction.

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WFP: Get children moving, new guideline urge (Mar.28'12)
by Beth McKechnie 28 Mar '12

28 Mar '12

Get children moving, new guidelines urge No screen time at all for kids under two By: Helen Branswell TORONTO -- Little children should be moving more and sitting less, according to new recommendations that are being billed as the first Canadian guidelines for physical activity and sedentary behaviour for children four and younger. Kids younger than two shouldn't spend any time in front of a screen -- be it a TV, a computer or a tablet -- the guidelines say. And for children aged two to four, screen time should be limited to less than an hour a day. "There's no redeeming feature of screen time under the age of two," says Mark Tremblay, who chaired the committee that drew up the guidelines and is lead author of two scientific papers that analyzed about 40 published studies to come up with the two sets of guidelines. "Don't use screens as hypnotic elements to entertain them, to just pass time. It's not advantageous for the healthy growth and development of a child to do that." Tremblay is also director of the Healthy Active Living Obesity research group at the Children's Hospital for Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa. The guidelines were crafted by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology and ParticipAction, with help from Tremblay's group. The guidelines suggest children under one should be allowed to partake in active play several times daily -- including things like tummy time, reaching and grasping and crawling. For kids aged one to four, parents should aim for three hours of activity a day. The activity can be any kind, Tremblay says, and doesn't have to be rigorous. Walking, crawling, playing -- anything but sitting. By age five, children should be spending at least an hour a day in energetic play -- activities like hopping, skipping and bike riding. These bars may seem low. Many people have the notion little kids are always on the go. But in fact, that isn't the case, says Kelly Murumets, president and CEO of ParticipAction. When allowed to play outside, children do become very active, Murumets says. But when they are indoors, particularly if there is a TV or computer screen around, that's another matter. "I don't know what it is, I'm sure there's some physiological explanation for this, but they become transfixed by the screen. And they will sit and be sedentary for much longer than you would expect toddlers' DNA would allow," she says. The professional organization representing Canadian pediatricians is adding its support for the guidelines. The Canadian Pediatric Society is issuing its own guidance, which mirrors the recommendations on the amount of activity children should get daily. The society's guidelines also call on doctors to counsel families on the importance of encouraging children to be active and advise them on how to achieve that end. Over the last quarter-century, the obesity rate has nearly tripled among children and youth, the pediatrics society notes in its statement. As many as 26 per cent of kids between two and 17 years are now overweight or obese, and that number jumps to 41 per cent among First Nations children. "We're starting to see kids with health and obesity problems before they even start school," says Dr. Claire LeBlanc, chair of the society's committee on healthy active living and sports medicine. "Parents and caregivers need to incorporate age-appropriate physical activity into their children's day as young as possible." Tremblay says studies that monitor and evaluate what young children do find they are actually far more sedentary than most people would think. He says frequent activity contributes to bone, motor skill and cognitive development and protects against the harms associated with excessive sedentary behaviour. -- The Canadian Press

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Free workshop - Traffic and Health: Implementing Interventions to Mitigate Impacts
by Olivier.Bellefleur＠inspq.qc.ca 27 Mar '12

27 Mar '12

Please share this message. Our apologies for cross-posting. Dear colleagues, The National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) invites you to a free one-day preconference workshop featuring renowned speakers Dan Burden, co-founder of the NGO Walkable Communities, and Catherine Berthod, engineer and urban planner for the Ministry of Transportation of Quebec. The workshop Motorized traffic and health: interventions to mitigate its impacts will take place at the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) annual conference, June 11, 2012, in Edmonton. It will focus on three interventions aiming at creating healthier built environments: · Traffic calming on urban, residential streets; · Road diets on suburban roads to allocate space for active transport infrastractures; · Redesign of main commercial streets of small communities also being used as regional transit roads. Click here to learn more: http://www.ncchpp.ca/176/presentations.ccnpps?id_article=740 Visit the CPHA 2012 Conference site at: http://www.cpha.ca/en/conferences/conf2012/registration.aspx. For questions or feedback, please contact Olivier Bellefleur at: olivier.bellefleur(a)inspq.qc.ca. _______________________________________ S.V.P. faites circuler dans vos réseaux. Nos excuses pour les envois multiples. Bonjour, Le Centre de collaboration nationale sur les politiques publiques et la santé (CCNPPS) vous invite à un atelier gratuit d’une journée en compagnie des conférenciers de renoms que sont Dan Burden, cofondateur de l’ONG Walkable Communities, et Catherine Berthod, ingénieure et urbaniste au Ministère des Transports du Québec. L’atelier Circulation motorisée et santé : des interventions pour mitiger ses impacts aura lieu lors de la prochaine Conférence annuelle de l’Association canadienne de santé publique (ACSP), le 11 juin 2012 à Edmonton. Il portera sur trois interventions visant à créer des environnements bâtis plus favorables à la santé : · Apaisement de la circulation sur les rues résidentielles en milieu urbain; · Régimes routiers permettant de redistribuer l’espace des voies suburbaines au profit d’infrastructures dédiées aux transports actifs; · Réaménagement des rues commerciales principales des petites agglomérations qui servent aussi de voies de transit régionales. Pour plus d’information : http://www.ccnpps.ca/188/Presentations.ccnpps?id_article=741 Pour visiter le site de la Conférence annuelle de l’ACSP : http://www.cpha.ca/fr/conferences/conf2012.aspx. Pour toute question, veuillez contacter Olivier Bellefleur à : olivier.bellefleur(a)inspq.qc.ca Olivier Bellefleur Agent de recherche / Research officer Centre de collaboration nationale sur les politiques publiques et la santé (CCNPPS) / National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) 190, boulevard Crémazie Est Montréal (Québec) H2P 1E2 Téléphone: 514-864-1600, poste 3635 Télécopieur: 514-864-5180 Web: www.ccnpps.ca / www.ncchpp.ca

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Wed, March 28th Webinars - Maintenance Programs & Empowering Women to Bicycle
by Beth McKechnie 27 Mar '12

27 Mar '12

[Friendly reminder about tomorrow afternoon's webinars...] Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us on Wednesday, March 28th for a local viewing of two APBP webinars:* **"Empowering Women to Bicycle for Transportation"* and *"*Best Practices in Maintenance Programs*"*. Both take place at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) and will be followed by group discussion. Come for one or both of the webinars. As always, RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then. cheers, Beth 925-3772 * * * * * Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) presents: Empowering Women to Bicycle for Transportation Wednesday, March 28th • 2:00 to 3:30 pm CST Take in APBP's annual Women Cycling webinar and learn what it will take to empower women to bicycle for transportation at the same level that men do. Visit APBP's Women Cycling Project <http://www.womencyclingproject.info/>website where you can read the final reports on the Women Cycling Survey, view the 2010 and 2011 webinars on the Women Cycling phenomenon, and enjoy the winning photos from the Women Cycling photo contest. Best Practices for Maintenance Programs Wednesday, March 28th • 3:30-4:30 pm CST Efficient and cost-effective maintenance of pedestrian facilities is an important safety measure. Attend this webinar to learn why maintenance programs are important, and how to make the case for maintenance at budget time; how to overcome the barriers to implementing a good maintenance program; and how to develop the elements of a program that includes both routine maintenance and responding to hazards. Best practices for inspection, replacement and snow removal will be discussed, as well as findings from recent research into pedestrian facility maintenance. The session will include a preview of the new FHWA publication, "A Guide for Maintaining Pedestrian Facilities for Enhanced Safety," due to be published by the end of 2012. The webinar will also include information related to maintenance of bicycle facilities. Presenters: Tom Huber, Senior Planner, Toole Design Group; Arthur Ross, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, City of Madison, Wisconsin. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Rapid transit slowly arrives
by Beth McKechnie 26 Mar '12

26 Mar '12

Rapid transit slowly arrives Osborne Street Station a beacon in a system that could transform this city By: Brent Bellamy We waited 15 years for an NHL hockey team. Now we have one. We waited 36 years for an IKEA. Next Christmas we will have one. We waited 53 years for a modern rapid transit system. In two weeks we will have one. Well, sort of. After more than a dozen studies, countless advisory committees and an endless number of task forces, Winnipeg's first, three-kilometre-long rapid transit line will soon be running. This modest first step comes more than five decades after the now infamous 'Wilson Plan' first recommended the creation of a rapid transit system for Winnipeg. Since that time, we have overwhelmingly built our city with a focus on car-oriented development. Decades of low-density subdivisions leapfrogging each other towards the periphery have resulted in Winnipeg's urban area growing disproportionately to its population. Between 1974 and 2006, the city's population grew by only 15 per cent, while its area increased by more than 50 per cent. Winnipeggers engage in few topics of discussion with greater passion than they do the cost of gasoline, the pace of traffic and the physical condition of our streets, yet we continue to support the urban sprawl that compounds these issues. As our city expands outward, we drive farther, buy more gas, build more roads, navigate more traffic and emit more pollution. With a lower-density tax base, government budgets struggle to maintain basic services and infrastructure for an increasingly unsustainable city. A convenient and affordable public-transportation alternative can reduce the number of cars on the road, helping to alleviate many of the challenges that follow sprawling urban expansion. In Ottawa, a city with an extensive rapid transit system, almost 20 per cent of the population takes public transit to work, compared to only 12 per cent in Winnipeg. With more than 430,000 people in the city's workforce, that eight-percentage-point difference can have a significant impact on traffic volumes, parking requirements and their corresponding effects on the city and the environment. Rapid transit can also be used as an important catalyst to direct and influence the patterns of development in a city. As ridership increases, retail, commercial and residential growth is attracted to the pedestrian density generated at major nodes along the system. Urban planners can use this transit oriented development (TOD) as a tool to control sprawl by targeting areas for infill growth and neighbourhood densification with the strategic location of transit lines and stations. Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver have used this strategy with great success, realizing billions of dollars' worth of construction along their transit corridors. Winnipeg's humble first line has already attracted a vital TOD, with the Fort Rouge rail yards soon transforming from a brownfield site into a dense residential infill neighbourhood. Like many cities, we have spent considerable time and effort debating the relative merits of bus rapid transit (BRT) and light rail transit (LRT). The controversial decision to implement BRT was based largely on a significantly lower capital cost for construction, greater integration with on-street bus lines and lower per-capita operating costs. Proponents of LRT assert its quieter, more comfortable ride, higher passenger capacities and "sexy" urban image would attract greater levels of TOD, alleviate the public stigma of bus transit and be a 'big-city' amenity consistent with that of other Canadian municipalities. It has been shown in cities like Ottawa and Pittsburgh that a well-designed BRT system, with a dedicated corridor, distinctive transit stations, attractive branding and real-time schedule information can convey the image of quality and sense of permanence that attracts ridership and TOD, at a similar level to an LRT installation. The stunning Osborne Street Station, a crown jewel of the Winnipeg line, will be instrumental in alleviating much of the criticism of the BRT system. The station designers, GPP Architecture and Friesen Tokar Architects, overcame the significant technical challenges of creating a building perched on a bridge above a busy street, while maintaining an architectural elegance that promotes transit use and encourages the community to take ownership of the building as a cherished neighbourhood amenity. Transit-station design is often driven by the engineering requirements of passenger capacity and crowd dynamics, but Osborne Street Station also manages to successfully address qualitative issues of comfort, beauty and views. Its expressive roof structure references the machine esthetic of the great train stations of Europe, and its forest of arching round trusses evokes imagery of Winnipeg's great elm tree canopy, so familiar to the residents of Osborne Village. Sloping glass walls create an impression of volume and openness and address issues of safety by providing clear sightlines into and out of the station. Sunlight floods the space through a translucent polycarbonate roof, transforming at night into a beacon that glows brightly against the prairie sky. On April 8, Winnipeg will finally be introduced to rapid transit. The danger of such a modest first installation is Winnipeggers will judge its merits based on the performance of an incomplete system. A less than enthusiastic public response may stall momentum for further development. The Osborne Street Station, however, will be a compelling reminder of the sophistication and quality a completed system can offer Winnipeg if a commitment is made by our community and our government to continue its implementation until the full benefits of rapid transit are realized in our city. Brent Bellamy is senior design architect for Number Ten Architectural Group. Email him at: bbellamy(a)numberten.com http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/rapid-transit-slowly-arrives-1441…

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PCU Centre hosts active transportation conference
by Beth McKechnie 22 Mar '12

22 Mar '12

PCU Centre hosts active transportation conference By Robin Dudgeon http://www.portagedailygraphic.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3507800 Participants from across the province gathered at the PCU Centre, Wednesday, for the Provincially sponsored Gaining Ground: Connecting People and Knowledge conference on active transportation and recreation. Participants got to hear two keynote addresses: one from Lawrence D. Frank, professor and J. Armand Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Transportation at the University of British Columbia and a second from Michael Arthur, Manager of Physical Activity at the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness. The former spoke on the health and climate change impacts of transportation and land use decisions while the latter spoke on the Nova Scotia experience with active transportation. There were also three sessions for the spectators to take part in: Spotlight in Manitoba where three Physical Activity Coalition of Manitoba (PACM) pilot communities – Thompson, St. Malo, and Morden - shared their experience with active transportation; Pecha Kucha gave six presentations on topics like building trails, making maps, school travel planning, and car-free events; finally, a panel discussed the Greater Strides: Taking Action on Active Transportation publication which contained recommendations to the Manitoba government from the Province’s Active Transportation Advisory Group. Coun. Irvine Ferris attended the conference and said he thought it was great that Portage could host the conference just as the City is working to extend the walking and biking paths in the city. For the full story see Thursday's edition of the Portage Daily Graphic.

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Distinctive bike stolen at hospital
by Beth McKechnie 22 Mar '12

22 Mar '12

*Thought I'd share this in case anyone happens to spot this distinctive stolen bike...* One baby born, another stolen Thieves take dad's bike during visit to hospital By: Gabrielle Giroday Jacques Marcoux wants to know if anyone has seen his baby -- a beloved bike stolen while he was visiting his newborn daughter in the hospital. The 27-year-old new father was inside the St. Boniface Hospital spending time with little Amélie when an electric grinder was used to bust the U-Lock securing his bike. [image: It's not the first time this bike has been stolen.] It's not the first time this bike has been stolen. (SUBMITTED PHOTO) The bike went missing last Friday night or Saturday morning, only hours after Amélie was born. "If it wasn't for the fact that I was so kind of still on a high from having a kid, I'd be way more p - off and bothered," said Marcoux, who's had the bike for over a decade. "But it's kind of muted because I have this newborn, who's really awesome." The bike, a 2001 Devinci Podium purchased for $1,600, has an unusual history and has hit the headlines before. In 2007, a bike courier who saw two thieves with Marcoux's distinctive-looking bike on Main Street got it back after confronting the pair and returned it to him. Marcoux said the bike has mallet pedals and deep-dish aluminum rims. This time, Marcoux has offered a $150 reward to get the bike back. He said removing the bike would have taken some effort -- and the thief or thieves left something behind. "To my surprise, there was actually an extension cord running from the bike rack, across the entire front entrance lawn of the hospital," said Marcoux, who estimated more the cord was more than 20 metres long. "They actually abandoned the cord and took off with my bike." Marcoux said he's hopeful it will be returned after alerting the city's cycling community. "I'm actually somewhat optimistic that it's going to come up at some point," he said. gabrielle.giroday(a)freepress.mb.ca

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City starts street sweeping a month early due to warm weather
by Beth McKechnie 20 Mar '12

20 Mar '12

Good news for everyone getting out on their bikes... ** *From:* City-MediaInquiry *Sent:* Monday, March 19, 2012 2:46 PM *Subject:* City of Winnipeg News Release - City starts street sweeping a month early due to warm weather [image: Description: cid:image001.png@01CD05DE.9597E210]**** ** ** For Immediate Release**** Monday, March 19, 2012**** ** ** *City starts street sweeping a month early due to warm weather***** * Cleanup efforts focus on Downtown and regional streets ***** **** *Winnipeg, MB.* - Warmer than average temperatures have allowed the City of Winnipeg to get an early start on spring cleanup this year as crews focused street sweeping efforts Downtown on Sunday night and will continue tonight. Also, beginning Tuesday night, the street sweeping operation will be expanded to include all regional streets across the city including bridges and underpasses.**** **** It is expected this preliminary cleanup operation will use about 75 pieces of heavy equipment and will take about two weeks to complete. **** **** Once this initial round of sweeping on main routes has been completed, sweeping efforts will shift to the remaining streets, sidewalks, back lanes, parks, and boulevards which will get underway on a city-wide basis in mid-April, weather permitting. **** **** "We’ve never started street sweeping operations in March, but warm weather, a quick melt and dry conditions have allowed the City to start sweeping Downtown and on main routes about a month ahead of schedule," said Ken Boyd, Manager of Streets Maintenance. "This initial round of street sweeping will remove sand and other debris from main routes and will help to control dusty conditions.”**** **** During spring clean-up operations the City places temporary "no parking" signs to restrict on-street parking on some streets that are scheduled to be cleaned. When these signs are in place on a city street, motorists are urged to move their vehicles to alternative parking locations during the posted times. Vehicles parked in violation of the temporary parking ban may be ticketed and towed. **** Motorists and pedestrians are asked to use caution around heavy equipment which will be operating throughout the city over the coming weeks.**** ** ** - 30 -**** ** ** Media inquiries should be directed to the City of Winnipeg Media Inquiry Line at 204-986-6000 or via email at MediaInquiry(a)winnipeg.ca**** ** ** Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/cityofwinnipeg<http://www.facebook.com/cityofwinnipeg> **** ** ** Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/cityofwinnipeg<http://www.twitter.com/cityofwinnipeg> **** ** ** ** ** ** **

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Bicycle Valet Winnipeg: Program Coordinator - job posting
by Kevin Miller 15 Mar '12

15 Mar '12

Bicycle Valet Winnipeg: Program Coordinator - job posting About Bicycle Valet Winnipeg <http://www.bicyclevaletwinnipeg.ca/> Bicycle Valet Winnipeg is a project of <http://biketothefuture,org> Bike to the Future that offers a bicycle valet at events around Winnipeg. Bicycle Valet reduces traffic and parking congestion while encouraging Active Transportation in Winnipeg. Having a safe and free place to park their "wheels" will encourage people to choose an active lifestyle and increase the use of Winnipeg's growing Active Transportation infrastructure. About the position Bicycle Valet Winnipeg is looking for someone with an interest in business, a passion for active transportation, and a commitment to making Winnipeg a bike-friendly city. The Program Coordinator is the leader of Bicycle Valet Winnipeg and the primary point of contact for sponsors, event promoters, media volunteers, and the public. This position is responsible for all aspects of the business, including entering into sponsorship agreements, drafting grant applications, recruiting and coordinating volunteers for events, and ensuring materials are delivered, set-up, torn-down, and returned safely to storage. Compensation includes a base amount of $416.67 for 30 hours work per month, an office allowance of $125 per month, and incentives equal to 10% of successful sponsorships and grant applications. A flexible work schedule is required. Resumes and cover letters can be sent to <mailto:loren@biketothefuture.org> Loren Braul, Bike to the Future Co-Chair. Application Deadline: March 30, 2012 <http://biketothefuture.org/attachments/0000/1750/2012-03-15_bvw_program coordinator_contract.pdf> Bicycle Valet Winnipeg: Program Coordinator - contract __________________ Kevin Miller <mailto:kevin@biketothefuture.org> kevin(a)biketothefuture.org Bike to the Future, Secretary <http://biketothefuture.org/> biketothefuture.org

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Transit planners look to gondolas to put an end to urban gridlock (National Post)
by Beth McKechnie 13 Mar '12

13 Mar '12

Over the top: Transit planners look to gondolas to put an end to urban gridlock Tristin Hopper<http://news.nationalpost.com/author/tristinhopper/> Mar 9, 2012 *For photos, see*: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/09/over-the-top-transit-planners-look-… Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre, the largest hospital in Alberta, suffers from what transit planners call a “last mile” problem. The city’s LRT line can get commuters within sight of the hospital at the University of Calgary, but the remaining two kilometres are a maddening jumble of freeways and suburbs. To close the gap, it is either a half-hour walk or a winding bus trip that stops at the hospital’s front curb. Annoying during the summer months, the trip is downright miserable in a minus 40 windchill. Toronto-based urban planner Steven Dale came last month to Calgary with a pitch: Why not simply leapfrog over the road network? While buses and trains slip and stall in the slush below, a cable-suspended gondola could soar above the congestion, depositing commuters into a receiving area built right into the hospital building. For years, gondolas have been dismissed as the purview of ski resorts and amusement parks. Yet, cleaner than buses, cheaper than subways and less intrusive than streetcars, modern gondolas are increasingly breaking out of their kitschy role and hitting drawing boards as the ideal way to close the gaps and relieve the bottlenecks of North American transit networks. “Just literally go right over top of it,” said Mr. Dale. In the early 1970s, a new housing development was nearing completion on New York City’s Roosevelt Island when planners realized it would still be a few years before a subway link to the island would be finished. In its place, New York transit planners proposed an unorthodox solution: Ship in a couple of trams from Europe and temporarily winch commuters to Manhattan on a cable strung over the East River. The island’s several thousand residents soon became enamoured with their temporary tram, however. In 1989, when local authorities came to tear it down, the citizenry blocked their way. “It’s safe, it’s smooth, it’s clean, it’s wheelchair accessible, it’s a great tourist attraction — we love it,” said Judith Berdy, president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. Forty years later, the iconic red tram remains one of only two transit gondolas in North America, the other being a $57-million aerial tram opened five years ago in Portland, Ore. “For some reason, people see gondolas as science fiction, it’s just way too much to swallow,” said Bryce Tupper, a Vancouver-based engineer specializing in gondola transit. Every day, thousands of Vancouverites get to work on computer-controlled elevated trains and Montrealers board rubber-tired metro cars to speed underneath the icy waters of the St. Lawrence River. But amazingly, to the average city planner, the humble gondola remains in the same realm as flying cars and Jetsons-style pneumatic tubes. “The vast majority of people have never contemplated using a gondola as public transit,” said Mr. Dale. Mr. Dale was a post-grad when his girlfriend invited him to spend a summer in her central Switzerland hometown. On a mountain hike one day, she suggested they cut the ascent time by boarding a gondola. Hesitatingly stepping aboard the “terrifying, rickety” Second World War-era gondola, Mr. Dale saw a truck cruising along a mountain service road directly below them. The mundane sight stirred the young urban planner. “I thought, ‘Oh, there’s no traffic 25 feet in the air,’” he said. ** Back home in Toronto, he began a secret file on transit gondolas and aerial trams. (A gondola features cabins suspended from a continuously circulating cable while an aerial tram consists of two counterbalanced cabins shuttling back and forth.) “I wasn’t telling anyone because I knew how ridiculous the idea was,” he said. Gondolas are high capacity, he found. A large, transit-ready gondola can carry 6,000 people per hour per direction (a standard measurement of transit capacity). By contrast, a Toronto streetcar at rush hour can only accommodate one-third that many. Most importantly, gondolas are a bargain. No tunnels, no tracks, no traffic congestion; all a gondola needs are a few towers, a power station and a length of cable. Direct comparisons are hard to make, said Mr. Dale, but generally a gondola is only a third to half the cost of a light-rail line. Two years ago, Mr. Dale’s company, Creative Urban Projects, went live with GondolaProject.com, which he describes as the first English-language website disseminating gondola-related information. “It’s no coincidence that in the last two years since we’ve been doing this website, virtually every major market, virtually every major market within Canada has already begun to explore the technology.” As part of planning for Canada’s bicentennial, Ottawa mulled the idea of a gondola connecting Parliament Hill with the Canadian Museum of Civilization across the Ottawa River in Hull, Que. In 2009, TransLink, Vancouver’s regional transit authority, commissioned a feasibility study for a gondola connecting the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby to the mountaintop campus of Simon Fraser University. Currently, the alternative is a steep, winding bus ride. “We burn a lot of diesel going up the mountain, and a lot of brake pads going down,” TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie told Postmedia in 2010. And if the rain falls too hard or the roads ice over (a four-times yearly occurrence), Translink suspends service, effectively trapping the student body. But boutique solutions are only the beginning for the gondola. Once commuters are comfortable with the idea of getting to work about 12 metres above street level, then cities can really get serious about pumping up their transit grids with airborne cables. Although the average North American has only seen the technology used to bridge a pair of distant landmarks, gondolas can go over rivers, underground, over mountains and through buildings. “There’s a system in Singapore where the intermediary station is on the eighth floor of a skyscraper,” said Mr. Dale. One plan imagined by Mr. Dale on Gondola Project.com involves a cheap, four-station gondola line used to relieve pressure on Bloor-Yonge, the packed intersection of Toronto’s two primary subway lines. The concept of a “Downtown Relief Line” has captivated Toronto subway riders for decades, but has never achieved a go-ahead. Gondolas could be a quick fix. Then, once the technology has “proved its worth,” said Mr. Dale, the Toronto Transit Commission could string additional lines to the city’s notoriously hard-to-reach Exhibition Place and Toronto Island Airport. In South America, multi-station gondola lines have already emerged as social tools to connect the continent’s hilly, crowded metropolises. In Rio de Janeiro last year, officials opened a six-station gondola line carrying passengers over the winding, dangerous streets of the city’s infamous favelas. In Medellin, Colombia, two full-length gondola lines have now been installed to bring people from the region’s marginalized neighbourhoods to the city’s business hub. The area “now has more dignity and the quality of life has improved. Before there was practically no hope; for me this is a miracle,” Luz Marina Giraldo, a community leader in the Comuna 13 slum, was quoted as saying in the Latin American Herald Tribune. Of course, South American cities do not have to navigate the same issues of privacy. Subways operate unseen and even an elevated train can be blocked out with some shrubbery, but gondolas give commuters a bird’s eye view of the patios and bedroom windows of the homeowners below. Privacy “might be one of the biggest limiting factors out there,” said Mr. Tupper, who worked on the Burnaby plan and the Peak 2 Peak, a $51-million, four-kilometre-long gondola running between Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain. In April 2007, four months after the grand opening of the Portland Aerial Tram, commuters noticed a large “F––– THE TRAM” banner tied to one of the rooftops below — homeowner Justin Auld’s crude protest against the carloads of people suddenly peering into his backyard. The banner was easier than giving the middle finger to the tram every time it passed, he told a local TV station. In June 1956, on the invitation of Walt Disney, Los Angeles’ Swiss Consul General journeyed to the recently opened Disneyland to inaugurate the park’s newest attraction: the Swiss-built Skyway, a $300,000 gondola line. A Disneyland staple until its dismantling in the 1990s, passengers would get aboard a two-seat steel “bucket” in Fantasyland, climb through the Matterhorn, pass over the submarine lagoon and disembark three and a half minutes later at a terminus in Tomorrowland. Just like the Disneyland monorail and the PeopleMover, Walt Disney imagined the Skyway as a taste of things to come. In an interview prior to the ride’s opening, the Disney founder described gondolas as “a transportation system of the future,” according to the 1995 book Disneyland: The Nickel Tour. Instead of inspiring a new generation of urban planners, however, all the Skyway did was spur legions of Disneyland imitators. Soon, the Skyway’s Swiss manufacturer was filling orders for marina, zoos and amusement parks all across the United States. In 2001, planners in Oakland, Calif., broached the idea of using a gondola to plug the city’s transit grid to a development taking shape across the harbour at an abandoned naval station. The proposal was greeted with eye-rolls. “At first I thought it was a complete nutty idea,” said Tony Bruzzone, a San Francisco-based transportation planner for planning firm ARUP, which would later work on the Portland Aerial Tram. “I thought ‘it’s an amusement park ride, it won’t stand up to real service.’” Looking closer, however, Mr. Bruzzone and others were soon won over, although the development was derailed by land-use concerns and the 2008 financial meltdown. “When you research it, there are definitely advantages,” said Mr. Bruzzone. Mr. Dale often fears that his clients see him as a real-life Lyle Lanley, the Music Man-esque character on The Simpsons who cons the people of Springfield into buying a monorail. Ironically, if gondolas are ever going to be criss-crossing the downtowns of Canada, Mr. Dale said he will need to frame the technology in terms that are as boring and utilitarian as possible; no more thrilling than buses, streetcars or subways. “It’s just another tool — we’re not gondola nuts,” he said. *National Post* *thopper(a)nationalpost.com*

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Bristol, UK introduces 20mph speed limit
by Beth McKechnie 09 Mar '12

09 Mar '12

[On the heels of America Walks releasing their two papers on slowing down speeds comes this article from the UK...] Bristol's residential roads to have blanket 20mph speed limit <http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/people/Bristol%20Evening%20Post/profile.html> Bristol Evening Post<http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/people/Bristol%20Evening%20Post/profile.html> Thursday, March 08, 2012 http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Bristol-s-residential-roads-blanket-20mph-sp… <http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Bristol-s-residential-roads-blanket-20mph-sp…> A BLANKET 20mph speed limit is set to be introduced on Bristol's residential roads. The city will be one of the first in the country to bring in the reduced limit on all but the busiest main roads. The £2million scheme, which is expected to be phased in over three years from the autumn, is aimed at making roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Bristol transport chief Tim Kent said: "Even a reduction in speed of 5mph can make the difference between life and death. "This is not about putting a police officer on every corner and making sure people drive at 19-and-a-half miles per hour. This is about improving the quality of people's lives by making roads safer for children to use, encouraging them to walk to school and for people of all ages to walk and cycle." The ruling Liberal Democrats are committed to a citywide 20mph speed limit and set aside £150,000 towards the project in this year's budget, despite the worst cuts in the council's history. Mr Kent, the cabinet councillor in charge of transport, said he was confident that a 20mph speed limit would mean that it would become the norm for people to drive more slowly. He said if people felt safer to walk or cycle, then it would help to relieve congestion and reduce carbon emissions because they would be using their cars less frequently. "We would obviously not introduce 20mph on the city's busiest roads but where there are borderline cases, we would want this considered by the Neighbourhood Partnerships," he said. The council is keen to go ahead with the new limit following positive results from two pilot 20mph zones in the east and south of the city. They covered a total of 500 roads and 30,000 homes and although they relied mostly on 20mph signs and no police enforcement or expensive traffic-calming measures, the council says there is evidence to show that drivers have been slowing down. A council monitoring report on the pilot schemes said: "The overall results show that 'signs only' 20mph has been accompanied by a small but important reduction in daytime vehicle speeds, an increase in walking and cycling counts, especially at weekends, a strengthening of public support for 20mph, maintenance of bus journey times and reliability, and no measurable impact on air quality or noise." It goes on to say that during the first 12-month period of the trial zones, the number of road casualties went down by five in Bristol East but actually went up by eight in Bristol South. The council's highway experts say it was too early to draw any conclusions about the impact on casualty figures. But according to national research, the chances of a pedestrian being killed in a road accident drop four-fold if they are hit by a vehicle travelling at 20mph, compared to one at 40mph. The report says: "As a general principle, the 20mph programme is a means of creating a culture where driving too fast in residential streets is seen as unacceptable. There is already strong evidence that speeding in residential streets is viewed as the number one antisocial behaviour." The feedback from residents shows that 89 per cent of them are in favour of a 20mph speed limit on residential streets, the report said. And more than two-thirds (70 per cent) of them are in a favour of a citywide ban. But the figure drops to just over half (56 per cent) for a 20mph limit on main roads. The report goes on to say that residents are frustrated about the level of speed enforcement on busy streets. It says: "This is encouraging as it reflects the enthusiasm among residents for lower speed limits on their streets but it is something that must be discussed with Avon and Somerset Police if we are to move forward with a citywide roll-out of a scheme that is fully supported by residents." National guidelines from the Department for Transport say that 20mph speed limits should be self-enforcing and there should be no expectation on the police to provide extra enforcement beyond their normal routines, unless specifically agreed. In South Gloucestershire, there are a handful of 20mph speed limits – mostly in areas close to schools – but the general view is to consider them only when they have been urged by residents who are prepared to monitor them. Over the past ten years 20mph zones were introduced in 16 areas but it is understood that these were brought in where traffic-calming measures were already in place. A citywide ban would mean that many main roads would be exempt because it would be impractical to enforce a 20mph speed restriction on the likes of the A4 Bath Road or the M32. Some busy roads such as West Street in Bedminster and Whiteladies Road are already so jammed with traffic at peak times that drivers could not travel at more than 20mph even if they wanted to. The Bristol South pilot scheme covers about 200 roads in Bedminster, Lawrence Hill, Southville and Windmill Hill, was introduced in May 2010 while the Bristol East scheme, which covers 300 roads in Ashley, Easton, Eastville, Lawrence Hill and St George West, was brought in five months later. Road safety charity Brake has been campaigning for 20mph zones to increase the chances of drivers being able to stop in time to avert accidents, and Portsmouth is believed to be the only other city in the country to have introduced a citywide 20mph speed limit.

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You're invited - Creative Commuting Ambassador Training
by Jessie Klassen 08 Mar '12

08 Mar '12

*Creative Commuting Ambassador Training * You are invited to a FREE, half-day interactive workshop on becoming a Creative Commuting Ambassador at your workplace! Get the tools and guidance to help improve commuter options on-site and support your coworkers to get the most out of their commutes. *Hands-on training and resources you'll get at the workshop:* - Training in bike route planning - Experience with all the latest Winnipeg Transit tools - An evaluation of your workplace's existing commuter options - A folder filled with tools and resources relevant to your workplace - Ideas for a simple project to apply these tools and resources right away *2 dates to choose from!* Tuesday, April 3rd, 8:45 am - 12:00 pm Thursday, April 19th, 12:45 pm - 4:00 pm * Workshop location*: EcoCentre boardroom (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) *Register today by contacting Beth McKechnie or Jessie Klassen at 925-3772 or beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca/ jessie(a)greenactioncentre.ca. *

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Barrel Shopping
by Anders Swanson 08 Mar '12

08 Mar '12

[Yes . . this article *is *related to active transportation. The author, Bruce Krentz, is the Regional Health Promotion Coordinator for the Burntwood Health Authority up in Thompson. This is also a scoop, not a forward: Bruce kindly gave permission to make this list its first official venue for publication (before it gets published elsewhere up north). Enjoy. - Anders] * * *Barrel Shopping* * * Brothers and Sisters I am sure you are wondering why I called you all here today. You are wondering what sort of demon I need to exorcise, wondering why in particular you were called to assist with the procedure. Wondering why now… why here…what did I do to deserve this? Let me make it all as clear as a chocolate shake. I thought it was crazy too. I knew I wasn’t the first. I knew I wasn’t the only; but that still didn’t make it a good idea. Even if ten other people had gone over the falls in a barrel and lived, was it really wise for me to go barrel shopping… I think not. But, never once having been accused of being smart, I headed out with my credit card in hand and visions of being number eleven. My barrel was a two wheeler, with only one speed, disc brakes, a mountain bike frame and pedals to get me there. My “peddly”, like me, is perched happily in the middle of the quality bell curve it is so far from the top of the line you couldn’t even see it from there but also a step up on Walmart’s deal of the week. In this case, Niagara Falls was four whole seasons of riding. Partly on a dare, partly wanting to walk the talk as a Health Promo guy and partly because I just didn’t know any better, I committed to a year of cycling to work. I need not remind you this little daily jaunt happens to be in the same pin hole on the map as the Ford Extreme Cold Weather Test Facility and the Global Aerospace Center for Icing and Environmental Research (*GLACIER*) . I started in September…how pleasant, cool fall mornings the leaves turning color. With some light gloves and a jacket that could break the wind (not a jacket that could break wind…now that would be something) life was grand. To make an extremely long story pretty short I am safely over the precipice out of the fast water and bobbing along in the run out of the falls, and life is still grand. Now it is August and almost time to bust that jacket back out with no reservations about another date with father winter. Back to my little sermon and the reason we are gathered here today. I won’t even begin to pretend that cycling 365 days a year is for everyone, but it could certainly be for more people. Committing to riding absolutely every day is for only a “special” few, and I almost made it. Four times I used a vehicle to get to work and none because of the weather. Sometimes, as they should, family commitments came before my personal madness. . Consider being the next one over the edge. From my experience, of the five work days each week finding three to comfortably saddle up would be easier than deciding what to have for lunch. As you map your decent, don’t feel like you have to throw away your car keys and shred you bus pass. Don’t hesitate to take the worst days or months off but push beyond the sunniest summer day. The whole winter is not -40 and in fact much of it isn’t even -20. Like doing anything on this spinning little ball of rock, if you want excuses they are never far away, hair, clothes, sweating, cold…they are all out there. None are insurmountable challenges but they don’t come quite as easy as firing up the SUV. I will concede that my serious lack of hair is generally not something I parade out on the front page but it did give me a bit of a leg up in this venture. Someone once said you can’t be mad while riding a bicycle. The stress relief, fresh air, exercise and the happy feeling of helping the environment, all make it worth-while. I know that sounds like some sort of hippy mantra but I didn’t start out looking for that stuff, it found me, so please pass me my tie-dyed t-shirt. For me, that bundle of joy outweighs the hassle of dressing for the seasons and looking like a geek in the eyes of the SUV’ers. My other pleasant discoveries included: - Studded tires, yes you heard me right studded bicycle tires. They make riding on the packed snow and ice feel like a day-off. - It is a commute not a race, you don’t run everywhere you go in a day, and you don’t have to pedal as hard as you can. This is big help with all the sweating concerns. - You don’t need as many warm or expensive specialized clothes as you think, a jacket and pants that break wind (I had to use that one once more) have served me just fine. Once you are moving even -40 is pleasant. O.K. maybe that is a little over the top but it makes for some good bragging to the in-law’s down south. - Snowboard helmet and goggles. I saw it with my own eyes Brothers and Sisters, the falls look pretty big from the top but once you are down at the bottom they aren’t so bad. Give it a try, buy a good helmet, find the right tie dyed duds and keep riding after the leaves are off of the trees. By: Bruce Krentz

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Resources: Why We're Stuck at High Speed and How Communities are Slowing Down
by Beth McKechnie 08 Mar '12

08 Mar '12

[Two excellent new resources from America Walks <http://americawalks.org/>that were just released yesterday...] We know that speed impacts safety and livability; but there are very few resources available to help local communities navigate the challenging process to reduce auto speeds in their neighborhoods. These two papers will provide support in helping communities reclaim their streets, allowing children, families and aging adults to walk safely. Find our press release here<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109476185779&s=8067&e=0011A7bH6Mt5N0TKZs3HANZ…>. - *Why We're Stuck at High Speed, and What We're Going to Do About It<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109476185779&s=8067&e=0011A7bH6Mt5N3n70Xnpr-6…> * - How Communities are Slowing Down<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109476185779&s=8067&e=0011A7bH6Mt5N1hy3BvD_L5…> Sincerely, Scott Bricker, Executive Director America Walks

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Two webinars Wed, March 28th - Maintenance Programs & Empowering Women to Bicycle
by Beth McKechnie 07 Mar '12

07 Mar '12

Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us on Wednesday, March 28th for a local viewing of two APBP webinars:* "*Best Practices in Maintenance Programs*" *and *"Empowering Women to Bicycle for Transportation"*. Both take place at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) and will be followed by group discussion. Come for one or both of the webinars. Please note: The Maintenance Programs webinar was originally scheduled for March 21st but will be presented as a recording on March 28th instead. Come out to the PACM conference <http://pacm.ca/> on March 21st! As always, RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then. cheers, Beth 925-3772 * * * * * Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) presents: Best Practices for Maintenance Programs Wednesday, March 28th • 12:45 to 1:45 pm CST Efficient and cost-effective maintenance of pedestrian facilities is an important safety measure. Attend this webinar to learn why maintenance programs are important, and how to make the case for maintenance at budget time; how to overcome the barriers to implementing a good maintenance program; and how to develop the elements of a program that includes both routine maintenance and responding to hazards. Best practices for inspection, replacement and snow removal will be discussed, as well as findings from recent research into pedestrian facility maintenance. The session will include a preview of the new FHWA publication, "A Guide for Maintaining Pedestrian Facilities for Enhanced Safety," due to be published by the end of 2012. The webinar will also include information related to maintenance of bicycle facilities. Presenters: Tom Huber, Senior Planner, Toole Design Group; Arthur Ross, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, City of Madison, Wisconsin. Empowering Women to Bicycle for Transportation Wednesday, March 28th • 2:00 to 3:30 pm CST Take in APBP's annual Women Cycling webinar and learn what it will take to empower women to bicycle for transportation at the same level that men do. Visit APBP's Women Cycling Project <http://www.womencyclingproject.info/>website where you can read the final reports on the Women Cycling Survey, view the 2010 and 2011 webinars on the Women Cycling phenomenon, and enjoy the winning photos from the Women Cycling photo contest.

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Public Forum - Keep Winnipeg Greenspace Ours March 19
by Beth McKechnie 29 Feb '12

29 Feb '12

[Given the connection between AT and greenspace, thought this might be of interest. -cheers, Beth] You are invited to the following public forum about keeping Winnipeg’s greenspace’s green including the Windsor Park and St. Boniface golf courses along the Seine River. Save Our Seine is a founding member of OURS, one of the event sponsors. If you know someone who might be interested, please forward this invitation to them. * Public Forum – Keep Winnipeg Greenspace Ours **When: *Monday, March 19, 2012 *Where: *St Mary’s Road United Church at 613 St. Mary’s Road. Winnipeg, MB (map < http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=613+St+Marys+Road,+Winnipeg,+MB&hl=en&ll=49.86…'s+Rd,+Winnipeg,+Division+No.+11,+Manitoba&t=m&z=15<http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=613+St+Marys+Road,+Winnipeg,+MB&hl=en&ll=49.86…>> ) *Time: 7:00 to 9:30 pm Description: Public forum on Winnipeg greenspace. Panelists and audience participation. Discussion regarding the potential sale and development of city owned golf courses. Co-sponsored by OURS-Winnipeg and Council of Women of Winnipeg. *For info, visit www.ours-winnipeg.com <http://www.ours-winnipeg.com> and www.councilofwomen-winnipeg.ca <http://www.councilofwomen-winnipeg.ca> Denis De Pape Volunteer Vice President – Save Our Seine

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YOUR input on Active Transportation plans accessing the new football stadium at U of M
by Janice Lukes 29 Feb '12

29 Feb '12

I encourage you to attend an upcoming open house and comment on the ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION ASPECT of the 'Event Day Management Plan' being presented over the next few days by the City of Winnipeg, U of M and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and BBB Stadium Incorporated. The City of Winnipeg, Province of Manitoba and Government of Canada have invested $10's of Millions into Active Transportation (AT) infrastructure in south Winnipeg enabling some of the City's best cycling and walking connectivity. This is an unprecedented opportunity to showcase AT investment's as a viable transportation choice - and to encourage and reap the benefits of active transportation in an environment challenged by limited vehicle parking: - it is important these AT investments be shown as TRANSPORTATION CHOICES in 'The Stadium Event Day Management Plan' - it is important that ENCOURAGEMENT through marketing and promotional plans for AT be incorporated into ' 'The Stadium Event Day Management Plan' ie: similar to the marketing and promotional plans put in place around taking transit to a football game Please take some time to attend one of these open houses - and offer your comments related to the ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION ASPECT of the 'Event Day Management Plan' Public engagement for soliciting feedback on the Event Day Management Plan for the new Football Stadium at the UM: http://winnipeg.ca/cao/media/news/nr_2012/nr_20120228.stm#2 February 29, 2012 Dalhousie School, 262 Dalhousie - Library, 400 pm - 8:30 pm March 3, 2012 CANAD INN Fort Garry, 1824 Pembina Highway - Ambassador A, 1000 am - 300 pm March 5, 2012 CANAD INN Garden City, 2100 McPhillips Street - Ambassador A, 430 pm - 800 pm March 6, 2012 Access Transcona, 845 Regent - Room 163, 430 pm - 800 pm March 7, 2012 Sturgeon Heights Community Centre, 210 Rita Street, 430 pm - 800 pm March 8, 2012 Bronx Park Community Centre, 720 Henderson - HobNobs Cafe, 430 pm - 800 pm thank you Janice Lukes Manager, Special Projects Winnipeg Trails Association c/o Rivers West - Red River Corridor Inc 235-614 Des Meurons Street Winnipeg, MB R2H 2P9 Cell (204) 952-4222 Fax (204) 943-7915 <mailto:jlukes@shaw.ca> jlukes(a)shaw.ca winnipegtrails.com Member of City of Winnipeg Active Transportation Advisory Committee Past Chair, Province of Manitoba Active Transportation Advisory Group

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Active Transportation Plans Up and Down the Red River Corridor?
by Anders Swanson 28 Feb '12

28 Feb '12

*[In the lead-up to an exciting conference <http://pacm.ca/> in Portage la Prairie in March, I thought it worth circulating just a few examples of how active transportation is indeed "gaining ground" outside Winnipeg, be it under the auspices of health, tourism, recreation or anything else. I will limit myself to a few divergent posts between now and March 21st, but I encourage everyone to share any stories they might come across. Below is a message from Rivers West in an excerpt from the Manitoba Recreational Trails Association's brand new newsletter<http://www.mrta.mb.ca/documents/winter2012.pdf>. Text in bold is my emphasis. - Anders] * "Vision 2030 - Master Development Plan for Red River Corridor Submitted by Julie Turenne-Maynard Rivers West concentrates its efforts along the length of the Red River corridor in Manitoba, from Emerson at the international border north to Netley Marsh at Lake Winnipeg. Rivers West's vision is to make Manitoba's Red River corridor a destination. The mandate of Rivers West is to develop and implement a long-term strategy focusing on the development, promotion and management of the natural, tourism, cultural/heritage and recreational resources of the Red River from Emerson to Lake Winnipeg.Rivers West will work with stakeholders to create and promote a corridor along Manitoba's Red River that connects people with communities and attractions as well as the conservation, recreation, economic and tourism resources of the corridor. Master Plan The Master Plan is intended to accommodate and integrate the local plans and enhancements of each of the various stakeholders, creating a clear picture of what the destination would offer in 20 years. This could include incremental greenway and natural environment enhancements, *comprehensive active transportation and recreational plan*, culture and heritage product, hospitality facilities, as well as infrastructure. It is also critically important that the Master Plan consider and incorporate the Canadian Heritage Rivers System document A Management Approach for the Red River in Manitoba. Overall, the intent is to:  evoke images of a specific unified destination;  ensure that incremental projects are consistent with the long term vision;  strengthen support and commitment among stakeholders;  provide a lens through which priorities can be set and resources allocated;  clarify the Red River Corridor’s position in the marketplace while establishing a focus for marketing and promotion. This is a significant undertaking that will require the assistance of consultants to identify all current plans and expectations among stakeholders and to develop a unifying plan that has the support of all stakeholders. Rivers West is engaging consultants to execute the work. Stakeholders will be approached in Spring 2012 to provide input in the process. Public Consultation meetings will be organized. Please check the www.riverswest.ca website for updates." -- Anders Swanson Active Transportation Project Coordinator Physical Activity Coalition of Manitoba | www.pacm.ca activetransportation(a)pacm.ca

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Good for Business - benefits of making streets more bike & ped friendly (2011, AU)
by Beth McKechnie 27 Feb '12

27 Feb '12

[snipped from the Executive Summary...] Good for Busine$$ is a discussion paper for built environment professionals and business people to show the positive financial benefits of making streets more walking and cycling friendly. This report asserts that a well-designed, quality street environment that promotes walking, cycling and public transport is good for business. “… it would be advantageous to local businesses to support measures aimed at attracting more pedestrians and bus passengers to the local shopping centre rather than car users … wider pavements (sidewalks) and traffic restraint measures should result in attracting more regular, dedicated custom to the area and have a positive impact on retailers and customers alike.” The Heart Foundation (SA) commissioned this discussion paper to bring together the evidence around the financial benefits to retailers and residents in making commercial streets morewalking and cycling friendly. Walking and cycling to local shops is good for business and good for the local economy and is essential to the success of revitalisation strategies. Streetscape enhancements add value to an area and are associated with higher rents and the attraction of new businesses. In addition there is good evidence to show that improving walking and cycling environments raises private property values by significant amounts. http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/GoodforBusinessFI… [Thanks to Susanne Dewey Povoledo for sharing this resource. -Beth]

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The end of the road for motormania
by Beth McKechnie 21 Feb '12

21 Feb '12

[Thanks to Aaron Russin and Melissa Dupuis at Peg City Car Co-op<http://pegcitycarcoop.ca/>for sharing this article. -Beth] The end of the road for motormania 16 August 2011 by *Fred Pearce*<http://www.newscientist.com/search?rbauthors=Fred+Pearce> *Something unexpected is happening to our car-crazy culture. What are the forces driving us out of motoring?* IS THE west falling out of love with the car? For environmentalists it seems an impossible dream, but it is happening. While baby boomers and those with young families may stick with four wheels, a combination of our ageing societies and a new zeitgeist among the young seems to be breaking our 20th-century car addiction. Somewhere along the road, we reached "peak car" and are now cruising down the other side. Peak car takes several forms. Sales of new cars have almost halved<http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/tab…>in the US, down from nearly 11 million in 1985 to about 5.5 million in 2009. We shouldn't take much notice of that, though. Cars last longer these days, and sales go up and down with the economy. But we have hit peak car ownership, too. And, more to the point, peak per-capita travel. The phenomenon was first recognised in *The Road... Less Traveled*<http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/1216_transportation_tomer_puentes.aspx>, a 2008 report by the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, but had been going on largely unnoticed for years. Japan peaked in the 1990s. They talk there of "demotorisation". The west had its tipping point in 2004. That year the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia and Sweden all saw the start of a decline in the number of kilometres the average person travelled in a car that continues today. In Australia, car travel peaked in every city in 2004 and has been falling since (*World Transport Policy and Practice*, vol 17, p 31<http://www.eco-logica.co.uk/pdf/wtpp17.2.pdf>). It is a similar picture in the UK, where per-capita car travel is down 5 per cent since 2004. What could be driving us off the road? Fuel costs and rising insurance premiums may be a factor. And urban gridlock, combined with an absence of parking places and congestion charging, makes the car a dumb way to move around in cities where there are public transport alternatives. In the US, however, the decline of the car is most dramatic not in the gridlocked city centres but in the car-dependent suburbs. In sprawling cities like Atlanta and Houston where the automobile is king, driving is down by more than 10 per cent. Of course the end of the love affair with the car may just be a sign of the economic times: the much-discussed "hollowing out" of the middle classes, with jobs available at the top and bottom of society, but less so for the white-collar workers. Still, a study by Lee Schipper of the Global Metropolitan Studies unit at the University of California, Berkeley, found that while rising wealth correlates with more travel up to a per-capita income of $30,000, beyond that the link breaks down (*Transport Reviews*, vol 31, p 357 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2010.518291>). Demographics is a more likely explanation. It is surely no accident that peak car happened first in Japan, which has the world's oldest population. Pensioners do not drive to work, and many don't drive at all. There is also the rise of people like me, "virtual commuters" who work from home via the internet. Besides work habits, leisure lifestyles are also changing. The biggest fall in car use in the US is among people under 35. The fraction of American 17-year-olds with a driver's licence has fallen from about three-quarters to about half since 1998. Twenty-somethings have recently gone from driving more than the average to driving less. Social scientists detect a new "culture of urbanism". The stylish way to live these days is in inner-city apartments. The suburbs suck. Richard Florida<http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2010/06/04/the-great-car-reset/>, an urban studies theorist at the University of Toronto in Canada, points out that the young shop online, telecommute, live in walkable city neighbourhoods near public transport and rely more on social media and less on face-to-face visiting. Given those changes, they can think of better ways to spend their money than buying a car. Phil Goodwin at the University of the West of England in Bristol says the same applies to the UK, where young people are the most prominent in dropping out of the great car society. Maurie Cohen, an environmental scientist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, says "Gen Y-ers are quite cool to the automobile." The modern James Dean is a rebel without a car. Meanwhile, use of everything else, from bikes and buses to trains and trams, is still going up. But even that trend may reverse. Schipper says we may be approaching a point of "peak travel" of all sorts. People just won't see the need to move around so much. Of course, environmentalists shouldn't get carried away. In the developing world, the car boom is only now getting under way, despite gridlock in cities from Shanghai to São Paulo. That trend makes any claim of an impending global peak car far-fetched. The industrialised world still has plenty of less-green trends too. Falling car occupancy is one. In the US, the average car on the average journey carries 1.7 people, half a person less than in 1970. So even if we individually travel less, our cars may travel just as much. Likewise, the continuing trend for bigger and more powerful cars is wiping out the gains from more fuel-efficient vehicles. And sometimes we simply replace driving with flying. But the good news is that those straight lines on the planners' graphs predicting ever rising car-kilometres and ever-worsening carbon emissions from internal combustion engines are being proved wrong. Planners need to take note. And, if they have any sense, they will start to reinforce these trends with improved public transport, an end to urban sprawl and more investment in inner cities. Some think car use will revive if and when economies recover. But it looks like something more profound is going on. Florida calls it a "great reset" in society that will have profound consequences - not least for the environment. Even our most treasured consumer aspirations can have a peak. Enough can be enough. *Fred Pearce is New Scientist's environment consultant* * http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128255.600-the-end-of-the-road-for-… *

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First annual Ice It To Work Day - Friday, Feb 17th
by Beth McKechnie 15 Feb '12

15 Feb '12

*Winnipeg's first annual Ice It To Work Day!* *Friday, February 17th, 6:30-9:00 a.m. * Join us on the Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail<http://www.rivertrail.ca/wp/>and skate, ski, snowshoe, bike, run or walk TO WORK! * * Energize yourself at one of the four “Cocoa Fire Pit Stops’! Experience the allure of the river trail in the early morning hours – this picturesque commute along the Assiniboine River is an exceptional Winnipeg way to start your day. First 100 commuters to stop by a Cocoa Fire Pit will receive free special surprises and gifts! Count your Ice It To Work Day km towards Bougeons en hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge! <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/bougeons-en-hiver/> Stop by Green Action Centre's fire pit at Balsam to get your Blue Loonie<http://www.downtownwinnipegbiz.com/home/getting_around/blue_loonie/>for a free bus ride to work and a chance to win cozy wool socks! Snap your pic (with or without props, as you prefer) for the "First Annual Ice It To Work Day Hall of Fame" on our website. Pick up a bike map at the Bike to the Future / Winnipeg Trails Association fire pit, enjoy a tasy rice krispie square at the Actif Epica / Winnipeg *in motion* stop, and enter to win free passes for the Festival du Voyageur while you groove to the music at the The Forks fire pit. Spread the word and see you on the ice!

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Webinar Downloads - Land Use Planning: Routine Inclusion of Bicycling and Walking in New Developments
by Mark Cohoe 15 Feb '12

15 Feb '12

Hi, The handouts for today's webinar are now available for download from the APBP web-site here <http://www.apbp.org/?page=Webinar_Downloads>. As always, Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us for a local viewing of the APBP webinar*"*Land Use Planning: Routine Inclusion of Bicycling and Walking in New Developments *" *at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! Cheers, Mark Cohoe Bike to the Future Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) presents: Land Use Planning: Routine Inclusion of Bicycling and Walking in New Developments Wednesday, February 15th . 2:00 to 3:30 pm CST Broad land use patterns and transportation policies determine whether walking and bicycling are not just possible, but practical and enjoyable. Understanding how the big picture works is essential for those engaged in regulating, designing and advocating for more sustainable transportation options. Attend this webinar to learn how land use policy and regulations are the basis for pedestrian and bicycle friendly communities, and what to look for in plan review. Through overview and examples of policy and regulations, and the experience of one small Wisconsin city (Fitchburg, pop. 20,000), you'll find out how innovative zoning codes and policies can help promote active transportation. People attending this webinar will learn about: * The connection between transportation and land use, and how it relates to Smart Growth * The importance of connectivity and the benefits of street networks * Smart Code/Form-based Code, including the Bicycle Module, as well as the urban-rural continuum of development contexts * Land use policy vs. regulations, including what can be regulated through zoning and subdivision standards * Examples of site designs and best practices for integrating design standards into land use regulations * The land use, development regulations, and bike/ped transportation elements of the Fitchburg, Wisconsin Comprehensive Plan. Presenters: John Cock, Associate/Regional Manager Southeast, Alta Planning + Design; Mike Lydon, Principal, The Street Plans Collaborative; Ahna Bijzak, Transportation Project Engineer, City of Fitchburg; and Susan Sloper, Community Planner, City of Fitchburg. Land Use Planning: Routine Inclusion of Bicycling and Walking in New Developments, are now available for download here.

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The Manitoban: Active transport to connect east and west
by Beth McKechnie 13 Feb '12

13 Feb '12

Active transport to connect east and west *Posted * February 13th, 2012 *by* Jeremy Gregoire<http://www.themanitoban.com/contributor/jeremy-gregoire/> On Feb. 9 the University of Manitoba hosted a public session about an active transportation river crossing that will provide a direct connection between Fort Garry and St Vital. The pedestrian and cycle crossing will go over the Red River and enter Fort Garry near the U of M. During the session the City of Winnipeg and MMM Group Limited provided professional consulting about the project. The U of M – St Vital active transportation project was initiated by the city and consists of a conceptual design study to identify viable options, locations and assess public opinion for a pedestrian and cycle crossing. A similar session was held Feb. 8 at the Dakota community centre in St Vital. “The City of Winnipeg is studying the feasibility of providing an active transportation crossing,” said Kenn Rosin, project manager of the study for the City of Winnipeg. “Optional possibilities and structure technology types need to be developed and evaluated,” Rosin added. In the two interactive sessions the public viewed display boards about the study and people were asked to provide answers to different questions regarding how they see the project and what impact it has on their daily life. They were also asked to fill out surveys. Luis Escobar, a representative from the City of Winnipeg, said there has been good feedback from the public on the project thus far. He said people are interested in seeing the project move forward and are happy to be asked for their input. “I believe approximately 200 to 300 persons attended the session on Feb. 8, I hope we will get the same attendance today,” said Escobar. Professionals from the city, MMM and Bike to the Future helped explain different options to the public. Mark Cohoe, manager of Bike to the Future and consultant for the project, said that many people have asked questions about how to get to the future crossing as a cyclist and what is the best solution to go from St Vital to the University. Colleen Plumton, professor in the faculty of kinesiology and recreation management, said she thinks the project is an excellent idea because it is important that there are more connections to the U of M. “In terms of pedways and active transportation we are far behind the times, we are far behind larger centres in Canada,” Plumton said. Plumton said she supports any project that improves active transportation in the city. Neil Johnson, a citizen of St. Vital, said the session was informative. “I think [it] is important to be aware of what’s going on in the neighbourhood, particularly in matters that can really impact the liveability of the neighbourhood and I want to make sure that my opinion was being heard,” he said. The consultants will analyse the information from the sessions and see if some options are more acceptable to the public. Once the decision is made the city will provide a report in June. http://www.themanitoban.com/2012/02/active-transport-to-connect-east-and-we…

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letting cyclists run red lights for safety - not so crazy after all?
by Anders Swanson 12 Feb '12

12 Feb '12

Some interesting food for thought for your Sunday afternoon reading pleasure... [Below: Three recent articles from the Times of London, the UK Daily Mail and CBS Chicago, re: changes related to red lights emerging in London, Paris and the State of Illinois. Also of interest, note the structure and success of the broader "Cities fit for Cycling" campaign currently underway and run by the Times itself<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/>. Note the comments by both of London's Mayoral candidates, the Prime Minister, Greater Manchester Police, the Italian insurance industry.] ‘Give cyclists a head-start at traffic lights’ - Article<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece#tab-1> - Online app: readers’ cycle stories<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece#tab-5> A 'ghost bike' memorial for Dan Cox, 28, who died in a collision with a lorry at a Hackney junction a year ago Times photographer, Mikael Buck - Recommend (14)<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece#> - Print<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece#> - Email<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece#> - Share<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece#> - - Follow stories about - Cities fit for cycling<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece#> What's this<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece#> - [image: A Ghost Bike left for Dan Cox on the corner of Kingsland Road and Dalston Lane] A 'ghost bike' memorial for Dan Cox, 28, who died in a collision with a lorry at a Hackney junction a year ago Times photographer, Mikael Buck *Rhoda Buchanan* and *Kaya Burgess* Last updated February 10 2012 12:01AM Cyclists would have a five-second head-start on other traffic at dangerous junctions and all cycle lanes would be reviewed for safety if Ken Livingstone is re-elected as Mayor of London. Mr Livingstone made his pledge as the *Times* campaign for safer cycling amassed a total of 25,000 written pledges of support, and more than 1,300 letters were written to MPs urging them to support the campaign and attend a parliamentary debate. Greater Manchester Police also gave their backing to the campaign, joining a growing list of politicians, celebrities and businesses who support the call for “Cities fit for cycling”. A debate in the House of Lords this week also suggested that ministers consider mimicking a new scheme in Paris that would allow cyclists in Britain to run through red lights if they are turning left at a T-junction. About 70 per cent of cycling fatalities are at junctions and many occur when cyclists are forced to pull away from green lights alongside lorries whose drivers do not see cyclists in their blind spots. The *Times* campaign is calling for the 500 most dangerous junctions in the country to be identified and improved, installing measures such as phased traffic lights where appropriate. In the House of Lords, in a debate raised by Baroness Gardner of Parkes, a Conservative peer, the question of cutting the bureaucracy involved in installing Trixi mirrors, which are fitted to traffic lights to allow lorry drivers to see into their blind spots, was also raised, though dismissed by Earl Attlee, the Transport Minister. Lady Gardner argued that granting permission to cyclists to go through red lights in certain situations could cut fatalities and serious injuries. She suggested that more women were killed than men by lorries turning left at junctions because they “wait at the red lights and men go through them”. Lord Attlee said that he had not heard of the Paris experiment to let cyclists go through a red light, which was given the go-ahead this week. The Government was “aware of the hypothesis” that more women were killed or seriously injured on bikes than men, he said, adding: “It’s difficult to extract measurable data to formulate policy or to make effective regulations.” Mr Livingstone, who is campaigning for Labour against Boris Johnson in London’s mayoral election, dismissed the cost of introducing phased traffic lights across the capital, citing the Mayor’s £13 billion budget. “To give cyclists a five-second advantage is a relatively simple thing to do,” he said. “You’ve got to do it everywhere where there is a risk to cyclists.” Kulveer Ranger, Mr Johnson’s director of environment, said: “Over the past four years the Mayor has been directly responsible for an unprecedented investment and focus on cycling in the capital.” Cycling lobby groups in the US, Australia, France, South Africa and the Netherlands have backed “Cities fit for cycling” this week, and a group of bloggers has written to Italian newspapers asking them to support and copy the *Times* campaign. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3315346.ece It's enough to make motorists see rouge! Paris to allow cyclists to run red lights in bid to cut accidents - Cyclists will be allowed to turn right or go straight ahead, even when a traffic light is on red - But they will have to give way to pedestrians, and traffic coming from the left - They will be held responsible if there is an accident By PETER ALLEN<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Peter+Allen> Last updated at 10:24 PM on 7th February 2012 - Comments (109)<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097882/Paris-allow-cyclists-run-re…> - Share<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097882/Paris-allow-cyclists-run-re…> - - - - Paris is to become one of the first major capital cities in the world to officially allow cyclists to ride through red lights. The radical measure, which is intended to cut down on accidents, will be studied by city and town planners in numerous other countries outside France, including Britain. At the moment, thousands of cyclists in cities like Paris and London regularly break red lights, but risk fines for doing so. [image: Trial period: Paris is to become one of the first major capital cities in the world to officially allow cyclists to ride through red lights] Trial period: Paris is to become one of the first major capital cities in the world to officially allow cyclists to ride through red lights Councillors in the French capital have voted to adopt the measure following a three-year campaign by cycle associations. It will allow those on bicycles to turn right or go straight ahead, even when a traffic light is on red. But they will have to give way to pedestrians, and traffic coming from the left. Crucially, they will also be held responsible if there is an accident. More... - You can't park there! The moment pranksters slapped a parking ticket on giant SNOWBALL<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097854/You-park-The-moment-prankst…> Tests on the potentially chaotic measure will start on around 15 crossroads over the next few weeks, before the scheme is fully implemented, so as to cover up to 1,700 Paris crossroads. Red and yellow signposts posted on traffic light poles will inform cyclists that they can ignore the lights in designated 30km per hour zones. The official justification for the new rule reads: ‘Experience shows that adding specific traffic lights for cyclists can create confusion for motorists.’ [image: Bold measure: Cyclists will be able to turn right or go straight ahead, even when a traffic light is on red. But they will have to give way to pedestrians, and traffic coming from the left] Bold measure: Cyclists will be able to turn right or go straight ahead, even when a traffic light is on red. But they will have to give way to pedestrians, and traffic coming from the left The measure is also being tested in the cities of Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Nantes, where Paris city hall has noted there have been ‘no rise in the number of accidents.’ Paris has a Velib bike hire scheme which means thousands of amateur cyclists regularly fill the streets. There have been a number of deaths and serious injuries, with police often blaming the most serious accidents on bikes competing with heavy vehicles at traffic lights. Cyclists can be crushed in blind spots by lorries turning. Bicycles failing to accelerate away as fast as motorised vehicles are also a cause of constant problems. Opposition to the regulations have come from numerous road safety bodies, with Paris councillor Laurence Douvin saying: ‘If pedestrians, cyclists, motorbike users and car drivers don't respect each other, the introduction of these practices could increase the risks in Paris.’ The British Highway Code states that cyclists must obey ‘all traffic lights and traffic signals’. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097882/Paris-allow-cyclists-run-re… Motorcycles, Bicycles Can Run Red Lights Under New Law [image: Red Light] (Credit: AP) Filed UnderHeard on WBBM 780<http://chicago.cbslocal.com/category/watch-listen/heard-on-wbbm-780/> , Local <http://chicago.cbslocal.com/category/news/local/>,News<http://chicago.cbslocal.com/category/news/> , Syndicated Local <http://chicago.cbslocal.com/category/syndicated-local/>,Watch + Listen <http://chicago.cbslocal.com/category/watch-listen/> Related TagsBicycles <http://chicago.cbslocal.com/tag/bicycles/>, Illinois<http://chicago.cbslocal.com/tag/illinois/> , law <http://chicago.cbslocal.com/tag/law/>,motorcycles<http://chicago.cbslocal.com/tag/motorcycles/> , Red Lights <http://chicago.cbslocal.com/tag/red-lights/>,Traffic Lights<http://chicago.cbslocal.com/tag/traffic-lights/> Don't Miss This *CHICAGO (CBS)* — Illinois motorcycles and bicycles will be allowed to run red lights starting in 2012, but only in certain instances. Motorcycles and bicycles often aren’t big enough to trigger magnetic sensors that switch traffic lights from red to green, WBBM Newsradio’s Alex Degman reports. That could mean the riders either break the law and run the red light, or wait until another vehicle comes along. State Rep. Dan Beiser (D-Alton) says the new law means bikers can go through a red light if they wait a reasonable amount of time, but that amount isn’t yet defined. “A reasonable amount of time, which was not defined in the bill, will be 120 seconds,” says Beiser. “So two minutes, that’s what we’ve come to agreement on and that was part of the governor’s concern.” The governor issued an amendatory veto of the measure because he wanted a set amount of time the vehicles must wait. But lawmakers overrode the veto, assuring the governor’s office it would be addressed during the upcoming session. The law applies to municipalities with fewer than 2 million people, meaning it wouldn’t apply in Chicago. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/12/30/motorcycles-bicycles-can-run-red-lig… Italy praises Times Cities fit for cycling campaign - Article<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3313654.ece#tab-1> - Slideshow<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3313654.ece#tab-4> - Graphic: London’s cycling blackspots<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3313654.ece#tab-5> - Recommend (5)<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3313654.ece#> - Print<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3313654.ece#> - Email<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3313654.ece#> - Share<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3313654.ece#> - - Follow stories about - Cities fit for cycling<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3313654.ece#> What's this<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3313654.ece#> *James Bone* Rome Last updated February 8 2012 5:29PM Italy’s insurance industry has praised *The Times* safe cycling campaign, saying it offers a model for Italy too, where there are twice the number of deaths. The head of the ANIA Foundation for Road Traffic Safety, established by the country’s insurance firms, issued a statement pledging his support for *The Times*’ move. “Making people aware of road safety through the media is fundamental for reducing the number and gravity of accidents. The campaign launched by *The Times* for the protection of cyclists in Great Britain should be an example for all of how public institutions, private associations and the media should work together to combat what is the greatest tragedy of our country — road accidents,” said Umberto Guidoni, the foundation’s secretary-general. “If a big newspaper like *The Times *has taken a position like this, starting a real battle for respect of the rules of the road, it’s desirable that in our country there should be a similarly strong media campaign.” Mr Guidoni said Italy had 11 million bicycles and came third in Europe in the number of cyclists killed, behind only Germany, with 462, and Poland, with 280. “The protection of the weakest road users is a common problem throughout the world. Cyclists and pedestrians are the categories most at risk of being run over. In 10 years 1,275 cyclists have been killed on British streets and, according to European statistics, there were 104 victims in 2010 in accidents involving bicyles,” he said. “In Italy, the situation is even worse: In 2010 263 cyclists died (6 per cent of the total deaths); and 2,556 died over the course of the last decade. “That is more than double the number recorded in Britain. This shows our country must still do much in terms of prevention, as well as communication and awareness.” The ANIA Foundation is pushing for the introduction of a crime of vehicular homicide in Italy in cases where the driver is in an altered psychological state or driving well over the speed limit. “The position taken by the ANIA Foundation and other institutions on the need to establish the crime of vehicular homicide in some cases has begun to produce its first results,” he said. “A man who killed a 24-year-old woman while driving under the influence of drugs has been sentenced by the appeal court in Milan to 14 years for voluntary manslaughter. The sentence overturned the trial court’s sentence of four years for culpable manslaughter. This is only a first step.” Contribute to the campaign by pledging support, writing to your MP and sharing a story <http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/contact/>

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Vancouver School Board backs province-wide cycling Education
by Beth McKechnie 09 Feb '12

09 Feb '12

Vancouver School Board backs province-wide cycling education Pitch made by B.C. Cycling Coalition By Naoibh O'Connor, Staff writer February 8, 2012 The B.C. Cycling Coalition won Vancouver School Board support for a province-wide proposal to teach bicycle safety and education to youth. Trustees voted unanimously at a school board meeting Tuesday night in favour of a recommendation from the VSB's management co-coordinating committee, which suggested the board endorse, in principle, the coalition's Right to Bike provincial youth cycling education framework. "What the cycling coalition has been doing is working on trying to develop province-wide curriculum for bike safety," trustee Mike Lombardi, chair of the management co-coordinating committee, told the Courier before the vote. "It's modelled on a program in England, apparently. It's very successful across the whole country. It teaches kids the basics of cycling_The coalition is in the process of trying to gather support [for its framework] through different agencies to be able to go to government to talk about securing funds to develop the comprehensive cycling education program." Lombardi said such curriculum would ensure instructors teach to a particular standard. In its package to the school board, the B.C. Cycling Coalition noted that the province has focused on cycling infrastructure and to a lesser degree promoting cycling awareness, but education is considered a critical component of cycling plans. "In the Netherlands, universally available cycling and traffic safety education are integral components of their cycling strategy that also includes infrastructure development and motor vehicle speed reduction," the coalition stated. "This complete strategy has resulted in very high levels of cycling with safety rates much better than Canada's." The coalition's youth cycling education framework involves a lead organization, supported by a board of partners and stakeholders, establishing and coordinating a standard for cycling skills and safety education for the entire province. A certification program tied to the standard would be licensed to parties interested in delivering certified cycling training and would include everything needed to deliver bicycling skills and safety training anywhere in B.C. The program would operate on a cost-recovery model. Lombardi maintains it's a great idea. "The idea is actually something that a number of us have been talking about for a while. That is, if we're going to be promoting cycling like we are, we need to start [training] very early and have curriculum for that," he said. "It's a very good idea. It's obviously promoting safety. It's promoting health. It's promoting kids cycling to school. We think it's got a lot of positive features to it. There was tremendous support at the [management coordinating] committee from everybody. Everybody felt it was something that was overdue and that it would be a very positive initiative." The VSB also voted in favour of presenting a similar resolution to the B.C. School Trustees Association annual general meeting. noconnor(a)vancourier.com Twitter: @naoibh © Copyright (c) Vancouver Courier http://www.vancourier.com/Vancouver+School+Board+backs+province+wide+cyclin…

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CTV Winnipeg: Crosswalk buttons deactivated
by Beth McKechnie 08 Feb '12

08 Feb '12

[It appears traffic flow only includes motorists, not pedestrians. -Beth] *CTV Winnipeg: Crosswalk buttons deactivated* Pedestrians now have to wait for the traffic lights to change at regular intervals, rather than spurring the lights to change by pushing the buttons at many Winnipeg intersections. City officials hope the move will improve traffic flow. Jon Hendricks reports. http://watch.ctv.ca/news/top-picks/pushing-buttons/#clip615049

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Bougeons en hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge starts Saturday!
by Beth McKechnie 08 Feb '12

08 Feb '12

*Celebrate Winter with BOUGEONS EN HIVER: THE JACK FROST CHALLENGE! Register now - starts this Saturday!* Bougeons en hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge! is a new event celebrating winter in Manitoba. Sign up your team of 1 to 5 to skate, bike, ski, snowshoe, or walk a combined total of 130 km during the week of February 11th to 17th. Participants will be entered in a draw for ‘cool’ prizes. Winnipeggers can tally some of their kilometres on the Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail on Friday, February 17 for the first Ice It To Work Day<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ice-it-to-work-day/>. Register at www.greenactioncentre.ca or call us at (204) 925-3775 or 1-866-394-8880 (toll free) for more information. A Co-Actif Epica<http://actifepi.ca/>Event. * * * * * *Soyez actif en participant à « Bougeons en hivers : The Jack Frost Challenge! »* *Inscrivez-vous maintenant – débute ce samedi!* Bougeons en hiver : The Jack Frost Challenge! est un nouvel événement célébrant l’hiver manitobaine! Inscrivez-vous en équipe d’une à cinq personnes pour faire le patinage, la bicyclette, la raquette ou la marche d’un total collectif de 130km sur une durée d’une semaine, du 11 au 17 février, 2012. Vous aurez la chance de gagner des prix. Les participants de Winnipeg peuvent se promener sur le Sentier d'hiver Assiniboine Credit Union, le vendredi 17 février, pour le premier Ice it to Work Day <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ice-it-to-work-day/>. Inscrivez-vous au www.greenactioncentre.ca ou pour plus d’information composez le 1-866-394-8880 (sans frais) ou le (204) 925-3775. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Webinar - Land Use Planning: Routine Inclusion of Bicycling and Walking in New Developments (Wed, Feb.15, 2-3:30, EcoCentre)
by Beth McKechnie 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us for a local viewing of the APBP webinar* "*Land Use Planning: Routine Inclusion of Bicycling and Walking in New Developments *" *at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth 925-3772 Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) presents: Land Use Planning: Routine Inclusion of Bicycling and Walking in New Developments Wednesday, February 15th • 2:00 to 3:30 pm CST Broad land use patterns and transportation policies determine whether walking and bicycling are not just possible, but practical and enjoyable. Understanding how the big picture works is essential for those engaged in regulating, designing and advocating for more sustainable transportation options. Attend this webinar to learn how land use policy and regulations are the basis for pedestrian and bicycle friendly communities, and what to look for in plan review. Through overview and examples of policy and regulations, and the experience of one small Wisconsin city (Fitchburg, pop. 20,000), you'll find out how innovative zoning codes and policies can help promote active transportation. People attending this webinar will learn about: - The connection between transportation and land use, and how it relates to Smart Growth - The importance of connectivity and the benefits of street networks - Smart Code/Form-based Code, including the Bicycle Module, as well as the urban-rural continuum of development contexts - Land use policy vs. regulations, including what can be regulated through zoning and subdivision standards - Examples of site designs and best practices for integrating design standards into land use regulations - The land use, development regulations, and bike/ped transportation elements of the Fitchburg, Wisconsin Comprehensive Plan. Presenters: John Cock, Associate/Regional Manager Southeast, Alta Planning + Design; Mike Lydon, Principal, The Street Plans Collaborative; Ahna Bijzak, Transportation Project Engineer, City of Fitchburg; and Susan Sloper, Community Planner, City of Fitchburg. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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WFP: Bridging the gap between suburbs (Feb.6'12)
by Beth McKechnie 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

Bridging the gap between suburbs Red River pedestrian crossing discussed By: Jen Skerritt Winnipeg is set to reignite talks about a decades-old idea to create a new pedestrian bridge across the Red River. This week, a firm hired by the city will hold public consultations on possible ways to create a pedestrian bridge or aerial tramway to connect the University of Manitoba with St. Vital. Enlarge Image <http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/3801693.jpg> While the idea of linking the campus to the other side of the Red River has been discussed for years, the city has never moved ahead with a concrete plan. MMM Group project planner Misty Carson said they have come up with five proposed locations where the two sides of the river can connect, including possible links at King's Park, Henteleff Park and near the U of M law school. Carson said the firm is in the process of finalizing cost estimates for each option at each location, which it hopes to present at the community meetings. Right now, Carson said two options -- a pedestrian bridge and an aerial tramway -- are up for discussion. "We're very much at the beginning of understanding public favour and interest for something like this," Carson said. The notion of connecting the U of M campus with St. Vital last gained traction in 2007. A Winnipeg Transit report suggested it would cost about $3 million to build a 250-metre cable connection between the U of M and Henteleff Tree Nursery. At the time, a pedestrian bridge was estimated to cost between $12 million and $15 million. The idea failed to get the go-ahead at council's public works committee. This time around, St. Norbert Coun. Justin Swandel said he'd like to see the preliminary ideas focus on crossings that are doable and won't infringe on riverbank stability, soil or floodway operations. He said he suspects public feedback could be a "mixed bag," with residents and students who support the active transportation link and others who are resistant to change. However, he said he's interested in exploring the idea of some kind of pedestrian connection between the two sides. "I want to see what comes back out of this and see if we can get it focused," Swandel said. "What I don't like is jumping too far in too early, which is why we've got to get some feedback on this." U of M officials aren't sure what impact -- if any -- such a proposal would have on concerns about game-day traffic at the new stadium. Michelle Richard, director of campus planning, said it hasn't been considered as part of the game-day planning process. However, she said it would be an opportunity for the campus to connect with other parts of the community. "Our focus would be on finding ways to create linkages from the university and the broader community," she said. "This is a real opportunity to make those connections." City of Winnipeg spokeswoman Tammy Melesko said public feedback will be used to draft a report that outlines locations along the Red River where a pedestrian link could be built. Council's public works committee will review the report, which will contain cost estimates for each location, should the project move ahead. Some residents have already raised concerns. St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes said Winnipeggers on his side of the river have expressed concern that a community garden group uses the green space at one of the proposed connections north of the U of M. Mayes said other homeowners worry people will park their cars and walk to the new football stadium on game days. Mayes said he's interested in looking at beefing up the pedestrian connection on Bishop Grandin Boulevard to make it easier for people to travel on bike and on foot. "It would benefit some people in St. Vital, but on the other hand, there seems to be a lot of opposition, even without considering the cost," Mayes said. jen.skerrit(a)freepress.mb.ca NOTE: You can fill out the MMM survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/activetransport

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2012 Complete Streets Forum - Toronto, April 23rd
by Beth McKechnie 02 Feb '12

02 Feb '12

Complete Streets Forum 2012 From: Toronto Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) Is walkability, bikeability, mobility, or livability part of your work? The 2012 Complete Streets Forum is TCAT's fifth annual active transportation conference taking place on April 23, 2012 at Evergreen Brick Works <http://tcat.ca/completestreetsforum2012/venue>. The Complete Streets Forum represents a holistic approach to active transportation policy and planning with a focus on cycling and walking while maintaining the interests of other road users. The Forum continues to develop the program of sharing research, best practices, and creative solutions for designing and implementing safe and inviting streets for everyone. The themes and program for the upcoming conference have incorporated feedback from 2011 attendees and is focusing on providing direct experience with implementing Complete Streets, including policy, tools, and examples. The conference will provide numerous opportunities to learn from, consult with, and network with professionals with Complete Streets experience across North America. *The goal of the 2012 Complete Streets Forum is to accelerate the implementation of Complete Streets across Canada.* We invite all professionals working to improve our communities, cities, and urban landscape for all road users, including, cycling, walking, and transit, of all ages and abilities to join us. The presentations and workshops will be of particular interest to planners, transportation officials, public health professionals, engineers, urban designers, architects, landscape architects, developers, accessibility and mobility experts, emergency responders, taxi drivers, non-profits, and more. Read more: http://www.tcat.ca/completestreetsforum2012 -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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St. Vital gondola not off the ground yet (Wpg Sun)
by Beth McKechnie 02 Feb '12

02 Feb '12

St. Vital gondola not off the ground yet <http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/02/01/st-vital-gondola-not-off-the-ground-y…> Winnipeg Sun http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/02/01/st-vital-gondola-not-off-the-ground-y… Would you take a gondola from St. Vital to Fort Garry? The city's really asking. A survey regarding the proposed pedestrian crossing linking South St. Vital to the University of Manitoba presents a motorized gondola as one of four bridge design options. The survey also asks for preferred locations for the crossing, all in the riverbend encircling the university. The gondola idea has been in the works since March 2011, when the city put out a call for tenders for an active transportation bridge. "What we've asked for is different ways to look at active transportation," Coun. Justin Swandel, who represents both sides of the river in the area, said last year. "It could be a gondola, a bridge or any other creative and innovative idea." "My sense is it would be a lot more than just the university folks using it. I live in St. Norbert and I could use it to cycle to St. Vital Centre," Swandel said, noting people may also just take advantage of it as a recreational option. Swandel said it's unsure what a bridge might cost, although he did say the city is building a similar active transportation bridge as part of the Disraeli Bridges project for about $15 million. You can fill out the survey here.<https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/activetransport>

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Peg City Car Co-op Video 4: Sharing!
by Shoni Litinsky 31 Jan '12

31 Jan '12

Thank you all for following our Peg City Car Co-op<http://www.pegcitycarcoop.ca>video series! It has been fun to share these video's with you each week, and get so much feedback from others that bike, walk, bus, and sometimes drive to get around our city! Last weeks video featuring members Shauna, Ken, and little Savannah<http://vimeo.com/34311607>was inspiring, and hit home how personal costs are reduced without personal vehicle ownership - it is nice to see them comfortable in their new house too! This week our final video features another member, Dave. Dave thinks it is nuts to buy and own a car if you only need it a few times a month. He appreciates being a part of the community structure of the co-op, and is happy to share a car with other co-op members. See it here: http://vimeo.com/34036808 If you have been inspired by these videos and think carsharing might work for you, click here for more information<http://pegcitycarcoop.ca/how-it-works/>or to become a member <http://pegcitycarcoop.ca/join/>! Thanks for watching! -- Shoni

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Active & Green - Bike lab, transit apps, green teams & more
by Beth McKechnie 30 Jan '12

30 Jan '12

Hello everyone, Hope you enjoy our latest issue of Active & Green! If you are so inclined, you can link to the e-newsletter at: http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/active-green-winter-2012-4/. thanks, Beth Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.<http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f55cc&id=1a0cd2310f…> *Looking to improve commuter options<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> at your workplace?* Request resources<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> on cycling, carpooling, commuting surveys and tracking progress, among others. Book a presentation<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> on the various commuting options, as well as fuel-efficient driving, creating a commuter friendly workplace, and greening the workplace. Talk to us about implementing a Smart Trips<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>program at your workplace. ------------------------------ Upcoming Events Reel Green Film Festival<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> Feb 3-4 (Fri & Sat) Bougeons en hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge! <http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> Feb 11-17 Snow Trek 2012<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> - 3rd Annual Winter* in motion* Sun - Feb 5, Feb 12 Ice it to Work Day<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> Friday, Feb 17 Bike Dump - Free Workshops Headsets<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> - Thurs, Feb 15 Wheels<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> - Thurs, Feb 22 Clean Air Day Poster Contest<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> Deadline: Fri, Feb 24 Commuter Friendly Workplace Awards<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> Application deadline: Fri, Feb 24 Commuter Challenge 2012<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> June 3-9 Bike to Work Day Fri, June 22 ------------------------------ *Membership* Green Action Centre continues to promote membership as a way to expand and extend our outreach into the community. *Membership is FREE *and requires no specific commitment. With our new website and bi-weekly e-bulletins, we hope to broaden our reach and keep our members informed on timely and important environmental issues in Manitoba. If you are not already a member, please take the time to join us<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>. Please also pass this along to your friends and family. *Help us grow our membership and outreach.* Bougeons en hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge! Get out and enjoy the Manitoba winter! Amusez-vous dans la neige tous en célébrant l’hiver manitobaine! Patinez, skiez, snowshoe, walk, bike le 11 au 17 février 2012. Sign up a team<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> today! Many thanks to Manitoba *in motion* for their support of this event. Bike racks available The Downtown Winnipeg BIZ <http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>needs your help in locating 30 new bike racks that will soon be added to downtown sidewalks, thanks to a partnership with the City of Winnipeg. Send your requests for bike rack placements to stephanie(a)downtownwinnipegbiz.com. App that trip! How many ways are there to find out when and where to catch your bus? Turns out there are plenty o' options. The most recent are transit apps such as iRide<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> , Winnibus<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> , Winnipeg Bus Live<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> (android), Catch it: Winnipeg<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>, and the creatively named Transit App<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>. Or check out Winnipeg Transit's mobile site<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> . Commuter Friendly Workplace Awards Has your workplace made great strides in providing better commuting choices? Consider applying to the *Commuter Friendly Workplace Awards*<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>. These awards are given out to Manitoba workplaces offering exceptional year-round commuter options programs for employees. Last year’s winners include Dillon Consulting (Gold) and Boeing Winnipeg (Silver). *Click here*<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> for more details. Applications are due April 20, 2012. Office green teams 3.0 The role of the office green committee seems to be changing, and judging from the global and local examples here<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…>, this change may be for the better. The 3.0 green team of the future is touted to have a steering committee, direct integration within business values and strategies, and actual financial incentives associated with making change happen. Awesome carshare videos Check out Peg City Car Co-op'<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>s addictive video series with real, live Winnipeggers talking about carsharing. Amanda<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> on utility, Chris<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> on simplicity, Shauna<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> on cost savings, and Dave<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> on sharing. UWSA Bike Lab Students, neighbourhood residents, staff, and faculty at the University of Winnipeg now have a place to work on their bikes or learn how to do their own repairs and maintenance. Plans for the new Bike Lab include safety, advocacy and networking workshops among other activities.Read about it here<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a…> . Brandon transit fares halved How do you get more people choosing to ride the bus? The City of Brandon is trying an unconventional approach<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>. This is an experiment worth watching. 23 and 1/2 hours What does 23 and a half hours mean? It means the best prescription researchers can find for curing what ails you. Sit back and enjoy theseincredible illustrations<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…>, then be inspired to take this doctor’s treatment. You are receiving this email because you are an Active & Green subscriber. Unsubscribe<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a1…> curthull(a)mts.net from this list. Our mailing address is: Green Action Centre 3-303 Portage Ave. Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2B4 Add us to your address book<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/vcard?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f…> Copyright (C) 2012 Green Action Centre All rights reserved. Forward<http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f55cc&id=1a0…> this email to a friend Update your profile<http://greenactioncentre.us2.list-manage1.com/profile?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a…> [image: Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp]<http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?aid=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f55cc&afl=1> -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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New study of economic and health benefits of cycling (Iowa)
by Beth McKechnie 30 Jan '12

30 Jan '12

*Economic and Health Benefits of Cycling in Iowa (University of Northern Iowa, Fall 2011*) This study identifies the economic and health impacts of bicycling in Iowa. Impacts are estimated based on spending by individual cyclists, bicycle specific retail sales, economic activity generated by bicycle organizations, and health cost savings in the State of Iowa. The study is based on primary data collected from individual cyclists, bicycle specific retail operators and bicycle organizations. Health impacts are based on selected primary and secondary data detailed in the methodology. This study presents: - A profile of the commuter and recreational cyclists in Iowa (party and trip - characteristics, spending, and demographic profiles); - A profile of bicycle retail establishments in Iowa; - A profile of bicycle organizations in Iowa; and - A profile of the health benefits and health savings from cycling in Iowa. Read the full study here: https://www.iowabicyclecoalition.org/sites/default/files/IBC%20Final%20Jan%… -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Active Transportation Canada - New Posts January 21, 2012
by Beth McKechnie 23 Jan '12

23 Jan '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Haynes <activetransportation(a)rogers.com> Date: 21 January 2012 08:40 Subject: Active Transportation Canada - New Posts January 21, 2012 Happy New Year Active Transportation-Canada Listserv Members: Fifteen news items about Active Transportation have been posted on the Active Transportation-Canada Website today. Among the items included in these new articles: 1. Sweden Plans A Four-Lane Bike Superhighway<http://www.psfk.com/2012/01/sweden-bike-superhighway.html> 2. Active and Safe Routes to School in Manitoba - January Newsletter<http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=af15a2f9f91ef9a183a3f55cc&id=d689c5e716…> 3. Urge the Federal Government to Mandate Truck Side Guards<http://bccyclingcoalition.blogspot.com/2012/01/urge-federal-government-to-m…> A complete list of all articles posted since the Websites creation may be found in the "Blog Archive" box, located on the right margin of the Website. There are now more than 1,400 items posted on Active Transportation - Canada, with links available to dozens of studies and hundreds of news items from communities across Canada and the world. Active Transportation Canada URL: http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.com A "Search" function is available on the site. You will find this at the bottom of the page. If anyone has a problem reading this message, please let me know. I welcome suggestions for posts, so if you have news items featuring your community, please share them with the other subscribers from Canada, the US, and Australia on Active Transportation-Canada. Thank you. Michael Haynes Director TransActive Solutions

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[At-network] Reminder: Green Action Centre webinar - Tues, Jan. 24th, 1 pm
by Beth McKechnie 23 Jan '12

23 Jan '12

*Friendly reminder about tomorrow's webinar...* Join Green Action Centre staff for a free online webinar sharing highlights and stories from Fall 2011 conferences that we attended: - *Beth McKechnie: *Complete Streets, APBP Professional Development Seminar (Charlotte, North Carolina) - *Jackie Avent and Shoni Litinsky: *Walk 21 and ASRTS Summit (Vancouver, BC) - *Jessie Klassen: *ACT Canada Sustainable Mobility Summit (Vancouver BC) *1:00 pm, Tuesday January 24th, 2012* * * The webinar will take place on *WIMBA*, Green Action Centre's online classroom. Please sign in 20 minutes early to ensure the system functions effectively on your computer. Log-in information is below. You will need to go through an introductory wizard the first time. If you are working on a MAC computer, log in using the Safari browser. Hope you can join us on Tuesday! Sincerely, Beth, Jackie, Jessie and Shoni // Room Info Name: Green Action Centre - Manitoba URL: http://gcclive.wimba.com/launcher.cgi?room=greenactioncentre Room ID: greenactioncentre // Time and Duration Start Time: January 24, 2012 at 01:00 P.M. CST Duration: i hour // Phone Access Dial-in number(s): Phone - (416) 342-1934 <%28416%29%20342-1934> Phone PIN: 02501364

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Peg City Car Co-op Video Series #3 - Cost!
by Shoni Litinsky 23 Jan '12

23 Jan '12

I hope you all enjoyed last week's video featuring Chris<http://vimeo.com/34035969>on the utility of using Peg City Car Co-op <http://www.pegcitycarcoop.ca>, even if at times it is simply helpful to get him out of an awkward date! *This week, our video features a family story - Ken, Shauna, and little Savvy talk about how the co-op helped them save money, and even buy a house! * * * *See it here: http://vimeo.com/34311607* We have recently moved a vehicle to South Osborne<http://pegcitycarcoop.ca/2012/01/car2-moves-to-south-osborne/> - so if you live in that neighbourhood and have considered carsharing or would like to learn more about it. Please get in touch with me! One more week left to go in our video series, stay tuned! -- Shoni Peg City Car Co-op Co-ops build a better world - International Year of the Co-op 2012<http://www.copac.coop/iyc/index.html> .

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Gaining Ground Conference - Registration open
by Cara Fisher 20 Jan '12

20 Jan '12

Gaining Ground: Connecting People and Knowledge Provincial Conference on Active Transportation and Recreation Wednesday March 21, 2012 at the PCU Centre in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba REGISTER TODAY! Visit www.pacm.ca to register and to view the full conference brochure. Hosted by the Physical Activity Coalition of Manitoba (PACM)

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[At-network] Bougeons en hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge! Feb.11-17, 2012
by Beth McKechnie 20 Jan '12

20 Jan '12

[Please share widely and sign up your own team of family, friends, co-workers! Poster attached. Thanks] * GET MOVING WITH BOUGEONS EN HIVER: THE JACK FROST CHALLENGE!* Bougeons en hiver: The Jack Frost Challenge! is a new event celebrating winter in Manitoba. Sign up your team of 1 to 5 to skate, bike, ski, snowshoe, or walk a combined total of 130 km during the week of February 11th to 17th. Participants will be entered in a draw for ‘cool’ prizes. Register at www.greenactioncentre.ca or call us at (204) 925-3775 or 1-866-394-8880 (toll free) for more information. A Co-Actif Epica<http://actifepi.ca/>Event. * * * * * *Soyez actif en participant à « Bougeons en hivers : The Jack Frost Challenge! »* Bougeons en hiver : The Jack Frost Challenge! est un nouvel événement célébrant l’hiver manitobaine! Inscrivez-vous en équipe d’une à cinq personnes pour faire le patinage, la bicyclette, la raquette ou la marche d’un total collectif de 130km sur une durée d’une semaine, du 11 au 17 février, 2012. Vous aurez la chance de gagner des prix. Inscrivez-vous au www.greenactioncentre.ca ou pour plus d’information composez le 1-866-394-8880 (sans frais) ou le (204) 925-3775. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Green Action Centre webinar - Tues, Jan. 24th, 1 pm
by Beth McKechnie 19 Jan '12

19 Jan '12

Join Green Action Centre Staff for a free online webinar sharing highlights and stories from Fall 2011 conferences that we attended: - *Beth McKechnie: *Complete Streets, APBP Professional Development Seminar (Charlotte, North Carolina) - *Jackie Avent and Shoni Litinsky: *Walk 21 and ASRTS Summit (Vancouver, BC) - *Jessie Klassen: *ACT Canada Sustainable Mobility Summit (Vancouver BC) *1:00 pm, Tuesday January 24th, 2012* * * The webinar will take place on *WIMBA*, Green Action Centre's online classroom. Please sign in 20 minutes early to ensure the system functions effectively on your computer. Log-in information is below. You will need to go through an introductory wizard the first time. If you are working on a MAC computer, log in using the Safari browser. Hope you can join us on Tuesday! Sincerely, Beth, Jackie, Jessie and Shoni // Room Info Name: Green Action Centre - Manitoba URL: http://gcclive.wimba.com/launcher.cgi?room=greenactioncentre Room ID: greenactioncentre // Time and Duration Start Time: January 24, 2012 at 01:00 P.M. CST Duration: i hour // Phone Access Dial-in number(s): Phone - (416) 342-1934 <%28416%29%20342-1934> Phone PIN: 02501364

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ASRTS + STP: Four great webinar opportunities in January and February
by Beth McKechnie 19 Jan '12

19 Jan '12

There are four great webinar opportunities around Active and Safe Routes to School and School Travel Planning coming up! More details are below, but please feel free to join Green Action Centre staff for the Safe Routes to School and Traffic Reduction webinar on January 31st from noon-1pm at the Eco-Centre - 3rd Floor, 303 Portage Avenue. *Tuesday, January 24, 2012 (6:30 pm CT) One hour*Sustainable Happiness, Hope & Resiliency Presenters: Catherine O'Brien and Elin Kelsey Join Catherine O'Brien and Elin Kelsey for an inspiring conversation about sustainable happiness, hope and resiliency. In the Summer 2011 issue of Green Teacher, Catherine and Elin introduced the concepts of sustainable happiness, hope and resiliency and why it's so important to move beyond "gloom and doom." In this webinar, they invite you to join them in a lively conversation about how these ideas are catching hold and causing ripples of optimism across the disciplines of environmental and sustainability education, health and well-being and conservation biology, and around the world. After short presentations, they will share some of the ways they are seeing this work moving out in the world so that participants can start to think of implications for their personal and professional life. *Suitability:* All formal and non-formal youth educators *Please register directly at:* http://greenteacherwebinarobrienkelsey2-eorg.eventbrite.com/ *Tuesday January 31st, 2012 (12pm CT) One hour**Pump Down the Volume: SRTS and Traffic Reduction* Presenters: Nancy Pullen-Seufert, Associate Director, National Center for Safe Routes to School Melissa Watford, Health Education Specialist, FirstHealth of the Carolinas Jason Goldsberry, Physical Education Teacher, Eagle Crest Elementary School, Longmont, CO Communities initiate Safe Routes to School programs for a variety of reasons. In an attempt to reduce the barriers for students to walk and bicycle to school, some programs focus on reducing traffic congestion and the number of cars around schools. In this sixty minute webinar, we will take a brief look at the problem of traffic congestion as it relates to SRTS and then focus on two SRTS programs that have had success in reducing congestion and measuring traffic reductions. The first program, Eagle Crest Elementary School's Step Often and Ride to School (SOAR) Program, surveyed families in order to understand travel patterns to school. After learning that 75 percent of students arrived by car, the program focused on increasing walking and bicycling rates through education and encouragement. After just one year, Eagle Crest saw a 40 percent reduction in motor vehicle traffic. The second program, Pinehurst Walks! from Pinehurst, NC, focused on encouraging the school's 650 students to become engaged as leaders in the effort to get more students walking to school. The Student Council presented neighborhood walkability recommendations to the Mayor and Village Council, resulting in a $150,000.00 allocation for a greenway to connect the elementary school to the Village. Their efforts also resulted in a 22 percent reduction in traffic volume on walking school bus days. Don't miss this chance to see how these two wonderful programs succeeding in traffic reduction efforts! This webinar is part of the Safe Routes to School Coaching Action Network Webinar Series, developed by America Walks and the National Center for Safe Routes to School. For more information please contact Michelle Gulley at mgulley(a)americawalks.org REGISTER NOW <https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/654857816> or join us at the Eco-Centre - 3rd Floor, 303 Portage Avenue from noon - 1 pm! * **Thursday February 2, 2012 (12 pm CT) One hour* *School Travel Planning: (Shared) Knowledge is Power!* Presented in collaboration with The CAPTURE Project, as part of the Green Communities Canada School Travel Planning Series. *Brief Description* Imagine being part of a national community where you have easy access to School Travel Planning stakeholders and can share information and learnings about your respective programs, policies or initiatives. CAPTURE (Canadian Platform to Increase Usage of Real-world Evidence) recently launched a freely accessible, knowledge exchange repository to find and share practice-based evidence in health promotion and chronic disease prevention. Looking beyond the published literature, CAPTURE seeks to harness the breadth of community-based knowledge and experience. *The CAPTURE Platform facilitates* · Connecting with colleagues around the corner or across the country · Sharing knowledge and wisdom from our health promotion and chronic disease prevention experiences · Documenting reflective practice learnings – knowledge which often remains untapped or difficult to find *The webinar will feature* · An orientation to the CAPTURE Platform with examples of School Travel Planning initiatives · Guidelines to capture and share reflective practice knowledge · How to enter the CAPTURE 10-minute Challenge - *and win an iPad 2! * *Presenter* Dayna Albert, M.A. Manager, Practitioner Engagement, The CAPTURE Project Dayna holds an MA in adult education and a BSc from the University of Toronto. Dayna has six years’ experience building organizational capacity in evidence-informed practice. Previously, she worked with the Ontario Public Health Association’s Towards Evidence-Informed Practice Program. She is a member of the Canadian Evaluation Society and the American Evaluation Association. *Who Should Attend?* All School Travel Planning stakeholders (i.e. program planners, municipal partners, school-based partners, funders etc.) who are interested in learning new ways to share their work, stay abreast of what others in the field are doing and understand how to capture and profit from their reflective practice learnings. *To register, please contact dayna.albert(a)thecaptureproject.ca and provide your name, email address and time zone.* * **Wednesday February 15, 2012 (11 am CT) One hour* *Project BEAT: Integrating the key lessons of time, space and gender into STP* A WIMBA presentation as part of the Green Communities Canada School Travel Planning Series Presenters: Michelle Stone and Guy Faulkner, University of Toronto. The BEAT (Built Environment and Active Transport – www.beat.utoronto.ca<http://physical.utoronto.ca/Beat.aspx>) project, funded by CIHR and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada was a large-scale, mixed methods and multidisciplinary research programme designed to explore how such a behavioural shift towards active school transport (AST) might be supported. In a series of sequential stages and studies we addressed AST at multiple levels – national, provincial (Ontario) and local (GTA). Our work has identified the prevalence and correlates of AST in Canada, and, has resulted in the creation of a unified theoretical model of AST and the built environment through examination of the personal, family, social and environmental correlates of active school transport. The objective of this webinar is to present some of the key lessons learned from the BEAT project including data on the relationship between school travel and objectively measured physical activity levels of children. Our focus will be on three key lessons that have implications for the School Travel Planning (STP) model. We classify these lessons as three interrelated themes of *time, space and gender:* *TIME*: The main purpose of STP is to help parents/guardians overcome perceptual barriers to the practice of actively traveling to school. These barriers typically focus on safety (e.g., traffic & stranger danger). However, the STP intervention itself does not explicitly address what appear to be key issues in school travel mode choice - the parental or caregiver ascription of convenience to the various travel modes available for school trips (i.e., the theme of “time”) and the level of independent mobility granted to the child. *SPACE*: Participation in AST varies regionally and also across different types of space or neighbourhood. STP work has traditionally targeted the school environment, while our research also suggests that features of the built environment around the home play a more significant role in the school travel mode decision-making process. *GENDER*: The school travel experience is very different for girls than it is for boys. Fewer girls engage in AST and parental perceptions regarding school travel are different for girls than they are for boys. Girls are granted less independent mobility than boys; the ramifications are likely contributing to the lower levels of physical activity and less outdoor play time observed in girls. Modifications to built form may affect girls differently than they would boys. Throughout this webinar, we will provide an overview of the evidence underpinning each theme and facilitate discussion on how each lesson is, or could be, integrated into STP implementation. *Please register directly with Sandra Jones, Green Communities Canada: scjones(a)telus.net* -- *Jackie Avent* Green Action Centre <http://greenactioncentre.ca/> | Active and Safe Routes to School 3rd floor, 303 Portage Avenue* | *(204) 925-3773 Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/> Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>

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WFP: Consultation flawed: Katz
by Beth McKechnie 19 Jan '12

19 Jan '12

While I typically resist including personal comments when circulating articles, this one begs for context. The article below underscores the critical importance of pre- and post-construction counts. Users of the cycle track will certainly attest to its busyness but anecdotal evidence is not enough. It is also true that the full potential of the route was dampened this past year due to construction on Osborne Bridge, which will continue again this spring. But there now appears to be a pattern of apology at City Hall regarding AT project construction. It is common, if not seemingly mandatory, in every city building pedestrian and cycling facilities, to have backlash, usually in the form of the "insufficient consultation" argument. Winnipeg is not unique in this regard but we do seem to be establishing a habit of backtracking afterward. -Beth Consultation flawed: Katz Short shrift for firms, public on bikeway plan By: Jen Skerritt Mayor Sam Katz admits the city could have done a better job consulting the public over a bikeway project one citizen has called a "theft of democracy." On Wednesday, council's executive policy committee reviewed an audit report that identified shortcomings in the consultation process over the Assiniboine Avenue bikeway. The report said area businesses were not included in the process and public notifications should have outlined the impact the project would have on traffic. The bikeway was part of Winnipeg's major active-transportation overhaul that saw the city try to complete 35 projects within an 18-month period to make use of federal stimulus dollars. It prompted a backlash from residents and businesses, and six companies near the Midtown Bridge filed a lawsuit to try to halt construction, saying the plan would cause traffic chaos in the neighbourhood. One plaintiff on Assiniboine said he was notified about the project by a notice taped to his door. Graham Hnatiuk, a citizen journalist, told EPC the city should seek a refund since the consultant the city hired to conduct public consultations did not contact residents for their input for the on-street bike lane. Hnatiuk said he became interested in the issue after he attended a public meeting about the bikeway in 2009, and most of the people who attended were bike lobbyists. The blogger said he complained to 311 about the consultation process, and department staff did not address his concerns. Hnatiuk said Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) later helped forward his complaint directly to the city auditor. Hnatiuk said the bikeway is "sparsely used" in summer, and hundreds of cars that used the route during rush hour travel down an already gridlocked York Avenue instead. "We were right all along," he said. "The residents and businesses along Assiniboine Avenue have known all along that their input was never asked for." Bob Axford told EPC the City of Winnipeg has a governance problem and public consultations need to be improved. He suggested Winnipeg make changes to the way it approaches public consultations. "This is a complete theft of democracy," he said. Katz said he agrees that the consultant did not do a good job. He said the company had a short time frame to complete the public-consultation process due to the federal deadline. However, Katz said the firm shouldn't have taken the job if they could not complete it in the given time. He said everyone, including the mayor, councillors and the city, could have done a better job. "On this particular instance a very poor job was done," Katz said. jen.skerritt(a)freepress.mb.ca http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/consultation-flawed-katz-137654733.h… <jen.skerritt(a)freepress.mb.ca>

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Province makes "Greater Strides" on AT
by Beth McKechnie 17 Jan '12

17 Jan '12

Great news from the Province of Manitoba! In the attached letter to Janice Lukes, Chair of the Province's Active Transportation Advisory Group (ATAG), Minister Dave Chomiak has confirmed they will be acting on three key recommendations of the report generated by ATAG: 1) Develop a provincial policy to support and encourage AT; 2) Appoint a provincial director for AT; and 3) Establish an on-going public stakeholder advisory committee. In addition, the Province had committed to and has confirmed building an AT crossing at the Perimeter Hwy to connect with the popular Northeast Pioneers Greenway. This will allow peds and cyclists to safely cross the Perimeter and continue northward through East St. Paul and toward the floodway trail and Birds Hill Park. To see all of the recommendations, check out "Greater Strides: Taking Action on Active Transportation": http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/pdf/atag_report6.pdf Wonderful start to 2012! Thanks to Janice, Mark Cohoe, Anders Swanson, Russell Wychreschuk and Pat Locken for your hard work and dedication in creating this report, along with the many others who contributed to the process. cheers, Beth

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Webinar Handouts - Emerging Technologies for Ped and Bike Planning (Wed, Jan.18, 2-3:15, EcoCentre)
by Mark Cohoe 17 Jan '12

17 Jan '12

Hi, For anyone planning on attending the Emerging Technologies for Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning webinar tomorrow, handouts, slides, and a 41 page report are available for download here <http://www.apbp.org/?page=Webinar_Downloads>. Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us for a local viewing of the APBP webinar*"*Emerging Technologies for Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning*" *at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Mark 475-5070 Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) presents: Emerging Technologies for Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning Wednesday, January . 2:00 to 3:15 pm CST Through a series of short presentations, this webinar will survey several applications with the potential to help engineers and planners improve conditions for bicycling and walking. gpsThe examples covered in this session will offer an overview of a range of situations where technological advances can aid professionals in their work to develop plans and programs. Due to the number of examples, attendees should plan to be in the webinar for 75 minutes. The session will include: 1. An overview of the newest web and mobile apps and devices, with suggestions for their application to the 5 Es. 2. A description of Cycloplan, an application in development at the University of Minnesota that will leverage data collected in the geo-wiki Cyclopath to create a tool for analyzing cycling networks and managing bikeways. 3. An example from St. Louis' new Gateway Bike Plan of using technology to engage the public and help build a new regional bicycle master plan. 4. Information about GPS-enabled data collection equipment used for pedestrian access inventories, plus pedestrian access shed analysis methodology. Presenters are James Andrew, Senior Transportation Planner, Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul; Terra Curtis, MCRP candidate, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; RJ Eldridge, Director of Planning, Toole Design Group; and Julie Padberg-White, Principal, FPA Group.

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Peg City Car Co-op Video Number TWO!
by Shoni Litinsky 16 Jan '12

16 Jan '12

I hope you all loved Peg City Car Co-op <http://pegcitycarcoop.ca>'s last video featuring our member Amanda <http://vimeo.com/34035273> - is she not adorable? Next up in our series of four videos is Chris. Chris usually travels to work by bus and bike, but finds that the car co-op helps him live more simply, visit the suburbs, and get out of awkward situations! See it here: http://vimeo.com/34035969 Also, we have recently moved a vehicle to South Osborne<http://pegcitycarcoop.ca/2012/01/car2-moves-to-south-osborne/>- so if you live in that neighbourhood and have considered carsharing or would like to learn more about it. Please get in touch with me! Enjoy folks, and stay tuned for video #3 next week! -- Shoni Peg City Car Co-op Co-ops build a better world - International Year of the Co-op 2012<http://www.copac.coop/iyc/index.html> .

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Bike licences a no-go in Ottawa
by Beth McKechnie 15 Jan '12

15 Jan '12

*Bike licences a no-go in Ottawa: Report* By David Reevely, The Ottawa Citizen January 13, 2012 OTTAWA — Licensing bicycles is too expensive and cumbersome and provides negligible benefits anywhere it’s been tried, says a new report from Ottawa’s city staff. Orléans Councillor Bob Monette asked city officials to look into the idea at the beginning of the summer, when the segregated bike lanes on Laurier Avenue were opening and the rights of cyclists versus pedestrians and motorists were in the news. He suggested that licensing bikes would provide a way to connect misbehaviour on the roads and paths to bikes’ owners, the way car licence plates help the police track down bad motorists. Also, a formal registry of bicycles would help the police return stolen and recovered bikes to their owners. Maybe, says the report the city has produced, but at a disproportionate cost. Several earlier looks at the idea of licensing bikes in Ottawa have concluded that the system would cost about $100,000 a year and would recover, at best, $40,000 in fees from cyclists. Worse, it would impose a barrier on would-be cyclists, who’d have to go through an extra layer of bureaucracy before they could legally ride — when the city actually wants people to take to their bikes because they don’t significantly contribute to traffic congestion and put less wear and tear on roads. Enforcing the rules would be extra complicated because Gatineau cyclists mix with Ottawans and it’d be difficult to put a licensing requirement on them, and the city would also have to find a way to make the licensing regime work with services like the National Capital Commission’s Bixi bike-rentals. “Given the foregoing limited benefits and significant challenges, and primarily based on the fact that bicycle licensing would act as a significant barrier to cycling, it is recommended that bicycle licensing not be implemented in the City of Ottawa,” the report concludes, though it notes that there might be some value in a voluntary registration system for recovering lost and stolen bikes. Some cities, including Ottawa, have had bike-licensing systems in the distant past, but no city of any size does now. Regina has such a bylaw on the books, but in practice it’s not enforced; the system has been handed off to a community association, which operates it like a voluntary registry. Besides Monette’s inquiry, there was virtually no political will for a licensing system at the city council table. Mayor Jim Watson said at the time that he’d oppose any effort to pass one. dreevely(a)ottawacitizen.com © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Bike+licences+Ottawa+Report/5991981/story… -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Toronto doctor's 'magic pill' goes viral
by Anders Swanson 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

If you watched enough Mr.Dressup as a kid, or simply like watching people draw, you might like this video. You wouldn't be alone; it's got over a million hits. Not bad for a video with no cats. It was made by a doctor/professor in Ontario and is about finding "the single best thing" we can do for our health. Can you guess what that is? Hint: I posted it to this list. I won't ruin the suspense, and you might have heard the message before. Nonetheless, this video includes some pretty clear and compelling research, and presents the facts in a nice simple way. For the time being, it even lets the smokers, drinkers and overweight folks in the crowd off the hook (somewhat)... Watch the video: 23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaInS6HIGo> Read the CBC Story: An illustrated video with a simple message about health has received more than a million hits on YouTube, much to the delight of the Toronto doctor who created it. "My bankability with teenagers has increased significantly," Dr. Mike Evans told CBC News on Wednesday. Evans is a doctor at St. Michael's Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto. People all over the world are linking to his month-old video from Facebook and Twitter. Evans says his message — to complete a half-hour of exercise every day — is like a magic pill to cure aches and pains. "I've got a pill that's going to help with your arthritis, help with your depression, help with your anxiety, help with your obesity, help prevent cancer," he said. The video cites studies from the world, including research that shows even overweight people have fewer health problems when active. Watch the full video above. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/01/11/toronto-viral-video-… - - - - Anders Swanson Active Transportation Project Coordinator Physical Activity Coalition of Manitoba | www.pacm.ca activetransportation(a)pacm.ca

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Cycle like the Danes to cut carbon emissions, says study
by Beth McKechnie 12 Jan '12

12 Jan '12

Cycle like the Danes to cut carbon emissions, says study *EU could cut its transport greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25% if every country's cycling rate was the same as Denmark's* Europe could cut its transport greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25% if every population cycled as regularly as the Danes, according to a pioneering study (http://www.ecf.com/wp-content/uploads/ECF_CO2_WEB.pdf) which tracks the environmental impact of cycling down to the extra calories consumed by riders. If the EU cycling rate was the same as it is in Denmark, where the average person cycles almost 600 miles (965km) each year, then the bloc would attain anything from 12% to 26% of its targeted transport emissions reduction, depending on what forms of transport the cycling replaced, according to the report by the Brussels-based European Cycling Federation (ECF). This figure is likely to be a significant underestimate as it deliberately excludes the environmental impact of building road infrastructure and parking, or maintaining and disposing of cars. The ECF is urging politicians to focus less on technologically complex solutions to emissions, such as electric cars, and instead think about the potential for increased cycling, especially given that around a third of motorised journeys within the EU are 1.25 miles or less. "There's this rhetoric going about that technology is going to save the day. In the end it's going to have to be the political decisions which make the difference in emissions, and it's not just going to be technology," said Julian Ferguson of the ECF, one of the report's authors. "Things like e-cars will need a massive investment in new infrastructure. But that's almost part of the problem. Politicians like having those massive, awe-inspiring projects, something to change the face of transport. The big advantage of the bicycle is that it exists as a vehicle, it's not just a projected attempt to reduce emissions." The European commission requested that the ECF carry out the research to provide the first specific figures for emissions produced by bicycles over their lifespan, as against motorised vehicles. The calculations for bikes included manufacture – the ECF took a heavier, European-style bike as its model, assuming each used 14.6kg of aluminium, 3.7kg of steel and 1.6kg of rubber – maintenance and even the impact of producing extra calories consumed by someone cycling rather than driving, estimated at 175 an hour, on average. This came up with a total of 21g of carbon emissions per passenger kilometre travelled for a bike, as against 271g for people in a car and 101g for a bus. The impact of electric-assisted bicycles, a boon for older or infirm riders, was almost as low, at 22g. In real life these figures would most likely be biased far more towards cycling, Ferguson said: "We were pretty conservative. We were worried, being a cyclists' federation, that if the figures looked too amazing for a bicycle we wouldn't be taken seriously. So we didn't include infrastructure for cars, or things like parking, maintenance for cars – while maintenance for bikes was included." Increasing continent-wide cycling to Danish levels would, nonetheless, be quite an enterprise. The EU average is just under 120 miles per person per year, while in the UK it is a mere 46 miles, less than 8% of that in Denmark. But the ECF says that if the EU is to meet its emissions target, which calls for a drop of between 80% and 90% on 1990 levels by 2050, major changes will be required somewhere, and that transport is a the ideal place to start. From 1990 to 2007, transport-based emissions on the continent rose 36%, while those from other sources fell 15%. It also points to the example of cities such as Seville in Spain<http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/ecf-chooses-seville-to-host-2011-velo-city…>, where the construction of segregated bike lanes and other policies saw cycling increase tenfold in just three years. "It is possible," said Ferguson. "It just takes a bit of political will and a good dose of cultural change." http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/12/cycle-like-danes-cut-emis…

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Winnipeg Transit testing new Rapid Transit Corridor, public advised to stay off Transitway
by Beth McKechnie 11 Jan '12

11 Jan '12

If everyone could help share the word on this, it would be greatly appreciated. A lot of people used the actual Transitway for walking and cycling during construction but now need to stay clear as the buses are on the road. thanks! Beth ------------------------------ *From:* City-MediaInquiry *Sent:* Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:47 AM *Subject:* City of Winnipeg News Release - Winnipeg Transit testing new Rapid Transit Corridor, public advised to stay off Transitway [image: Description: Description: Description: cid:image001.png@01CC88E0.FA0A1B80]**** ** ** For Immediate Release**** Wednesday, January 11, 2012**** ** ** *Winnipeg Transit testing new Rapid Transit Corridor, * *public advised to stay off Transitway* ** ** *Winnipeg, MB.* – The City of Winnipeg is advising the public to stay off the newly constructed 3.6 km Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor Transitway and to exercise caution at street intersections along the corridor. **** ** ** Winnipeg Transit officials are reminding residents to be safe and avoid trespassing on the Transitway, which is now an active roadway with test buses approaching speeds of 80 km/h. Pedestrians and cyclists are at risk if they enter the Transitway and are advised to stay on public rights-of-way adjacent to the corridor. Strict adherence to all Transitway signs and signals is equally important for motorists also, as they will be sharing intersections with the test buses at certain times of the day.**** ** ** Winnipeg Transit has been conducting driver training on the corridor since December 16, 2011. The Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor is scheduled to open on Sunday, April 8, 2012.**** ** ** For more information on Rapid Transit or the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor, visit http://winnipegtransit.com/en/rapid-transit/ **** ** ** - 30 -**** Media inquiries should be directed to the City of Winnipeg Media Inquiry Line at 204-986-6000 or via email at MediaInquiry(a)winnipeg.ca**** ** ** Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/cityofwinnipeg<http://www.facebook.com/cityofwinnipeg> **** ** ** Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/cityofwinnipeg<http://www.twitter.com/cityofwinnipeg> **** ** **

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Bike Challenge Volunteers Sought
by Beth McKechnie 10 Jan '12

10 Jan '12

Are you interested in helping out with the Actif Epica bike race from St. Malo to Winnipeg on February 18th? Volunteering is a great way to be a part of this unique event—your help will make this a fun and safe bike challenge for everyone. We’d appreciate your help with: - *Course setup* – set up a few signs and flags on the Friday before the race - *Checkpoint race officials* – timing and communications to race headquarters - *Checkpoint hosting* – helping riders with food and water, general oversight - *Roving support* – on-course support in a vehicle or on a snowmobile (we’ll cover your gas) No experience is necessary – we’ll train you up and various shifts and locations are available. Volunteer briefing meetings will be held from 4-5 p.m. on Saturday February 11 (St. Pierre) and Sunday February 12 (Winnipeg), please plan to attend one or the other. If you are interested in giving a couple of hours or more please contact Hal Loewen <halloewen(a)gmail.com> or Ian Hall <ian.hall.204(a)gmail.com>, we’ll find a way for you to be an important part of the Actif Epica experience and have some winter fun. http://actifepi.ca/2012/01/bike-challenge-volunteers-needed/

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The Intersector: A traffic light that knows when bicycles are coming
by Beth McKechnie 10 Jan '12

10 Jan '12

[Not sure what happens with buses when there's transit signal priority but interesting concept. -Beth] The Intersector: A Traffic Light That Knows When Bicycles Are Coming *It’s time for some intelligent design in our traffic management. A new device can change light times to make things safer for oncoming bikes, and more convenient for impatient drivers.* It’s a problem even in the most bike-friendly cities: cars move faster than bikes, which means cyclists are put in danger when traffic lights change. To cut down on the danger of deadly crashes, a handful of California cities, including Pleasanton, Redding, and Monterey, are installing the Intersector<http://www.ci.pleasanton.ca.us/services/traffic/intersector.html>, a smart traffic signal that can differentiate between bikes and cars--and then times traffic light changes accordingly. The Intersector uses a microwave radar gun that can calculate the speed and length of approaching objects, so it knows whether a bike or car is rolling up. The device then decides how long the light should stay green so that both cars and bikes have enough time to pass through. Cars get four seconds to roll through, while bikes get 14 seconds. If a cyclist pedals through a light that’s already green when they arrive, the Intersector tacks on an extra five seconds of green. If no cars are coming, it can shorten the length of a green light to let people needlessly waiting at a red go ahead sooner. Check out a video of the Intersector in action and full story at: ** http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679087/the-intersector-a-traffic-light-that-kno…

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Webinar - Emerging Technologies for Ped and Bike Planning (Wed, Jan.18, 2-3:15, EcoCentre)
by Beth McKechnie 10 Jan '12

10 Jan '12

Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us for a local viewing of the APBP webinar* "*Emerging Technologies for Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning*" *at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth 925-3772 Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) presents: Emerging Technologies for Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning Wednesday, January • 2:00 to 3:15 pm CST Through a series of short presentations, this webinar will survey several applications with the potential to help engineers and planners improve conditions for bicycling and walking. [image: gps]The examples covered in this session will offer an overview of a range of situations where technological advances can aid professionals in their work to develop plans and programs. Due to the number of examples, attendees should plan to be in the webinar for 75 minutes. The session will include: 1. An overview of the newest web and mobile apps and devices, with suggestions for their application to the 5 Es. 2. A description of Cycloplan, an application in development at the University of Minnesota that will leverage data collected in the geo-wiki Cyclopath to create a tool for analyzing cycling networks and managing bikeways. 3. An example from St. Louis' new Gateway Bike Plan of using technology to engage the public and help build a new regional bicycle master plan. 4. Information about GPS-enabled data collection equipment used for pedestrian access inventories, plus pedestrian access shed analysis methodology. Presenters are James Andrew, Senior Transportation Planner, Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul; Terra Curtis, MCRP candidate, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; RJ Eldridge, Director of Planning, Toole Design Group; and Julie Padberg-White, Principal, FPA Group. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Bike, Walk, Bus. And sometimes, Drive. Peg City Car Co-op Video Series
by Shoni Litinsky 09 Jan '12

09 Jan '12

Peg City Car Co-op <http://pegcitycarcoop.ca> is working to change the way people think about getting around Winnipeg. Bike, walk, bus, and use a vehicle only when you need it. Peg City recently received a grant from Assiniboine Credit Union to create four short videos that feature our co-op members and why they choose to carshare. Enjoy this video that features Amanda's story on how the car co-op supports her do the things she loves: http://vimeo.com/34035273 Stay tuned over the next four weeks to follow their personal stories. Co-ops build a better world - International Year of the Co-op 2012<http://www.copac.coop/iyc/index.html> . Thank you, Shoni

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FW: Winter Use of Wheeled Mobility Devices survey please take part in this
by Anders Swanson 09 Jan '12

09 Jan '12

FYI. This is some timely and interesting research and they are looking for participants. See the request below. If you know anyone or any organization willing to share this survey with their members, please forward it along with the attachments. Hello, We are occupational therapy researchers at the University of Manitoba, who are interested in learning about how winter weather affects the ability of people who use wheeled mobility devices (i.e. wheelchairs and scooters) to take part in activities that are meaningful to them. The purpose of this study is to answer the question “What challenges arise with wheelchair/scooter use in cold weather climates?”, and to identify what aspects of wheelchair/scooter products, natural and built environments (e.g. public buildings and parks or the home), social attitudes, and policy-level environment are most problematic in the wintertime in Manitoba. The results will be used to guide future research and address change needed in these areas. As one part of a broader research study, we have developed the Winter Use of Wheeled Mobility Devices survey that takes about 35-40 minutes to complete. It will be available to for people to complete throughout the winter months (January - May 2012), and is available to be done on-line, on paper, or over the phone. We are using posters, hand-outs, mail-outs, and word-of-mouth advertising to recruit people to participate in completing our survey. We are looking for a variation of wheeled mobility types (manual and power wheelchairs and scooters), geographic locations, age, and employment status. We greatly appreciate any and all help in getting the word out about our study, helping us to reach a broad group of people to better represent this population with our research. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact Pam Whaley by email at winterweather.research(a)gmail.com or by phone at 977-5617. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, The Winter Weather Research Team -- Anders Swanson Active Transportation Project Coordinator Physical Activity Coalition of Manitoba | www.pacm.ca activetransportation(a)pacm.ca

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If you build it...?
by Beth McKechnie 09 Jan '12

09 Jan '12

[Thanks to Ian Hall for sending this along...] ** "More Twin Cities residents than ever are getting around by bike or on foot. Bicycling in the Twin Cities has increased by 52 percent since 2007, and walking by 18 percent. Twin Cities bicycling, in particular, experienced a sharp year-over-year increase - up 22 percent from 2010 to 2011." http://www.bikewalktwincities.org/news-events/bicycling-and-walking-counts-…

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A Traffic Engineer's Lament
by Beth McKechnie 06 Jan '12

06 Jan '12

Engineering News-Record (ENR.com) - From the Transportation Front... * A Traffic Engineer's Lament* *Sam Schwartz, former New York City traffic commissioner and head highway and bridge engineer, is chief executive of Sam Schwartz Engineering in New York City. He writes about everything related to transportation and engineering practice.* Traffic engineers are being marginalized and viewed as anachronisms, like Mad Men from a bygone age. As Christopher B. Leinberger, senior fellow at The Brookings Institution and professor of planning at the University of Michigan, writes in a recent *NY Times* op-ed<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/opinion/the-death-of-the-fringe-suburb.ht…>, “traffic engineers dismissively call [bus and light-rail systems, bike lanes and pedestrian improvements] ‘alternative transportation.’” In saying so, he, and planners around the world, are being dismissive of me and my profession. We are the GEICO Neanderthals of society. And who’s to blame? Yes, we deserve a lot of it. We, as a profession, continued to build more roads, wider roads, and faster roads while knowing full well we were running out of capacity and making transport systems less efficient. An example I've used time and time again in New York City is that the Brooklyn Bridge, when it was largely a rail and walking bridge, handled 430,000 people daily. In the 1940’s, we ‘modernized’ it by removing the rail; its daily person carrying volume dropped to 180,000. During my lifetime, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island was built with 12 car lanes but no bikeway, walkway or transit right-of-way. As a teenager I was able to bike from Brooklyn to Staten Island by taking a ferry. Once the bridge opened, the ferry stopped running and driving was the only choice—here in transit-rich New York City. Most of the Interstate System built in the past half-century had no provisions for walkers, bike riders or transitways. Why weren’t we as engineers screaming, “This is folly!”? It’s no wonder the transportation leadership of cities around the country is no longer in the hands of transportation engineers. In fact, we haven’t had an engineer at the helm of USDOT in nearly 20 years. Now is the time to re-assume a leadership role in planning of our future for cities, towns and suburbs. We can do it by joining the medical professionals by demanding and designing healthy communities. It turns out that healthy neighborhoods are transportation efficient and safe. I stumbled across the field of Active Transportation a couple of years ago and now I preach it. Here’s what it’s about: Active transportation is any method of travel that is all or partly human-powered. The term refers to transportation that supports walking, stair use, cycling, and transit. It includes long-term land use and transportation planning to encourage alternate (non-motor vehicle) forms of transport. The proven health benefits of active transportation are overwhelming: prevention of weight gain, lowered risk of type-2 diabetes, lower high blood pressure and cholesterol, decreased risk of colon and breast cancers, and increased life expectancy. We as engineers have the technical know-how to implement active transportation. The methods are deceptively easy: Build good transit systems and integrate them into existing infrastructure. Design transportation systems with pedestrians and cyclists in mind. Construct multiple, direct connections within dense, mixed land-use developments. Coordinate transit, walking, cycling, and automobile networks. For far too long, we’ve considered these concerns outside of our job descriptions, even though we know better. If we continue to stand by when politicians like Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla., deride pedestrian and bicyclist funding as wasteful extravagances<http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news?ContentRecord_id=2feae725-00…>, we deserve all the derision that planners like Leinberger can throw at us. Worse yet, we risk getting pushed out of the transportation planning process entirely. * * Co-written with Laura MacNeil http://enr.construction.com/opinions/blogs/schwartz.asp?plckController=Blog…

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"Gaining Ground" - Manitoba Conference on Active Transportation and Recreation - March 21 in Portage La Prairie
by Cara Fisher 06 Jan '12

06 Jan '12

Hello AT Network, Please share this with your colleagues and networks. We will have more information on the PACM website <http://www.pacm.ca> and registration open late next week. Apologize if this was already sent to the list. - Cara * * *Gaining Ground: Connecting People and Knowledge * *Portage La Prairie, March 21, 2012* * * *A Provincial conference on Active Transportation and Recreation* The conference is bringing together leaders, experts and people with a passion to share knowledge, ideas, challenges and successes. IF you are a municipal leader, parks and recreation practitioner, health professional, trail advocate, cycling enthusiast, pedestrian, planner, engineer, elder, community volunteer or resident of Manitoba – YOU have something to share and to learn! - PACM is putting the spotlight on 3 smaller Manitoba communities who are gaining ground in their pursuit to increase the quality of life in their community. Hear how distinctly different, tailor-made solutions are being developing and put into action. - *You* are invited to submit, present & share your own community’s success stories in our ‘5 slides / 5 minutes/5 highlights’ session! - Connect *coast to coast* with leaders who are working directly in communities with local, provincial and national governments to integrate active transportation, recreation, and and development with research and the very critical funding component! ~British Columbia – *Dr. Larry Frank*, Professor & J. Armand Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Urban Transportation Systems, University of British Columbia ~Nova Scotia – *Mike Arthur*, Manager of Physical Activity, Provincial Dept. of Health & Wellness Hear key recommendations from the Manitoba Active Transportation Advisory Group report: *Greater Strides: Taking Action on Active Transportation * **Round trip shuttle service from Winnipeg to Portage La Prairie for conference attendees** For info visit www.pacm.ca or contact Cara Fisher, PACM Project Assistant by email at conference(a)pacm.ca or by phone at 204-294-7027 REGISTRATION OPENS IN EARLY JANUARY PLEASE SHARE THIS INVITATION WIDELY WITH COLLEAGUES, STAFF AND COMMUNITY. Conference hosted by PACM and funding assistance provided by Manitoba in * motion*

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NYC Bike Share
by Beth McKechnie 04 Jan '12

04 Jan '12

What is New York City Bike Share? Introducing NYC Bike Share, a revolutionary new way for you to get around New York City, scheduled to launch summer 2012. Bike sharing expands your transportation options; it empowers you to go your own way. NYC Bike Share is a self-service system that provides members with easy access to a network of thousands of bicycles. Pick up a bike close to home or work, ride, then return it to any of the hundreds of stations to be located throughout the city. NYC Bike Share will consist of 600 stations, 10,000 bikes in Manhattan and Brooklyn, potentially stretching to Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx. It will be privately sponsored, privately launched and privately operated, with no public funding. Additional information for interested potential sponsors is available at www.nycbikesharesponsorship.com. It’s more than just a different way to get to work. 54% of all trips New Yorkers make are less than two miles. Bike sharing is a great mobility choice for short trips that are too far to walk, but too short for a cab or subway ride. Sustainable, convenient, expeditious and safe – NYC Bike Share will benefit you and your community. Find more: http://nycitybikeshare.com/

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Pedestrian and Bicycle Council Winter Newsletter
by Beth McKechnie 22 Dec '11

22 Dec '11

Thanks to Bob Kurylko at Stantec for sending this along... *From:* Institute of Transportation Engineers [mailto:info@ite.ccsend.com] *On Behalf Of *Institute of Transportation Engineers *Sent:* Thursday, December 22, 2011 3:40 PM *Subject:* Pedestrian and Bicycle Council Winter Newsletter ** ** Having trouble viewing this email? Click here <http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=umc9fycab&v=001GqPuXdeqX…> **** ** ** [image: Banner]**** [image: Pedestrian and Bicycle Council] **** *Winter E-Newsletter***** **** *Winter 2011***** *In This Issue* **** *Editors' Note <#13467d42c6b3221e_LETTER.BLOCK6>* **** *Pedestrian and Bicycle System Planning In Bellingham, WA<#13467d42c6b3221e_LETTER.BLOCK7> * **** *Chicago's "New" Bike Program <#13467d42c6b3221e_LETTER.BLOCK8>* **** *Exclusive Pedestrian Signal Phasing <#13467d42c6b3221e_LETTER.BLOCK9>* **** *Taking a Step Towards Safer, Healthier Kids with "Safe Routes to School"<#13467d42c6b3221e_LETTER.BLOCK12> * **** *Public Acceptance of Buffered Bikeways <#13467d42c6b3221e_LETTER.BLOCK14>* **** *Application for 2012 Pedestrian and Bicycle Council Award<#13467d42c6b3221e_LETTER.BLOCK15> * **** *ITE 2012 Meetings <#13467d42c6b3221e_LETTER.BLOCK16>* **** *ITE Announcements <#13467d42c6b3221e_LETTER.BLOCK17>* **** *Message from the Chair ***** ** ** Hello, ITE Pedestrian and Bicycle Council members!**** **** This newsletter features a unique collaboration with the Transportation Planning Council. Nearly a year ago I spoke with Dan Kueper, their newsletter editor, about cross-pollinating newsletter articles between our Councils. As a result, this newsletter includes 5 articles contributed by Transportation Planning Council members on bicycle and pedestrian topics. In exchange, the Transportation Planning Council's winter newsletter features a "best of" selection from recent issues of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Council newsletter. One of the primary goals of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Council is to provide timely information on non-motorized transportation topics to ITE membership as a whole, and collaborations like this are a great way to make that happen. Dan, thanks for the idea!**** **** There will be three primary opportunities for the Pedestrian and Bicycle Council to meet face-to-face in 2012. I always enjoy seeing the familiar faces of our Council members and hope to meet a number of new folks as well. Please plan to attend if you can!**** - We will conduct a business meeting at the TRB Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. This meeting will be held *Sunday, January 22, 2012* at 10:00 a.m. in the Marriott's Thomas Paine Room. **** - The first session of our new technical workshop series, *Public Health Benefits of Active Transportation*, will take place at the ITE Technical Conference in Pasadena, CA. That session is scheduled for *Monday, March 5, 2012* at 10:30 a.m.**** - We will continue our workshops at the ITE Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, which will be held August 12-15. More details will be available in the spring.**** 2012 also marks the return of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Council awards program. Dave Duszak of our office is leading this effort. Please see the call for awards later in this newsletter. I know many of you are doing truly groundbreaking work in the bicycle and pedestrian fields, and you should be recognized for that. *Applications must be submitted by March 1*. Enter early and often!**** **** As we begin the New Year, there are many reasons to be thankful for being in our profession. Transportation safety continues to improve in the United States. Bicycling and walking are still on the table (as of this writing) to be included in federal transportation reauthorization. And each of us, whether we're in the public or private sector, has the opportunity to help make communities more livable and sustainable every day. Our role in the Pedestrian and Bicycle Council is to give you the tools you need to do just that, and I would appreciate any feedback on what we can do to help you succeed.**** **** Have a joyous and prosperous 2012!**** **** Jeff Riegner Chair, Pedestrian and Bicycle Council Whitman, Requardt & Associates 302.571.9001 jriegner(a)wrallp.com**** Editors' Note **** This quarter we are changing it up a little by including articles written by members of the Transportation Planning Council (TPC). We asked TPC members to submit pedestrian and bicycle focused topics. In return the TPC has selected a collection of articles from past PBC newsletters to share with TPC members. Read the TPC Newsletter here<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…> .**** ** ** Below is a collection of interesting articles about many innovations occurring throughout the US on increasing mode share for bicyclists *and*pedestrians, through new design treatments and policy initiatives. Enjoy reading these articles over some, hopefully, well deserved time away from work this winter.**** ** ** Cheers, Matthew Brill**** ** ** Pedestrian and Bicycle System Planning In Bellingham, WA **** * ***** *Submitted by Chris Comeau <ccomeau(a)cob.org?>, AICP, Transportation Planner, City of Bellingham Public Works Engineering ***** **** Bellingham, Washington<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…> transportation planners are creating a mode-specific Pedestrian Master Plan<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>and in Spring 2012 will begin working on a Bicycle Master Plan<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>. Bellingham is a progressive small city (2011 population = 81,070) located along the far northwestern inland coast of Washington State, 85 miles north of Seattle and 45 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As the primary center for employment, shopping, entertainment, education, government, and medical services, Bellingham plays an important role in the development of the entire Whatcom County region.**** **** Planning under Washington's Growth Management Act, Bellingham has adopted an internally consistent Comprehensive Plan with a transportation element<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>containing multimodal transportation goals and policies designed to support alternative forms of transportation and compact mixed use urban infill development prescribed by the land use element. Multimodal goals and policies in the transportation element also support public transit, which is not a city service. City transportation planners work hand-in-hand with the regional transit agency, Whatcom Transportation Authority<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>(WTA), to incorporate high-frequency (15-minute headway) transit service routes into citywide planning efforts for mixed-use urban villages and transit-oriented development. **** Long-term mode shift goals adopted in the transportation element serve as targets for continuously working to reduce the percentage of total trips made by single-occupant vehicles while increasing the percentage of total trips made by pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders. **** **** **** **** In support of the multimodal transportation element and the long-term mode shift goals, when completed in mid-2012, the PMP will identify a citywide "pedestrian network" integrating on-street sidewalks with Bellingham's extensive off-street Greenways<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>multiuse trail system. A community survey was conducted in 2011, which elicited 830 responses from neighborhood residents resulting in a long list of pedestrian improvement requests and concerns. The PMP will identify pedestrian network deficiencies, include a prioritized list of capital improvements to correct pedestrian network deficiencies over time, and identify options for funding. In addition, the PMP will update the city's standards for crosswalks, sidewalk widths, and create a menu of appropriate pedestrian crossing treatments based on land use and transportation contexts.**** **** In similar fashion, city transportation planners will seek community input for the BMP to clarify the citywide bicycle system, deficiencies in the bicycle network, and a prioritized list of capital improvements to correct bicycle network deficiencies over time, and identify options for funding. In 2011, Bellingham currently has 62.5 miles of marked bicycle lanes on arterial streets, 60 additional miles of planned bicycle lanes, and plans for 1.2 miles of "bicycle boulevards." The BMP will update the city's standards for bicycle lanes, will include new bicycle facilities and treatments, such as "bicycle boulevards" on residential streets, "sharrow" markings on limited arterial streets, and way-finding symbols on citywide bicycle routes, as well as a menu of appropriate bicycle facilities and treatments based on land use and transportation contexts.**** **** It is fully anticipated that the needs and deficiencies identified in both the PMP and the BMP will have costs far in excess of Bellingham's ability to fund capital improvements. Fortunately, in 2010, Bellingham voters approved a Transportation Benefit District<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>(TBD) funded by a two-tenths of one-percent sales tax collected within the City limits of Bellingham with funding directed specifically to non-motorized pedestrian and bicycle capital improvements, as well as supplemental transit service in Bellingham provided by WTA through a contract with the city. The TBD revenue will be collected for a 10-year period (2011-2020) and will greatly assist Bellingham to complete the citywide pedestrian and bicycle networks identified in the PMP and BMPs, will support WTA's efforts to provide a robust urban transit system, and will help to achieve and sustain the City's long-term transportation mode-shift goals.**** **** The Bellingham PMP, BMP, and TBD will also be integrated into two important regulatory programs that Bellingham has created to implement the multimodal transportation approach and Urban Village infill land use strategy in the Bellingham Comprehensive Plan. In 2008, Bellingham transportation planners and transportation consulting firm TranspoGroup, Inc<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>. developed and adopted a new Multimodal Transportation Concurrency Program<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>that includes level of service (LOS) measurements for pedestrian, bicycle, multiuse trails, and public transit in addition to the traditional auto-centric volume to capacity (v/c) ratio LOS standards used by most jurisdictions. Bellingham's Multimodal Transportation Concurrency Program won the 2009 APA/PAW Award<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>for Transportation Planning in Washington State. **** **** In 2010, Bellingham developed and adopted economic incentives called Urban Village Vehicle Trip/Transportation Impact Fee (TIF) Reductions<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>to lower the cost of development in areas promoted as the most appropriate for growth based on the availability of multimodal transportation facilities and transit service. The vehicle trip reductions are based on a blend of methodology from ITE's Trip Generation manual and accepted trip generation research and are only available for use in select Urban Village mixed use areas that are well-served with pedestrian, bicycle, and transit service.**** ** ** Chicago's "New" Bike Program**** **** *Submitted by James M. Considine, AICP, PTP, Chief Planner, T.Y. Lin International; with assistance from David Gleason, Staff Engineer***** ** ** Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office on May 17, 2011. Prior to taking office, the Mayor's transition team developed a plan<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>that included adding 100 miles of protected bike lanes by the end of his term in 2015. This is a major undertaking for a city that already has an exemplary bicycle system.**** Chicago has one of the most significant bicycle infrastructure systems in the country along with a good reputation. The city was awarded a "silver" designation in the 2011 League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Community Rankings. The bicycle infrastructure in Chicago includes:**** - 123 miles of on-street bike lanes**** - 33 miles of marked shared lanes**** - 36 miles of paved, off street paths (including the famous Lake Shore Path)**** - 12,265 on-street bike parking racks**** To put the Mayor's objective in perspective, Chicago began to build the bicycle network in 1995. Sixteen years later, the on-street bicycle network is 156 miles in total. The Mayor wants an additional 100 miles, a 64 percent increase in the network in only 4 years. Not only does this represent a major expansion of the system, but it also calls for protected bicycle lanes, which are a significant upgrade from bike lanes and marked shared lanes. **** Protected bicycle lanes are a colloquial term used in Chicago. Elsewhere in the country, protected bicycle lanes are known as cycle tracks. According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NATCO), "cycle tracks have different elements - they provide space that is intended to be exclusively or primarily separated from motor vehicle travel lanes, parking lanes, and sidewalks." Protected bike lanes are separated from car traffic by cones, curbs, off-street parking or other impediments. **** The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) is off and running with the system expansion. Three cycle track projects have been installed by the end of 2011: **** - Kinzie Street from Milwaukee to Wells (0.5 miles)**** - Jackson Boulevard between Western and Ogden (0.8 miles)**** - 18th Street between Canal and Clark (0.4 miles)**** Yes, this is a small number in relation to the overall objective, but it represents a major achievement given the bureaucratic hurdles involved within any large city organization. The momentum has begun and will accelerate. **** Bicycle modal share has increased as a result of the network. From 2000 to 2009, the percentage of Chicagoans commuting by bike increased from about 0.5 percent to 1.1 percent. System expansion will increase accessibility to the network. In addition, the protected bicycle lanes will encourage others, who would not normally ride on the street, to bicycle. **** A proposed bike share program will require a network for users who would not normally be bicycling. The city has issued a Request for Proposal to install and operate a shared-public bike system that will provide access for bicycles for short-distance trips as an alternative to public transportation or private vehicles. It will begin in 2012 with 3,000 bicycles and 300 rental stations. These users will need a safe and expanded system.**** Major challenges face the city of Chicago with the system expansion including where to put the cycle tracks, how to build them and how to handle a reduction in roadway capacity while still accommodating motorized traffic. Adding to the system will become increasingly more complex as the network is expanded. CDOT has initiated Streets for Cycling Plan 2020, which will identify 150 - 250 miles of streets to establish new types of on-street bikeways or enhance existing bikeways that will make the network more convenient, safe and continuous. Priority will be given to locations for bikeways that provide greater protection for bicyclists, including cycle tracks.**** **** How to build these will be a work in progress. The NATCO *Urban Bikeway Design Guide* is the cutting edge document on designing innovative bicycle facilities such as cycle tracks. The document provides guidance beyond what is addressed in the *Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices* and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official's *Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities*. Still, CDOT will be confronted with design issues that are not covered in those documents. In addition, the State of Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has jurisdiction over many of the streets in Chicago. IDOT has roadway and bicycle standards that have to be adhered to and the standards often do not address cycle tracks. IDOT has adopted a Complete Street policy, however, its current standards do not address cycle tracks and other innovative designs.**** Intersection design is about to get a lot more complicated with cycle tracks. Multimodal level of service (LOS) will help with the analysis. Traditionally, LOS analysis has been used to design intersections, but this addresses only motor vehicles. The National Cooperative Highway Research Program's *Multimodal Level of Service Analysis for Urban Streets* now gives us a tool to determine the tradeoff between quality of service for bicycles, pedestrians, transit, and motor vehicles. New pavement striping methods and traffic signals that address bicycle movements will also have to be addressed. **** Finally, roadway capacity is an issue. The Chicago roadway network is fixed. There is little or no room for expansion. Adding protected bicycle lanes will reduce vehicle travel lane width. There is a tradeoff between loss of capacity for vehicles and increased comfort and safety for bicycles. The issue of reduced travel lane width versus adding a bicycle lane or cycle track is a complicated roadway capacity and safety issue that will not be resolved quickly or easily. **** The next three and a half years will likely be an opportunity for unprecedented growth and turbulence for the Chicago bicycle network. Chicago is embarking an effort that will change how city streets are used. However, the potential is great to create a more livable and healthy environment.**** ** ** Exclusive Pedestrian Signal Phasing**** * ***** *Submitted by Craig S. Neustaedter, P.E. with Allyn Rifkin, P.E., and Sam Morrissey, P.E.***** **** Exclusive Pedestrian Signal Phasing (EPSP) assigns a phase of an intersection signal cycle exclusively for pedestrians. At the standard phased intersections, pedestrians and turning vehicles are given right of way at the same time. Pursuant to traffic regulations, pedestrians are able to claim the right of way before turning vehicles, thereby making the vehicles wait to complete turns.**** **** One feature that is usually included as part of the EPSP is called the "Scramble" or "Barnes Dance."* This is the inclusion of diagonal, corner-to-corner pedestrian crossing of the intersection during the exclusive pedestrian signal phase.**** **** There are numerous intersections in jurisdictions throughout the United States where EPSP is being deployed. Traffic engineering staff from these jurisdictions were contacted to obtain information about their experience with EPSP. **** **** (*Barnes Dance named after Henry Barnes, traffic engineer for the city of Denver who implemented this pedestrian crossing method in the 1940s.)**** **** **** *EPSP Signalized Intersection with Scramble Feature, Gaslamp District, San Diego, California***** **** *Santa Monica* In late 2010, the city of Santa Monica tested EPSP at the intersection of 2nd Street at Santa Monica Blvd. The intersection is located in Downtown Santa Monica, within one block of two major pedestrian activity centers, including the 3rd Street Downtown Pedestrian Mall and the municipal public beach. The test project did not meet the desired objectives of reducing vehicle delays and improving the flow of pedestrians and vehicles at this intersection. The primary problem was attributed to pedestrians being unfamiliar with the EPSP phasing and difficulty in educating pedestrians on the appropriate times for crossing. **** **** *City of Pasadena* The city of Pasadena currently uses EPSP at the intersection of S. DeLacey Ave. at W. Colorado Blvd. The EPSP includes the Scramble feature. According to staff, the city does not have an adopted policy or guideline concerning deployment of EPSP. **** **** The city decided to implement EPSP at this intersection because it has high pedestrian volumes. The EPSP has been implemented to eliminate the conflicts between the high pedestrian volumes and high turning vehicle volumes at this intersection. These conflicts were creating significant vehicular delay at the intersection, especially for the northbound and southbound approaches.**** **** *City of Glendale* The city of Glendale implemented an EPSP signal timing approach with Scramble features at the intersection of Brand Blvd at Harvard Street. This timing strategy was opposed by a group of merchants in the pre-existing shopping center, north east of the new development. The City of Glendale working with the merchants installed the EPSP treatment and is observing its implications to overall vehicular delay.**** **** *City of Los Angeles/Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LA DOT)* LA DOT has implemented EPSP at several intersections throughout the city of Los Angeles. All of the intersections include the Scramble feature. As a policy, LA DOT requires that a traffic analysis be performed for any intersection where EPSP is being considered to verify that this phasing would improve intersection operations by reducing average vehicle delay. Operational improvements must be quantifiable for both peak and off-peak hours. LA DOT staff report that typically intersections considered as candidates for EPSP currently are two phase signals and have high pedestrian volumes conflicting with turning vehicles. **** **** *All Pedestrian Phase Study - Denver, Colorado* Recently, a study has been completed for the City and County of Denver, Colorado that provides a thorough analysis of EPSP at two-phase signalized intersections. The January 2010 study was performed to respond to negative feedback that the agency was receiving concerning EPSP that has been implemented at several signalized intersections in downtown Denver. The complaints concerned excessive vehicle delay at these intersections.**** **** The study has endeavored to identify at what point the number of vehicles delayed by pedestrians indicates that separating the pedestrian and conflicting vehicular movements will result in minimized vehicular delay. Through statistical analysis the study has developed the following formula (Formula based on hourly pedestrian and vehicle volumes):**** **** X = (V2ped * Vvehicle)1/3**** X : Conflicting Volumes (weighted). Vped : pedestrian volume. Vvehicle : number of turning vehicles conflicting with pedestrian volume.*** * **** The study indicates that when X exceeds 150 at a signalized two-phase intersection, it may be advantageous to implement EPSP.**** **** The results from the Denver study re-enforce the premise for implementing EPSP by the cities of Pasadena and Los Angeles. This type of signal phasing is primarily effective at reducing vehicle delay at intersections where a large volume of turning vehicles is conflicting with a large volume of pedestrians. The Denver study quantifies at what point EPSP becomes an effective means for reducing vehicular congestion.**** **** *Highway Safety Manual Comments on EPSP* The *Highway Safety Manual* provides tools to conduct quantitative safety analysis of a broad range of traffic safety improvements. The Highway Safety Manual states the following concerning EPSP:**** **** *At urban signalized intersections with marked crosswalks and pedestrian volumes of at least 1,200 people per day, this treatment appears to reduce pedestrian crashes when compared with concurrent timing or traffic signals with no pedestrian signals. However, the magnitude of the crash effect is not certain at this time (Highway Safety Manual, First Edition, Volume 3, Pages 14-51).***** * ***** *Suggested Guidelines for Consideration of EPSP at Signalized Intersections* ***** * ***** *(*Based on draft guidelines by RTPG/ TEP consultant team for city of Santa Monica Downtown Pedestrian Study, Sam Morrissey, City Traffic Engineer, Project Manager)***** **** The following guidelines are recommended when considering implementing EPSP. These guidelines are currently being considered for adoption by the city of Santa Monica, as part of the downtown pedestrian circulation study that is currently in progress: **** **** 1) EPSP should be considered for signalized intersections where there are significant conflicts between pedestrians and turning vehicles.**** **** 2) The figure shown below may be used to establish threshold criteria for consideration of EPSP. This graph is based on the formula from the Denver study.**** **** **** **** 3) EPSP should improve conditions for the majority of daily traffic entering the intersection. To verify this, the threshold criteria should be confirmed for at least the five highest peak hours of traffic flow at the intersection. Typically, the five highest peak hours will include at least 50 percent of the daily traffic entering an intersection.**** **** 4) If the threshold criteria are met for the five highest peak hours then:** ** **** a) An operational analysis should be performed to verify that EPSP will reduce average vehicular delay.**** **** b) The analysis should consider the impact on delay due to the Scramble feature. Due to this feature, additional green time must be assigned to the exclusive pedestrian phase because additional time is required to diagonally cross the intersection. Section 4E.06 on Pedestrian Intervals and Signal Phases of the new MUTCD mandates new standards having the net effect of increasing pedestrian time in the signal cycle. This may be excessive if the Scramble feature is provided.**** **** c) Analysis should be performed to determine how EPSP might be implemented without disruption of signal coordination with adjacent traffic signals in the downtown area.**** **** 5) If EPSP is implemented, a comprehensive education program and enhanced police enforcement should be considered for at least a 30-day period to promote compliance with the new signal phasing.**** **** ** ** Taking a Step Towards Safer, Healthier Kids with "Safe Routes to School" *** * **** *Submitted by Todd A. Peterson, P.E., PTOE***** The national "Safe Routes to School" (SRTS) program was established through the original SAFETEA-LU legislation to support the creation of safe environments for students (K-12) to walk or ride their bikes to school. This is accomplished through improvements to the roadway and pedestrian networks around schools to enhance safety and accessibility for students within school "walksheds," and education to encourage walking and biking as a healthy alternative to being driven to and from school. **** SRTS projects can also address improvements to on-site traffic circulation where conflicts between school bus loading zones and parent pick-up/drop-off traffic creates inefficient traffic patterns and dangerous conditions for students on foot. Such improvements can also alleviate the daily recurring congestion in communities surrounding schools with suboptimal on-site traffic circulation. Coordination with school staff, students and parents, and the surrounding community in development of improvements and program goals is crucial to a successful SRTS implementation. SRTS projects are multidisciplinary by nature, and draw on the diverse expertise of practitioners in the fields of transportation planning, traffic engineering, road design, and public involvement. Typical aspects of a SRTS project include:**** - Sidewalk improvements including wide sidewalks, buffers between sidewalks and traffic lanes, accessible curb ramps and enhanced-visibility crossings.**** - Traffic calming measures to encourage adherence to speed limits at pedestrian crossings, provide buffer space or pedestrian storage or otherwise mitigate the exposure of pedestrians to vehicular traffic. **** - Well-marked and dedicated bicycle routes.**** - Signage for school zones per Part 7 of the MUTCD (2009 edition).**** - Coordination with school staff to understand existing student arrival/departure patterns and to develop effective protocols for bus loading, releasing students from entrances to bus or parent loading zones, and walker/bikers to maintain student security and safety while providing efficient on-site traffic flow. **** - Education for students to promote safe pedestrian and bicyclists behaviors. **** SRTS programs may be managed at the state level down to local programs managed by individual school districts. States receive funding for SRTS through application to the Federal Highway Administration, with allocation based on student enrollment. A Safe Routes to School Coordinator in each state administers the distribution of federal funds to local jurisdictions, though local SRTS programs may also pursue funding through municipal operating budgets, contributions from corporate or non-profit foundations, or through grass roots fundraising activities.**** More information on this topic can be obtained from the National Center for Safe Routes to School (www.saferoutesinfo.org/<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…>), or from state and local SRTS coordinators. ITE is also in the process of developing a series of briefing sheets pertaining to different aspects of Safe Routes to School which are scheduled for publication in spring 2012. ** ** ** ** Public Acceptance of Buffered Bikeways **** **** *Submitted by Carl Springer & Ray Delahanty, DKS Associates***** In the fall of 2009 the City of Portland, Oregon installed a seven block cycle track and a 10-13 block couplet of buffered bike lanes in downtown Portland, removing a motor vehicle lane on each route by restriping the roadway. Intercept surveys of cyclists, motorist, and pedestrians were obtained. In addition, before and after video was reviewed to provide empirical evidence to contrast the survey. Portland State University (PSU) evaluated the facilities after they had been in place for approximately one year. A major objective was to test facilities that were thought to bring higher levels of comfort to bicycle riders through increased separation from motor vehicle traffic (link to full report<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…> ).**** *SW Broadway Cycle Track ***** *Description**:* The cycle track on SW Broadway-a major one-way southbound street connecting the downtown core and areas to the south, including access ramps to a major freeway-is 1,800 feet long and consists of a seven-foot bike lane separated from motor vehicle traffic by a row of parked cars and a painted three-foot buffer. The facility's location - next to the PSU campus with no through streets-results in limited conflicts with right-turning motor vehicles and a high level of pedestrian activity. **** *Cycle Track***** **** **** **** *Findings**:* Most cyclists (71 percent) indicated that they felt the route was safer and easier with the cycle track-of female respondents, 94 percent felt the cycle track improved their safety. Motorists generally expressed support for the cycle track, and motor vehicle delay remained low after removing one travel lane (we found an average delay per vehicle of two to seven seconds after the cycle track was installed). Nearly 78 percent of motorists indicated that they liked the fact that bikes and cars were now more separated.**** *Challenges**:* Surveys and video analysis revealed that the issue of bicycle-pedestrian conflicts is a problem at the intersections adjacent to the PSU campus. This is compounded by both pedestrian and cyclist lack of compliance with traffic control devices. Of 113 cyclists observed arriving on a red signal indication, 44 percent violated the red signal either by continuing through the intersection without stopping or by stopping and continuing prior to the signal changing to green (this is roughly the same as the behavior before with a bike lane). This may be in part because there is no (motorist) cross traffic for most of the cycle track, and signals heads are somewhat difficult to see from the cycle track. Interestingly, only 63 percent of cyclist survey respondents indicated that they thought they were required to stop with traffic on SW Broadway. Finally, placing a cycle track adjacent to the curb made curb access for buses and lift-vans more difficult. **** *Recommendations**:* The report provides an array of solutions to address the challenges identified should the city make the cycle track a permanent facility:**** - Cyclist-pedestrian interactions need to be better managed using some combination of bicycle-specific traffic signals, signage directing cyclists to watch for pedestrians and to "wait here on red." **** - Alternatively, a pedestrian island could be placed on the street side of the cycle track.**** - To address the issue of ADA curb access, the construction of a raised concrete curb (replacing the pedestrian buffer) on the street side of the cycle track is presented. The raised curb would further separate motor vehicle traffic from the cycle track and prevent parking in the cycle track. **** *Stark and Oak Buffered Bike Lanes***** *Description:* The buffered bike lanes on SW Stark (3,400 feet) and SW Oak (2,862 feet)-a low-volume couplet of one-way downtown streets with ADTs less than 5,000 vehicles per day-consist of six-foot bike lanes with a two-foot painted buffer on either side. The bike lanes were installed by removing a motor vehicle lane. Not all intersections have right-turns (one-way grid in downtown Portland). Of 12 intersections where motor vehicles may make a right turn across the buffered bike lanes, three locations have a right turn lane to the right of the buffered bike lanes, three have a shared bike lane and turn lane, and six have no specified right turn lane for motor vehicles.**** *Buffered Bike Lanes***** * ***** **** **** **** *Findings:* Surveys show that cyclists agree that the streets are safer (89 percent) and easier (91 percent), while cyclist counts showed increases on both streets. Average control delay per motor vehicle was LOS A or B at most peak times, with the exception of 5-5:30 p.m. when delays reach 22-35 seconds per vehicle (LOS C- approaching D). Surveys show that motorists feel the buffered bike lanes have made driving on SW Stark and SW Oak more challenging. Still, nearly two thirds of motorists indicated that they like the additional separation between cars and bicycles provided by the buffered bike lanes. **** *Challenges:* Both cyclists and motorists expressed confusion over when motor vehicles should be in the buffered bike lane (e.g., when parking, turning, etc). About 10 percent of motor vehicles drove in the bike lanes. Further, motorist actions when turning right are inconsistent - over a third of right-turning motorists moved into the buffered bike lane to make the turn, while just over half turned from the left motor vehicle lane.**** *Recommendations:* The report provides several potential solutions to clarify turning movements and when motor vehicles may move into or through the buffered bike lanes:**** - On intersections where there is currently no designated turn lane for right turning motorists, one alternative would be to add a right-turn lane by removing curb parking, shifting the bike lane, dropping the buffer, and adding a dotted line and green conflict marking such that cars could cross the buffered bike lane to enter the right-turn lane (as done at the intersections with right-turn lanes). This would provide motorists with a consistent manner in which to make right turns on the couplet and would also have some benefits to motorists since it would remove right-turning vehicles delayed by pedestrians from limiting through vehicles.**** - Since this evaluation, PDOT has added additional cross-hatching to the buffer to further delineate the bike lane, which should help improve the operations. Additional marking and signage could be considered such as overhead lane control signage on signal mast arms, lane control signs on the pole mounts at curbs, the addition of more bicycle stencils in the buffered bike lane, and possibly lane control arrows in the motor vehicle lane for cars at the beginning and midpoint of each block.**** ** ** Application for 2012 Pedestrian and Bicycle Council Award **** **** The ITE Pedestrian and Bicycle Council Best Project Award is bestowed on a project that applied innovative design solutions or study techniques related to non-motorized transportation. Projects that best benefit the profession and the public are encouraged to be submitted for consideration. Submissions that effectively communicate a problem statement, clearly outline methods used, highlight results, advance feasible and reliable solutions, and demonstrate the benefits to the public will be given the highest consideration. *Eligibility:***** - For a project to be considered eligible for the award, it must have been fully completed during 2011. Completion may include publishing a study or report, finalizing design documents, or completing construction.**** - A Pedestrian and Bicycle Council member should have had a significant role in conducting the project.**** *Process***** - Applications are due no later than March 1.**** - A review committee will review and score each application received and will submit the winning application to ITE headquarters no later than May 1. **** - ITE staff will notify all participants no later than June 1.**** - Winners will receive a plaque and be recognized at the ITE Annual Meeting and in the ITE Journal.**** *Submittal Procedure***** - Please submit a cover letter and an electronic copy of the written product (report, plan, etc.) in pdf format.**** - Cover letters should describe how the project fulfilled each of the following five evaluation criteria. **** 1. Originality**** 2. Quality**** 3. Significance**** 4. Comprehensiveness**** 5. Transferability to other places or agencies**** Please send your submission electronically no later than 5:00 p.m. on March 1, 2012 to:**** David A. Duszak, P.E., PTOE Chair, PBC Awards Committee c/o Whitman, Requardt & Associates, LLP Three Mill Road, Suite 309 Wilmington, Delaware 19806**** **** Questions can be directed to Dave at dduszak(a)wrallp.com. **** ** ** ITE 2012 Meetings **** **** [image: tc12]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…> **** ITE 2012 Technical Conference and Exhibit<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…> **** March 4-7, 2012**** Pasadena Convention Center Pasadena, California, USA**** [image: AM12]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…> **** ITE 2012 Annual Meeting and Exhibit<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…> **** August 12-15, 2012 **** Westin Peachtree Plaza Atlanta, Georgia, USA **** ** ** ITE Announcements **** **** *Proposed Roundabouts Policy--Available for Member Comment<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…> ***** At its October meeting the International Board of Direction approved a proposed roundabout policy for member comment. Comments may be posted to the ITE Community or submitted to Aliyah Horton at ahorton(a)ite.org by December 27.**** *2012 ITE Award Submissions***** Each year, ITE sponsors an awards program to honor outstanding achievement in transportation engineering and distinguished service to ITE. The awards bestow international recognition upon the recipients and increase the public's awareness of the role and responsibilities of the transportation professional. Deadlines for many of the awards are March 1 or April 1, 2012. For information, visit **** www.ite.org/awards<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&et=1108989989897&s=7255&e=0017AYcv3…> .**** ** ** *Forward email<http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?llr=umc9fycab&m=1102470515092&ea=…> * <http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&mse=001kkqO0FxDKZT4vX7yz6nMv4DYC…> **** <http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?pn=buynow&cc=news04>**** This email was sent to robert.kurylko(a)stantec.com by info(a)ite.org | **** Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&mse=001kkqO0FxDKZT4vX7yz6nMv4DYC…>™ | Privacy Policy <http://ui.constantcontact.com/roving/CCPrivacyPolicy.jsp>. **** Institute of Transportation Engineers | 1627 Eye Street NW | Suite 600 | Washington | DC | 20006**** ****

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Speed limits & the 85th percentile
by Beth McKechnie 22 Dec '11

22 Dec '11

Hi everyone, Since the issue of the "85th percentile" comes up consistently in discussions around speed limits (and speed limit reductions), I thought others might be interested in reading my letter below in case it doesn't get published in the Winnipeg Free Press. For reference, it was in response to Mr. Clark's letter which is pasted below as well. cheers, Beth * * * * * *Letter to the Editor (sent Tues, Dec. 21'11)* In response to Mr. Ted Clark's Dec. 21 letter "Grant speed limit is result of spurious reasoning", the use of the 85th percentile in defence of higher speed limits is a circular argument. The speed at which motorists travel is primarily influenced by road design. A street that is wide, straight and flat encourages driving faster. To argue that the speed at which 85% of motorists are travelling at (or below) on a road is therefore reasonable and acceptable is an argument that feeds itself. It does not take into account adjacent land uses or other road users, such as pedestrians from surrounding houses and apartment buildings crossing Grant to reach the shopping centre or students walking or cycling to Grant Park High School. OurWinnipeg, the City's new long-term vision, recognizes the critical connection between land use and transportation. I suspect that it was an early acknowledgment of this connection that compelled councillors and the provincial highway traffic board to set a 50-km/h speed limit on Grant. If motorists are driving above the desired speed limit because the road design encourages it, the answer should be to address road design. Beth McKechnie * * * * * Grant speed limit is result of spurious reasoning The real scandal on Grant Avenue in the vicinity of Nathaniel Street is not the accuracy or otherwise of the police radar speed measurements. The real scandal is that the legal speed limit has been set far too low, leading to annoying and inappropriate enforcement. Years ago, that particular Grant speed limit was set much higher. City councillors then proposed that it be lowered to 50 kilometres per hour. Traffic studies showed, however, that the speed limit should be at least 60 km/h. Nevertheless, the committee members decided on the 50-km/h limit "in the hope that drivers would then go 60." This unfounded conjecture was explicitly articulated at the time by the area councillor, and the other councillors then succumbed to his flawed reasoning. I don't know whether this was recorded in their minutes at the time. I, as the city's then-director of streets and transportation, was there, and I have a distinct recollection today. For reasons unknown to me, the provincial highway traffic board (whose ultimate approval was needed then if not now) went along with this spurious reasoning. In some American states, local governments are required by statute to conduct proper and valid engineering and traffic speed studies before modifying speed limits on local roads. If the outcomes of such studies are not respected, the senior government may overrule the inappropriate limit or even withhold transportation-related financial grants to the junior (urban) government. Central to such studies is measurement of the speeds at which motorists are typically travelling. The most appropriate limit is usually a speed close to the "85th percentile" -- the speed at (or below) which 85 per cent of the motorists are driving. The highly reasonable related presumption is that 85 per cent of motorists are inclined to behave in a reasonable and prudent manner and therefore enforcement directed at more than 15 per cent of motorists is likely to be impractical and unpopular. Unfortunately, the automatic equipment now being used by police has made it practical to target a large number of responsible motorists, whose indignation is thus understandable. The city should conduct proper traffic studies (taking into account not only the 85th percentile speed but also geometric design, crash data and the functional classification of the roadway) on Grant between Stafford and Kenaston, and then should scrupulously abide by the outcome. TED CLARKE Winnipeg

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Mark your calender! 2012 APBP Webinar Series
by Beth McKechnie 21 Dec '11

21 Dec '11

Hello everyone, Mark the dates for the 2012 APBP webinar series in your spanky new 2012 calendar, with this sneak peek at upcoming topics. The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) webinars take place on the third Wednesday of each month from 2:00-3:00 pm CST. We hope you will join Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave, MEC bldg) to view these webinars and discuss afterward. cheers, Beth * * * * * * 2012 APBP Webinar Series* - *January 18th *- Emerging Technologies for Bike/Ped Planning - *February 15th* - Land Use Planning: Routine Inclusion of Bicycling and Walking in New Developments - *March 21st* - Best Practices for Maintenance Programs - *April 18th* - NTPP (Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Project) Update: A Bold Experiment in Four Communities - *May 16th *- On-Street Bicycle Parking: What, When, Where and How Much? - *June 20th* - Resolving Conflicts at Complex Intersections - *July 18th* - The Greener Side of Green Streets: Reducing Pavement Footprints - *August 15th* - Transforming Streets into Inviting Public Spaces - *September 19th* - Liability: Understanding and Managing Risk - *October 17th* - FHWA Experimentation for Advancing Best Practices - *November 14th* - Maps that Guide, Encourage and Inform - *December 19th* - Wayfinding Options for Cyclists

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Scotter-type e-bikes banned from NCC pathways (Ottawa)
by Beth McKechnie 18 Dec '11

18 Dec '11

Scooter-type e-bikes banned from NCC pathways By Neco Cockburn, The Ottawa Citizen December 15, 2011 OTTAWA — Electric-powered vehicles including heavier “scooter-type” e-bikes are now prohibited from National Capital Commission pathways, according to a report issued by the NCC on Thursday. “Power-assisted bicycles that are physically similar to conventional bicycles” are still allowed on pathways, the NCC says, but “scooter-type power-assisted bicycles (i.e. with a fairing) are prohibited.” (A fairing is a rigid plastic covering to deflect wind and rain or to reduce drag.) The same rules are in place for parkways closed to vehicles for the NCC’s Sunday Bikedays and Saturday Short Loops programs. E-bikes are classified under Transport Canada regulations as “power-assisted” bicycles, and can reach speeds of 32 km/h with their electric motors. The NCC conducted public consultations earlier this year after it proposed rules for those and other electric vehicles “in response to the arrival of these new types of vehicles and to mitigate the various issues relating to them — particularly issues affecting user safety,” the report says. Overall, people were in favour of the proposed rules, the report says. It suggests the increased weight of heavier e-bikes raises safety concerns if a collision occurs, but “power-assisted bicycles that resemble conventional bicycles is a way to encourage greater accessibility to the Capital Pathway,” since seniors and other physically-challenged people can cover greater distances and climb hills. “Moreover, active mobility is a basic principle of greenways. A conventional-type power-assisted bicycle is powered in part by muscular power, while the scooter-type assisted bicycle is usually powered entirely by its electric motor (the pedals being more an accessory than an essential component for mobility),” the report says. The heavier “scooter-type” e-bikes are instead directed toward bike lanes on NCC roads, where any type of power-assisted bike is permitted, according to the report. (All other electric-powered vehicles are banned from NCC bike lanes.) All electric-powered vehicles are prohibited on “natural surface trails” intended for hiking and mountain biking at Gatineau Park, the NCC says. The new rules do not apply to mobility aids, such as motorized wheelchairs and three- and four-wheel electric scooters. The NCC plans a communications campaign in the spring to ensure people are aware of the new rules, which take effect immediately. New signage is to be installed on the NCC pathways this winter. In response to other feedback heard during public consultations, the report says the NCC is trying to find a solution to the issue of cyclists travelling faster than the 20 km/h speed limit on pathways, and “plans to continue its efforts to educate the public.” ncockburn(a)ottawacitizen.com twitter.com/NecoCockburn © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Scooter+type+bikes+banned+from+pathways…

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Infrastructure and Cyclist Safety
by Beth McKechnie 17 Dec '11

17 Dec '11

[Thanks, Bike to the Future for tweeting about the following report.] *Infrastructure and Cyclist Safety* (2011) The Department for Transport commissioned TRL to conduct a literature review to consider the role of infrastructure in relation to the safety of cyclists and their interaction with other road users... *Of all interventions to increase cycle safety, the greatest benefits come from reducing motor vehicle speeds.* Interventions that achieve this are also likely to result in casualty reductions for all classes of road user. This may be achieved by a variety of methods, including physical traffic calming; urban design that changes the appearance and pedestrian use of a street; and, possibly, the wider use of 20 mph speed limits. Read more: http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/infrastructure-and-cyclist-safety/inf…

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Invitation - Gaining Ground: Connecting People and Knowledge - Portage La Prairie
by Cara Fisher 14 Dec '11

14 Dec '11

*SAVE THE DATE* * * *Gaining Ground: Connecting People and Knowledge * *Portage La Prairie, March 21, 2012* * * *A Provincial conference on Active Transportation and Recreation* The conference is bringing together leaders, experts and people with a passion to share knowledge, ideas, challenges and successes. IF you are a municipal leader, parks and recreation practitioner, health professional, trail advocate, cycling enthusiast, pedestrian, planner, engineer, elder, community volunteer or resident of Manitoba – YOU have something to share and to learn! - PACM is putting the spotlight on 3 smaller Manitoba communities who are gaining ground in their pursuit to increase the quality of life in their community. Hear how distinctly different, tailor-made solutions are being developing and put into action. - *You* are invited to submit, present & share your own community’s success stories in our ‘5 slides / 5 minutes/5 highlights’ session! - Connect *coast to coast* with leaders who are working directly in communities with local, provincial and national governments to integrate active transportation, recreation, and and development with research and the very critical funding component! ~British Columbia – *Dr. Larry Frank*, Professor & J. Armand Bombardier Chair in Sustainable Urban Transportation Systems, University of British Columbia ~Nova Scotia – *Mike Arthur*, Manager of Physical Activity, Provincial Dept. of Health & Wellness Hear key recommendations from the Manitoba Active Transportation Advisory Group report: *Greater Strides: Taking Action on Active Transportation * **Round trip shuttle service from Winnipeg to Portage La Prairie for conference attendees** For info visit www.pacm.ca or contact Cara Fisher, PACM Project Assistant by email at conference(a)pacm.ca or by phone at 204-294-7027 REGISTRATION OPENS IN JANUARY PLEASE SHARE THIS INVITATION WIDELY WITH COLLEAGUES, STAFF AND COMMUNITY. Event supported by PACM and Manitoba in *motion* * *

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new funding opportunities for cycling and walking - FCM, the U of W . . . and the Government of Canada?
by Anders Swanson 08 Dec '11

08 Dec '11

Hi, *FCM* The new Green Municipal Fund application is now online as of Dec.1st, and is accepting applications for transportation projects: http://www.fcm.ca/home/programs/green-municipal-fund/what-we-fund/projects/… The fund has been redesigned somewhat, but has kept all the good elements. Municipalities of all sizes looking to apply for active transportation planning and capital projects, can take advantage of the ongoing intake date, ensuring that no one misses the chance to apply. For a local government, it means you can start developing plans and ideas whenever you are ready, and have the potential of funding support to look forward to - without necessarily being rushed. Of course, as always, the sooner the better! Here's an example of the kind of project they are willing to consider: - improvements to active transportation infrastructure around transit nodes, such as sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, pedestrian links from park and ride, bike paths and bike crossings, and end-of-trip bike facilities such as bike parking and shower facilities - development or completion of walking and cycling networks and systems planned around travel to work, school, shopping or culture, that promote safety, accessibility and viable alternatives to car travel - development of complete streets (roadways designed and operated to enable safe, attractive and comfortable access and travel for all users - pedestrians, cyclists, transit, high-occupancy vehicles and private and commercial vehicles) *The U of W is hiring for two positions at its new Bike Lab:* http://theuwsa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Bike-Lab-Coordinator-Posting-N… http://theuwsa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Bike-Lab-Training-Coordinator-… *Transport Canada?* Good things come in threes . . . or will they? At the beginning of December, the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, launched a formal engagement process that will bring together the Government of Canada, provinces, territories, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and other stakeholders to develop a new long-term plan for public infrastructure beyond the expiry of the Building Canada Plan in 2014. Read the <goog_515508862>Free Press article<http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/tory-minister-brightens-our-infrastr…> . If you remember, 1/3 of Winnipeg's large 2010 investment in cycling and walking infrastructure came from the federal government. Of note: Neither cycling or walking are mentioned as forms of transportation in Transport Canada's Long Term Investment Plan: Key Areas for Investment page<http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/booklet-livret/booklet-livret07-eng.ht…> online . . . and cycling and walking are barely mentioned, only once under "supporting communities" section, in the recently produced booklet<http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/alt-format/pdf/Plan-Booklet-Livret-eng.pdf>. Yet, there is a truly astonishing amount of work going on across the country in the realm of active transportation planning and capital investment that needs federal support. *(see the appendix below for your reference). * I hope municipalities aren't discouraged in bringing ideas forward. The federal government can. does (and should) play a critical role in funding major projects. FCM's fund is great, but they don't have Canada's billions or Canada's responsibility for healthcare affecting their bottom line. Our cousins to the south illustrate that Canada could certainly do more <http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/bp-broch.htm> . You can find more info about the consultations and the way Transport Canada sees its priorities here: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/plan-eng.html Not a funding opportunity, per se, but something to think about. FYI. Regards, Anders Swanson Active Transportation Project Coordinator Physical Activity Coalition of Manitoba | www.pacm.ca activetransportation(a)pacm.ca * * * * * *APPENDIX* note: if you see an organization or plan that is missing, please email me and let me know *Municipal Active Transportation Plans* An ongoing list I started creating a few months ago of jurisdictions that have bicycle/walking plans that are either explicitly called "active transportation plans" or detailed enough to reasonably be referred to as such*.* *(One of these days I am going to go back over them and provide updated links to the plans themselves, but they could each be googled right now, if you want to check.)* * * *Armstrong, BC* Brandon, MB Bridgewater, NS *Burns Lake, BC* *Bella Coola, BC* Cape Breton, NS Calgary, AB *Chemainus, BC* Yorkton, SK Dufferin County, ON East Gwillimbury, ON Edmonton, AB Fredericton, NB *Golden, BC* Halifax, NS Hamilton, ON *Invermere, BC* *Kent, BC* *Ladysmith, BC* *Kamloops, BC* Kingston, ON Minden, ON Moncton, NB Montreal, QC *Nanaimo, BC* *Nelson, BC* *North Cowichan, BC* Oakville, ON Ottawa, ON *Prince George, BC* *Qualicum Beach, BC* *Quesnel, BC* Quebec City, Qc Red Deer, AB *Revelstoke, BC* *Rossland, BC* *Shuswap,BC* *Sparwood, BC* StJohns, NFLD St.Malo, MB *Terrace, BC* Thomspon, MB Thunder Bay, ON Toronto, ON Vancouver, BC Victoria, BC *Warfield, BC* *Wells, BC* University of Waterloo University of Dalhousie Winnipeg, MB *Some Canadian National Active Transportation-Specific Advocacy Organizations* *CanadaWalks.ca* SafeRoutestoSchool.ca <http://saferoutestoschool.ca/> The People Powered Movement <http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/> (Cycling and Walking Charter) note: No national cycling as transportation organizations in Canada. *Regional/Municipal Active Transportation-Specific Advocacy Organizations* Alberta Cycling Association <http://www.albertabicycle.ab.ca/> Bike to the Future - Winnipeg <http://biketothefuture.org/> Edmonton Bicycle Commuters <http://www.edmontonbikes.ca/> Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST) <http://www.best.bc.ca/> Bikeways <http://www.bikeways.com/> British Columbia Cycling Coalition (BCCC) <http://www.bccc.bc.ca/> Pedal Power <http://www.pedalpower.org/> Vancouver Area Bicycle Coalition (VABC) <http://www.vacc.bc.ca/> Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition <http://www.gvcc.bc.ca/> Manitoba Cycling Association <http://www.cycling.mb.ca/> Velo New Brunswick <http://www.velo.nb.ca/> Bicycling Newfoundland and Labrador <http://www.bnl.nf.ca/> Bicycling Nova Scotia <http://www.bicycle.ns.ca/> Ontario Cycling Association <http://www.ontariocycling.org/> Ottawa Bicycle Club <http://www.ottawabicycleclub.ca/> Transportation for Livable <http://www.hwcn.org/link/tlc/> Cycling PEI <http://www.cpei.ca/> Velo du Quebec <http://www.velo.qc.ca/> Saskatchewan Cycling Association <http://www.saskcycling.ca/> Canadian National Organizations Seeking Adherence Universal-Design Principles and Requiring Changes to the Built Environment Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC) ( http://www.blindcanadians.ca/) Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL) (http://www.cacl.ca) Canadian Association of the Deaf (CAD) (http://www.cad.ca/) Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB) (www.ccbnational.net<http://www.ccbnational.net/> ) Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) (http://www.ccdonline.ca) Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA) (http://www.chha.ca) Canadian Mental Health Association of Canada (CMHA) (http://www.cmha.ca) Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA) ( http://www.canparaplegic.org/national/index.tpl) National Network on Mental Health (NNMH) (http://www.nnmh.ca/) Cycling Plans in Major Canadian Cities Ottawa Cycling Plan<http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/onthemove/cycling/ottawa_cycling_plan_en.html> Vancouver Bicycle Plan<http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/cycling/plans/network.htm> *Victoria Bicycle Plan<http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/departments_engtranbicycle.shtml> Montreal Bicycle Plan<http://www.montrealmirror.com/2008/042408/biking1.html> Toronto Bike Plan <http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/bikeplan/> Saskatoon Cycling Plan<http://www.saskatoon.ca/DEPARTMENTS/Infrastructure%20Services/Transportatio…> Edmonton Bicycle Plan<http://www.edmonton.ca/transportation/cycling_walking/bicycle-transportatio…> Calgary Cycle Plan<http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation/TP/Pages/Cycling/Cycling-Strategy/Calg…> Halifax Active Transportation Plan<http://www.halifax.ca/TDM/activetransportation/index.html> Fredericton Trails/Bikeways Plan<http://www.fredericton.ca/en/recleisure/trailsandbikeways.asp> Charlottetown Active Transportation Plan<http://www.walkbikegreatercharlottetown.com/> St John's Cycling Master Plan<http://www.stjohns.ca/cityservices/traffic/cyclingplan.jsp> * Municipal Walking Initiatives Barrie, Ontario<http://www.barrie.ca/Living/Getting%20Around/Pages/ActiveTransportation.aspx> Bridgewater, Nova Scotia <http://www.bridgewater.ca/activetransportation/> Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia<http://www.bridgewater.ca/activetransportation/> City of Calgary <http://www.cbrm.ns.ca/active-transportation.html> City of Toronto Walking Initiatives<http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/walking/ped_initiatives.htm> <http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/walking/walking_strategy.htm>City of Toronto Walking Strategy<http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/walking/walking_strategy.htm> Edmonton, Alberta<http://www.edmonton.ca/for_residents/programs/walkable-edmonton.aspx> <http://www.esquimalt.ca/parksRecreation/walkingCycling/>Esquimalt, British Columbia <http://www.esquimalt.ca/parksRecreation/walkingCycling/> Halifax Regional Municipality<http://www.halifax.ca/TDM/activetransportation/> <http://www.doitwell.ca/pages/Projects/Hamilton+Walks>Hamilton Walks<http://www.doitwell.ca/pages/Projects/Hamilton+Walks> Kingston, Ontario <http://www.kcat.ca/> <http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/residents/activetransportation>Mississauga, Ontario <http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/residents/activetransportation> Moncton, New Brunswick<http://www.moncton.ca/Residents/Recreation_Parks_and_Culture/Active_Living/…> <http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/pssp/>Pedestrian Safety Strategic Plan<http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/pssp/> Pelham, Ontario<http://www.pelham.ca/Departments/CommunityInfrastructure/CommunityServices/…> Regional District of Nanimo, British Columbia <http://www.rdn.bc.ca/cms.asp?wpID=1749> Richmond, British Columbia <http://www.rdn.bc.ca/cms.asp?wpID=1749> Simcoe Muskoka Health - Healthy Community Design: Policy Statements for Official Plans <http://www.rdn.bc.ca/cms.asp?wpID=1749> St. John’s, Newfoundland <http://www.grandconcourse.ca/> <http://www.surrey.ca/city-services/8388.aspx>Surrey, British Columbia<http://www.surrey.ca/city-services/8388.aspx> <http://www.torontocat.ca/>Toronto, Ontario <http://www.torontocat.ca/> Thunder Bay, Ontario<http://www.thunderbay.ca/Living/Getting_Around/Active_Transportation.htm> <http://tinytownshiptrails.com/about/active-transportation/>Tiny Township, Ontario <http://tinytownshiptrails.com/about/active-transportation/> Town of Ajax - Walkable + Bikeable Ajax: The Ajax Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan <http://www.townofajax.com/AssetFactory.aspx?did=8795> <http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/streets/greenways/>Vancouver, Greenways<http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/streets/greenways/> Vancouver, pedestrian accessibility<http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/streets/pedestrian/index.htm> Waterloo, Ontario <http://www.toronto.ca/walk21> Winnipeg, Manitoba<http://www.winnipeg.ca/publicworks/MajorProjects/ActiveTransportation/> *Regional and Territorial and Federal Plans and Initiatives* Halifax Regional Municipality<http://www.halifax.ca/TDM/activetransportation/> Heart & Stroke Nova Scotia WalkAbout <http://www.walkaboutns.ca/> Metrolinx GTHA Big Move<http://www.metrolinx.com/mx/Docs/big_move/TheBigMove_020109.pdf> Metrolinx Regional Transportation Plan - Green Paper #3: Active Transportation <http://www.metrolinx.com/docs/general/RTPGreenPaper3.pdf> Nova Scotia Pathways for People<http://www.gov.ns.ca/hpp/publications/P4PFramework.pdf> Regional Municipality of Halton<http://www.halton.ca/cms/One.aspx?portalId=8310&pageId=51448> Smart Commute <http://www.smartcommute.ca/en/home> Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities - Active Transportation Video<http://www.sustainability-unsm.ca/active-transportation.html> Velo Quebec <http://www.velo.qc.ca/transport-actif/> Built Environment and Active Transportation (British Columbia)<http://www.physicalactivitystrategy.ca/index.php/beat/> Canadian Mortgage & Housing Corporation: How to chose a sustainable neighbourhood <http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/buho/sune/index.cfm> Local Government Success Stories from British Columbia:<http://www.physicalactivitystrategy.ca/pdfs/BEAT/Local%20Government%20Succe…> Ontario Ministry of Transportation<http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/sustainability/programs/tdm-grant.shtml> Ontario Seniors Secretariat - Age Friendly Communities<http://www.seniors.gov.on.ca/en/afc/index.php> Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) Age Friendly Communities<http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/sh-sa/ifa-fiv/2008/initiative-eng.php> Transport Canada<http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-utsp-casestudyactivetransporta…> Transport Canada - ecoMOBILITY<http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-ecomobility-menu-eng-144.htm> Transport Canada - Urban Showcase<http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-utsp-menu-964.htm> Walk BC <http://walkbc.ca/> Federation of Canadian Municipalities<http://www.fcm.ca/home/programs/green-municipal-fund.htm> Physical Activity Coalition of Manitoba - Active Transportation and Recreation as an Essential Service <http://www.pacm.ca> *Pedestrian Charters* Algoma Public Health<http://www.algomapublichealth.com/Default.aspx?l=,1,10,197,370> Burlington Pedestrian Charter<http://cms.burlington.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did=12211> City of Toronto Pedestrian Charter<http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/walking/charter.htm> Esquimalt <http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/walking/charter.htm> Greater Sudbury Pedestrian Charter<http://www.city.greatersudbury.on.ca/content/div_councilagendas/documents/M…> Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge Health Unit Active Communities Charter<http://www.hkpr.on.ca/healthy-lifestyles-master.asp?id=3241> Halton Hills Pedestrian Charter<http://www.hkpr.on.ca/healthy-lifestyles-master.asp?id=3241> <http://www.kitchener.ca/en/livinginkitchener/resources/Pedestrian_charter_.…> Kitchener<http://www.kitchener.ca/en/livinginkitchener/resources/Pedestrian_charter_.…> Oakville Pedestrian Charter<http://www.oakville.ca/Media_Files/recculture/2009PedestrianCharter.pdf> Region of Waterloo Pedestrian Charter<http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/vwsitemap/88379BBFEDEA6C6D8…>

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How the Dutch got their cycle paths
by Beth McKechnie 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

‘How the Dutch Got Their Cycle Paths’How did the Dutch get their cycling infrastructure? This question keeps coming back because it is of course relevant to people who want what the Dutch have. Road building traditions go back a long way and they are influenced by many factors. But the way Dutch streets and roads are built today is largely the result of deliberate political decisions in the 1970s to turn away from the car centric policies of the prosperous post war era. Changed ideas about mobility, safer and more livable cities and about the environment led to a new type of streets in the Netherlands. *“The Netherlands’ problems were and are not unique, their solutions shouldn’t be that either.” * Find two excellent videos and more at: http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-dutch-got-their-cycling.html

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Globe & Mail: For healthy people, build a healthy City
by Beth McKechnie 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

[Wow, I found the "By the numbers" section at the end particularly compelling, e.g. 75% of factors that influence health occur outside the health care system. -cheers, Beth] For healthy people, build a healthy city david ebner <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/david-ebner/> VANCOUVER— From Monday's Globe and Mail Published Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011 Trevor Hancock has always been ahead of the curve. A doctor and long-time public health expert, he was also the first leader of the Green Party of Canada in 1984, when he ran federally (finishing fourth) in Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood. But his day job, in public health, turned out to have far more impact than his brief political career. Beginning as one of a small international cadre that promoted ideas about urban planning’s key role in human health, he is now watching his work over the past quarter-century start to explode into the mainstream. It’s a paradigm shift in the way urban planners and municipal leaders see the world: how we build and manage our cities directly affects the health of the populace. And with mounting research showing that cities where people walk more and drive less are healthier cities, the automobile is losing out to the pedestrian as the main focus of city-building. In Vancouver, already ranked as Canada’s healthiest city, they are nonetheless acting. “These kind of seismic changes in our understanding take a long time to work into the system,” said Dr. Hancock, who serves as a professor and senior scholar at the new School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria, while working as a public health and planning consultant. “It takes a generation for the old guard to die or retire, and a new way of thinking to take its place.” Urban planning, in its modern sense, started in the mid-19th century. Imagine animal carcasses and vegetables rotting in the streets, cramped housing and rampant spread of disease, belching smokestacks blackening the midday sky. These urban conditions in England moved civic planners to consider the health of the populace in the design of cities. Smarter design equalled healthier citizens. But the connection between health and planning unravelled not long after. The idea of separating neighbourhoods from industrial and commercial activities took hold and, with the rise of the automobile, urban planners divided cities up into zones for living and zones for working, with roads between them. The result is modern cities that make people sick. New research has found that cities designed for cars also foster obesity and diabetes. In studies from Atlanta to Vancouver, evidence shows that people who live in neighbourhoods that require cars to get around are fatter and less healthy than people who live near shops and grocers. A quarter of Canadians are obese, which imposes added burdens on the nation’s health-care system. Yet the solution to problems in health care is always more money for health care – even though research indicates that three-quarters of the factors that influence human health happen outside the health-care system. Wilbert Keon, the renowned heart surgeon and retired senator, estimates that the “obesity epidemic,” particularly among children, could cost billions in added medical expenses. “Diabetes, hypertension, organ failure, heart disease, you name it. It’s abhorrent,” said Dr. Keon. “It’s one big chunk of money that could be pulled right out of health care if we could just build healthy communities.” Dr. Keon believes momentum is building in favour of healthier cities, even though a report on a “healthy, productive Canada” he led in 2009 failed to garner much notice, or action. The challenges include co-ordinated action among different levels of government. Municipalities decide on zoning, allowing developers to build cul-de-sac suburbs kilometres from the nearest grocery store. Higher levels of government administer health-care dollars but have little say on what cities do with their road-building budgets. Because of such disconnects, efforts have been piecemeal. Atlanta created a program to vet and fund projects that make the city healthier. Bogota built one of the world’s best bike path networks. In Canada, Vancouver has taken the lead. Vancouver has seen old left-right political divisions over urban planning break down, with a consensus emerging on what constitutes a desirable city. On the right, Suzanne Anton was a Crown prosecutor and a soccer mom when she pushed a decade ago for more playing fields, work that led her to politics and a seat on Vancouver’s parks board. Ms. Anton this month lost her bid for mayor to Gregor Robertson, a greener incumbent. But as a city councillor, she was an important force behind the city’s adoption of “EcoDensity” – the promotion of greater housing density among the many single-family homes in the city, to combat sprawl. “Dense urban environments are good for human health, because people walk,” said Ms. Anton. In Vancouver’s ambitious goal to become the “world’s greenest city” by 2020, “improved health” is one of the top results expected from a more intelligently designed urban landscape. Ms. Anton describes herself as a “land-use geek,” arguing that zoning is the crucial lever to create a healthy city. One practical application is how to make neighbourhoods better suited to older residents as the number of seniors is set to double by 2025. Health care, Ms. Anton said, starts at home. Using her own south Vancouver neighbourhood, Kerrisdale, a typical single-family-home community, she points to the importance of “seniors housing” that is functional and within walking distance of real street life. “An 80-year-old lady, she goes down the elevator, walks to buy bread, buy milk, sees her friends, walks home,” said Ms. Anton. “That creates health for her.” Canada’s healthiest cities 1. Vancouver 2. Victoria 3. Calgary 4. Edmonton 5. Ottawa By the numbers - *25 per cent* of Canadian adults are obese - This costs Canada *$12-billion* annually, to treat chronic diseases connected with obesity - It costs the health care system *$1,500* more, each year, to treat obese Americans compared with people of normal weight - *75 per cent* of factors that influence health occur outside the health care system - Each grocery store within *1-kilometre* of a person’s home reduces the likelihood of being overweight by 11 per cent - Transit users are *3 times* more likely to meet daily minimum of recommended physical activity - A walkable neighbourhood with shops and grocers near homes slashes the probability of obesity by *35 per cen*t - Improving a neighbourhood’s “walkability” by just *5 per cent * gets people 32.1 per cent more active in their travel - A typical white male who lives near shops weighs *10 pounds* less than the same man in a suburb of cul-de-sacs - Young teenagers are *2.5 times* more likely to walk if there is a recreation destination within 1-kilometre of their home - Women are about *20 per cent* less likely to be obese, or suffer from diabetes, if they live in a nice neighbourhood with services compared with a poor neighbourhood *Compiled by David Ebner; Sources: Lawrence Frank/University of British Columbia; SMARTRAQ; Government of Canada, U.S. Department of Housing; Trust for Public Land; Best Health Magazine* * http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/health-news/for-healt… *

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Cycle of Giving
by Beth McKechnie 05 Dec '11

05 Dec '11

* * *Bicycle mechanics spread holiday joy with Cycle of Giving* *Saturday December 16th & Sunday December 17th, 2011** * ** *Cycle Of Giving* is bringing volunteer mechanics together to build over 150 bicycles for Winnipeg children in need. We hope to raise $15,000 to purchase lights and locks for kids and provide free bikes and bike programing across the city. On *December 17th – 18th the Atomic Centre @ 167 Logan* will be transformed into a magic workshop where salvaged and donated used bicycles are turned into holiday dreams come true. Bicycles will then be distributed between ten different community organizations who work with families and/or children. You can help by: ñ *Donating online (*thewrench.ca*), at the WRENCH *(1057 Logan Ave Sundays1-5pm Mondays 1-6pm) *or donate to the WRENCH at any Assiniboine Credit Union.* ñ *Make a pledge online @ *thewrench.ca** ñ *Donate kids bicycles (8″- 20″ wheels)*. Bicycles can be dropped off at the *WRENCH 1057 Logan Ave* 1-5pm Sundays or 1-6pm Mondays. At the *Bike Dump 631 Main* (behind the Red Road Lodge) Mondays – Thursday 6-9pm, Saturday and Sunday 3-6pm ñ *Volunteer!* Sign up at cog(a)thewrench.ca or call *296-3389* *Tell a friend about Cycle of Giving!* For more information: www.thewrench.ca Phone: 296-3389 Email: cog(a)thewrench.ca -- *Cara Fisher*, Program Director The Winnipeg Repair Education and Cycling Hub 1057 Logan Ave. Winnipeg, MB R3E 3N8 www.thewrench.ca <http://www.TheWrench.ca/> # 296-3389

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Winnipeg Trails Association UPDATE - December 2011
by Janice Lukes 05 Dec '11

05 Dec '11

Hi all - please pass this to anyone interested in AT in Winnipeg / Manitoba. While much can be said about AT and activities (and a lot was said a lot pre - election!) - I will aim summarize into three areas: 1. WINNIPEG TRAILS ASSOCIATION COORDINATOR UPDATE As mentioned in a previous update - the Winnipeg Trails Association currently has no funding to hire a coordinator. All funding WTA has received in the past is project based funding - related to specific projects. Partners and I are working to file an application to the Province of Manitoba in hopes of securing funding to 'Collect Baseline AT Data' related to trails, cycling and usage. Any updates / AT engagements I am involved in are in a volunteer capacity. Rivers West - Red River Corridor Inc. has contracted me to work on some of their special environmental projects. I am very appreciated of the support they have provided to the Winnipeg Trails Association over the years in the areas of finance, advice and administration. If any of you are interested in volunteering on some darn interesting trails projects - please feel free to contact me. If you would like to receive AT information, please consider signing up to: Physical Activity Coalition of Manitoba List serve: http://lists.umanitoba.ca/mailman/listinfo/at-network Bike to the Future: http://biketothefuture.org/get-involved/join-bike-to-the-future WTA updates will be limited to significant announcements going forward. 2. CITY OF WINNIPEG CAPITAL BUDGET 2012 http://www.winnipeg.ca/interhom/ The preliminary 2012 capital budget is currently in the approval process. You may recall in the 2011 budget - the 'recreational walkways and pathways' was cut in half from $1M to $500 / year - for the next 5 years. This year the budget remains the same, $500K / year for the next 5 years for 'recreational walkways and pathways' (fyi: 1km of asphalt = $400,000) AT Corridors (on road cycling infrastructure) also stays the same at $500K. Last year when questioned on the cuts to the 'recreational walkways and pathways' budget - Mayor Sam responded by saying while it APPEARED the budget was reduced - it really wasn't - it was merely the way finance was accounting for AT and he promised to better reflect AT expenditures in the 2012 budget. This year there is a page (page 3-2) showing projected AT projects for the next 3 years RELATED to roadway projects. This is great for a lot of reasons; transparency, planning, consultation, budgeting, etc. ALSO, in 2007, the Province provided the City of Winnipeg with $6 M over 5 years to put towards trail projects. That money has now been spent. Personally, I am still challenged on amount being spent on AT - but - that is another discussion. AT PROJECTS: The Active Transportation Advisory Committee recommended projects Feb / March 2010 to occur in the 2011 construction season. The list is reviewed by the Director of Public Works - and then goes to Standing Policy Committee / Public Works for approval. We are still waiting to hear from the Standing Policy Committee / Public Works for approval for the 2011 AT list of projects (yes, this is no typo- 2011) In theory, once the 2012 budget passes this month, ATAC recommends 2012 construction projects to Director of Public Works, which then goes to Standing Policy Committee / Public Works for approval - and work starts for the 2012 construction season. One AT coordinator working in the City in Active Transportation arena - combined with great demand - is presenting huge challenges in moving AT forward. On a good note - check out the attached photos of the brand new ped / cycle bridge under construction - located on the Northeast Pioneers Greenway and OVER the Chief Peguis expansion! AT ADVISORY COMMITTEES: Am volunteering my time to sit as an AT advisor on the following committees - and working with trail groups directly impacted. If anyone would like information / update - please contact me. - U of M Event Day Stadium Advisory Committee - Pembina Hwy AT Advisory Group - Red River Crossing from U of M to St. Vital Public Advisory Committee - CentrePort and Active Transportation 3. PROVINCE OF MANITOBA Many others along with myself clearly identified and ensured Provincial candidates were made aware of active transportation challenges & opportunities throughout Manitoba. Prior to the election, the Provincial Government requested recommendations on how to move AT forward. A report was put forward http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/pdf/atag_report6.pdf and Premier Selinger, once elected, yet again personally committed to me to continue moving forward on an Active Transportation Strategy. To date, I have heard nothing more on that commitment. Maybe others have. IN SUMMARY AT can tremendously improve our quality of life and health in Manitoba. We've all seen great strides forward. I am concerned we have heard nothing from our Provincial leaders on active transportation in since being re-elected - but, ever the optimist, I hold great hope for 2012 ! Check out this brilliant little video - of Sean Quigley, an Oak Park student playing his drums on the stunningly beautiful Harte Trail - way to go Sean!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrNcD34KFhM <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrNcD34KFhM&feature=email> &feature=email Happy Holidays! Janice Janice Lukes Manager, Special Projects Rivers West - Red River Corridor Inc 235-614 Des Meurons Street Winnipeg, MB R2H 2P9 Cell (204) 952-4222 Fax (204) 237-4618 <mailto:jlukes@riverswest.ca> jlukes(a)riverswest.ca <http://www.winnipegtrails.ca/> www.WinnipegTrails.ca Member of City of Winnipeg Active Transportation Advisory Committee Chair, Province of Manitoba Active Transportation Advisory Group

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Dec. 7th webinar: Integrated Sustainable Transportation in Saint John, NB (12:30-1:30 pm, EcoCentre)
by Beth McKechnie 05 Dec '11

05 Dec '11

Friendly reminder regarding this Wednesday's webinar from Transport Canada. Please join us at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) for a group viewing followed by discussion. RSVPs not required but welcomed. thanks! Beth *Integrated Sustainable Transportation in Saint John, NB* *December 7, 2011, 12:30-1:30pm CST* Craig Campbell, City of Saint John In order to avoid building up to five new parking garages in the downtown core in the next few years, the City of Saint John has partnered with the Saint John Transit Commission and the Saint John Parking Commission to promote transit, ridesharing, cycling, and walking. The City's goals are to reduce the demand on their transportation infrastructure and increase the use of alternative modes of travel such as transit, carpooling, cycling, or walking. The City of Saint John is taking a multi-pronged approach to transportation demand management. Initiatives such as implementing a NextBus GPS system, expanding the RideShare carpooling program, and prioritizing active transportation users during road construction have proven successful in encouraging the shift to sustainable transportation. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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[At-network] Webinar - AT Accessibility in Work Zones (Wed, Dec. 14, 2-3, EcoCentre)
by Beth McKechnie 05 Dec '11

05 Dec '11

Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us for a local viewing of the APBP webinar on* "Accessibility in Work Zones" *at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion. An important topic given the challenges pedestrians and cyclists faced this summer (and will do so again next year) with the work on Osborne Bridge, among other projects. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth 925-3772 Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) presents: Accessibility in Work Zones Wednesday, December 14th • 2:00 to 3:00 pm CST High-quality pedestrian and bicycle accessibility in work zones begins with policy that is carried out consistently through planning, project development and construction. Attend this webinar to learn best practices[image: work-zone] for handling bicycle and pedestrian travel during construction operations. Attendees will hear how the Minnesota DOT has developed its standards for Temporary Pedestrian Access Routes (TPARs), including a workshop, demonstration project and focus group evaluation. Presenters from Boulder, Colorado, will discuss how that city worked with developers, contractors and decision-makers to develop a new work zone traffic control policy that establishes policies and procedures for pedestrian and bicycle travel during construction operations and identifies criteria for closing the PROW and designating alternate routes. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Help Develop a Vision for Cycling Facilities on the Pembina Highway Corridor
by Mark Cohoe 28 Nov '11

28 Nov '11

Hi, Sorry for the short notice on this. If you can't make this meeting, we'll be posting updates to the Bike to the Future <www.biketothefuture.org> website. Bike to the Future's Riel Community Sub-Committee will be meeting on Wednesday November 30th to discuss upcoming City of Winnipeg infrastructure projects and their potential to improve cyclist access along the Pembina Highway Corridor. The goal of the meeting is to help develop a vision for cycling facilities along the Pembina Corridor that will be part of a cohesive, direct, safe, and comfortable cycling network, and to develop strategies to ensure those facilities get built. Upcoming projects include: * Pembina Underpass Rehabilitation * Phase II of the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor * Various Pembina Highway Mill and Fill Rehabilitation Projects *When:* Wednesday November 30th; 7-9pm *Where:* Round Table Pub 800 Pembina Highway (just north of Jubilee at the Pembina/Stafford intersection) *Draft Discussion Papers:* Potential Cycling Facility Improvements <http://biketothefuture.org/attachments/0000/1721/pembina-jubilee-intersecti…> Existing and Planned Cycling Facilities <http://biketothefuture.org/attachments/0000/1722/pembina-jubilee-intersecti…> Potential Bike Boulevard/Neighbourhood Greenway Alignments <http://biketothefuture.org/attachments/0000/1723/harrow-to-bison-map-bike-b…> *Proposed Agenda* 1 Adoption of Agenda 2 Pembina/Jubilee Intersection 2.1 Overview of Upcoming Projects 2.2 Key Connections/Existing Assets/Future Plans 2.3 Potential Options 2.4 Discussion of Benefits/Constraints/Costs 2.5 Developing an Evaluation Matrix 3 Pembina/Jubilee to U of M Connection 3.1 Overview of Upcoming Projects 3.2 Key Connections/Existing Assets/Future Plans 3.3 Potential Options 3.4 Discussion of Benefits/Constraints/Costs 3.5 Developing an Evaluation Matrix 4 Strategies to ensure Inclusion of Equitable Facilities for Cyclists/Pedestrians Along Pembina Corridor 5 Adjournment If you are able to attend, please RSVP <mailto:mark@biketothefuture.org>. Cheers, Mark

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AT & Obesity in Europe, NA and Australia
by Beth McKechnie 25 Nov '11

25 Nov '11

While the conclusions are intuitive, i.e. a statistically significant inverse relationship between Active Transportation and obesity prevalence, it is always helpful to have a study to confirm what we know! In particular, I found the following paragraph from the attached pdf compelling: "In the 1980s, few households in China owned automobiles, but 14% of Chinese households acquired an automobile between 1989 and 1997. Bell et al.5 conducted a longitudinal study of 2,485 adults (aged 20 to 45 years) during this time period. They found that Chinese men who acquired a car averaged a 1.8 kg weight gain and were twice as likely to become obese, compared to men whose vehicle ownership remained unchanged. These findings held even after adjusting for diet." cheers, Beth -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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new video from Winnipeg
by Anders Swanson 24 Nov '11

24 Nov '11

Hi, This one isn't researched-based or particularly groundbreaking, just some nice camera work, with a soundtrack that mixes honest opinions and not-cheesy music (I suggest headphones if you are at the office): http://sustainablesouthosborne.com/smart-trips-video/ Thanks to Shoni at the Green Action Centre for sending this to me. Thought it deserved some more distribution and that it might inspire. Maybe it's just me: I am currently outside of Canada, visiting a city where 50% of the households don't own cars and where the bike counts almost equal the car counts, yet this one succeeded in making me homesick and providing some hope. Anders

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Caltrans Seamless Travel Study
by Beth McKechnie 22 Nov '11

22 Nov '11

Caltrans Seamless Travel Study *Download the Executive Summary or full report at*: http://www.altaplanning.com/caltrans+seamless+study.aspx Alta Planning + Design teamed with the Traffic Safety Center of the University of California Berkeley to develop a model for estimating bicycle and pedestrian demand for Caltrans Division of Innovation and Research. The project, Seamless Travel, in coordination with the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project, is the largest and longest combined count and survey effort in the United States focusing only on bicyclists and pedestrians. Using San Diego County as a case study, the Seamless Travel Project is the first of its type to develop an extensive database of count and survey data for use in analyzing and identifying factors that influence bicycling and walking. While the modes were studied together, it was recognized that they are distinct from one another and were always counted, surveyed, and analyzed separately. The project methodology included bicycle and pedestrian counts and intercept surveys over a two-year period throughout the county and evaluating the effects that socio-demographic, land use, and other variables have on walking and biking rates within the county. The report provides a review of the methodology along with count and survey results, development of predictive models, and model results. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Sharing time: Tracking the 'sharrow' on city streets
by Beth McKechnie 22 Nov '11

22 Nov '11

Sharing time: Tracking the ‘sharrow’ on city streets <http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-11-17-sharing-time-tracking-the-sharrow-on…> by Elly Blue <http://www.grist.org/people/Elly+Blue> <http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-11-17-sharing-time-tracking-the-sharrow-on…> <http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&winname=addthis&pub=ra-4dc04d5824…> <http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&winname=addthis&pub=ra-4dc04d5824…> <http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-11-17-sharing-time-tracking-the-sharrow-on…> <http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-11-17-sharing-time-tracking-the-sharrow-on…> 17 Nov 2011 7:06 AM http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-11-17-sharing-time-tracking-the-sharrow-on… Visiting Seattle last weekend, it was impossible not to notice that its streets are absolutely covered in sharrows. "It's almost like they polluted the streets with them," said Tom Fucoloro, proprietor of the Seattle Bike Blog <http://seattlebikeblog.com/>, who took me on a walk through the city's Central District, pointing out its transportation features. [image: Bike sharrow.]A sharrow in Baltimore. Photo: Elly Blue<http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellyblue/3201689952/in/photostream/> A "sharrow" -- the word is an amalgamation of "arrow" and "share the road" -- is a larger-than-life thermoplastic symbol of a bicycle topped by two chevrons pointing the way forward. More technically known as "shared lane markings," they're intended to remind two-wheeled and four-wheeled road users alike to share with each other, and also to encourage people on bikes to take the lane<http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-10-25-dont-hate-me-because-im-a-smart-biker>when it's too narrow to ride side-by-side with car traffic. Sharrows have been increasing in popularity nationwide, and got a boost in 2009 when they were officially entered<http://www.vabike.org/new-mutcd-released-now-with-sharrows/>into the federal transportation engineering canon. Seattle got a head start, writing them into its 2007 Bike Master Plan. Other cities began earlier, but I've never seen such a profusion as in the Emerald City. Like many experts on transportation bicycling, Fucoloro wasn't enthusiastic about them. Sharrows are spread so indiscriminately on Seattle streets, he said, that "they mean nothing now." He has noticed that there seems to be "slightly less aggression" from drivers when they're in place. "But does that mean all the streets without sharrows are worse?" In other words, with sharrows everywhere, do drivers assume that cyclists don't belong on streets without them? Fucoloro is not the only one to express that concern, but he and others seem to be watching and waiting as cities feel out how best to use them. Some early adopters, including Sacramento and Baltimore, initially put sharrows on busy roads all the way to the right, where riders would be squeezed between fast car traffic and parked cars -- right in the dreaded "door zone <http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-09-01-the-dangers-of-the-door-zone>." Federal regs now say that sharrows must be at least four feet from the curb if there's no parking, 11 feet from the curb if there is. Seattle has its own brand of sharrow growing pains. Riding and walking around town, it's hard to see a logic to the streets chosen for sharrow treatment. Some are on relatively quiet back streets, others are on breathtakingly fast arterials where the symbols are worn and rutted by the daily flow of cars and trucks speeding over them. Sharrows are popular because they are politically easy -- you can almost hear city officials sigh with relief when sharrows are mentioned. On the surface, they seem like a way to please the increasingly vocal bike lobby without ruffling feathers by putting in a bike lane at the expense of car parking or traffic lanes, which are often perceived as being for cars only. And they're cheap: Sharrows cost only $229 each<http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2010/07/02/sharrow…>to install, including labor and materials, while a full-blown bike lane can cost between $5,000 and $60,000<http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-03-14-tearing-down-urban-freeways-to-make-…>per mile. But do sharrows work? One recent study<http://www.sfmta.com/cms/uploadedfiles/dpt/bike/Bike_Plan/Shared%20Lane%20M…>says sharrows slow car traffic slightly, and make bicyclists a little safer. But they are even better at keeping drivers at a distance from parked cars -- once again, bike infrastructure benefits more than just people on bikes. Fucoloro's conclusion about sharrows: "They're better as wayfinding signs" rather than safety tools. Portland's take on the sharrow meme bears this theory out. Last summer, my hometown experienced a sudden sharrow explosion, as an influx of federal stimulus money was used in part to paste them en masse on an extensive network of low-traffic, neighborhood streets in our northeast quadrant. Laid out smack in the middle of the road, they're meant to show all road users where people on bikes can ride most safely -- but in practice their main usefulness has been to map out bikeable routes across town. And this, Fucoloro said, points the way to sharrow's ultimate future, at least in Seattle. They are helping pave the way, politically and on the ground, for the next big thing: neighborhood greenways<http://neighborhoodgreenwayssea.wordpress.com/>-- designated networks of residential streets that ease walking and biking by discouraging fast car traffic and calming areas where pedestrians cross streets. "We have a lot of busy streets separating schools and parks, and there's a need for families and kids to have a safe way to get around," Fucoloro explained. Greenways fulfill this need. Neighborhood groups have been demanding them, he said, and "lots of them aren't bikers at all." A recent ballot measure in Seattle would have raised car registration fees by $60 per year to fund active transportation projects, including thousands of dollars a year in neighborhood greenways, Fucoloro said. But the initiative was defeated. "I think the city was going to take bike infrastructure to the next level, and Prop 1 was going to give us a push," Fucoloro said. "Now I don't know what we're going to do -- we'll just keep half-assing it, I guess." Half-assed or not, sharrows are a feasible right-now hack for Seattle's -- or any other city's -- streets in a time when the mere mention of bicycle transportation in a public forum can produce an upswell of anti-bike grumbling and threats of vehicular violence. Done wrong or inconsistently, they can make streets slightly more dangerous for bicycling. Done right, they can point the way to the future. *Elly Blue is a bicycle activist living in Portland, Oregon. She has been the managing editor of BikePortland.org, the lead coordinator of the Towards Carfree Cities conference in Portland in 2008, and has been an active bike funnist since 2005. She publishes a feminist bicycle zine called Taking the Lane <http://takingthelane.com/zine>. *

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Pro Walk/Pro Bike 2012 conference
by Beth McKechnie 20 Nov '11

20 Nov '11

If this newsletter does not seem to be displaying properly, try viewing it in your browser<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=sflbpacab&et=1108637759142&s=11728&e=001qKwyk…> . Issue: 1 | November 16, 2011 Mark your calendar for September 10-13, 2012 and plan to be in Long Beach, California for the 17th gathering of Pro Walk/Pro Bike®. Like any Pro Walk/Pro Bike®, you will be joining a broad array of people who share a common belief that more bicycling and more walking leads to communities that are more cohesive, more economically sustainable, healthier, and happier; unlike conferences of recent memory, this will take place against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean and long beaches, which will you send you home with a head start on happiness. Those of you who have attended previous Pro Walk/Pro Bike® conferences understand very well that the work—more than any individual—is the star. That tradition will continue in 2012, but seeing how we’re in the LA area, we thought it couldn’t hurt to sprinkle in a few stars. *Some of the featured speakers at Pro Walk/Pro Bike® 2012 in Long Beach, California:* [image: Picture of Mikael]*Mikael Colville-Andersen* *Copenhagenize Consulting, CEO* A rising international star who is often referred to as Denmark's Bicycle Ambassador, Mikael is an urban mobility expert and "bicycle anthropologist." He lectures around the world on how cities can - and should - re-establish the bicycle as a respected and accepted transport form. The "bicycle anthropologist" draws lessons from observing the 500,000 people who daily choose to navigate the streets of Greater Copenhagen on bicycles. Mikael challenges us to think of them not as cyclists, nor as environmentalists, but simply as people choosing to ride because the bicycle is the simplest, quickest way to get through the city. With his unique combination of anthropology and marketing, Colville-Andersen explains how regular citizens can be encouraged to choose the bicycle. Go on a guided tour of Copenhagen with Mikael: http://youtu.be/ZtX8qiC_rXE<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=sflbpacab&et=1108637759142&s=11728&e=001qKwyk…> -> Mikael’s appearance at Pro Walk/Pro Bike® 2012 is thanks to the generosity of the League of American Bicyclists. Thanks! [image: Picture of Fred]*Fred Kent* *Project for Public Spaces, President* Fred Kent is a leading authority on revitalizing city spaces and one of the foremost thinkers in livability, smart growth and the future of the city. As founder and president of Project for Public Spaces, he is known throughout the world as a dynamic speaker and prolific ideas man. Traveling over 150,000 miles each year, Fred offers technical assistance to communities and has given talks across the U.S. as well as internationally. Each year, he and the PPS staff train 10,000 people in Placemaking techniques. Fred studied with Margaret Mead and worked with William H. Whyte on the Street Life Project, assisting in observations and film analysis of corporate plazas, urban streets, parks and other open spaces in New York City. -> Check out Fred's recent interview in *The Atlantic Monthly*: http://bit.ly/sUKXrW<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=sflbpacab&et=1108637759142&s=11728&e=001qKwyk…> [image: Picture of John]*John O. Norquist* *Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), President and CEO* John Norquist's work promoting New Urbanism as an alternative and antidote to sprawl's social and environmental problems draws on his experience as a big-city mayor and prominent participant in national discussions on urban design and transportation policy. Norquist served as Mayor of Milwaukee from 1988-2004. Under his leadership, Milwaukee experienced a decline in poverty, saw a boom in new downtown housing, and became a leading center of education and welfare reform. He oversaw a revision of the city's zoning code and reoriented development around walkable streets and public amenities such as the city's 3.1-mile Riverwalk. Named a *Governing Magazine* "Public Official of the Year" during his tenure, Norquist also received widespread recognition for championing the removal of a 0.8 mile stretch of elevated freeway. In 2008, he received the Bacon Prize, named for visionary Philadelphia planner Ed Bacon. -> We're very excited about the participation of CNU's members in Pro Walk/Pro Bike® 2012. For more about the work they're doing relating to planning and walkable neighborhoods see papers from their June 2011 conference: http://www.cnu.org/nuresearch<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=sflbpacab&et=1108637759142&s=11728&e=001qKwyk…> [image: Picture of Charlie]*Charlie Gandy* *PWPB® 2012: Local Host Coordinator* Directing local efforts in Long Beach is the one (and only) Charlie Gandy. Charlie is a nationally recognized expert in active community design, and has been at the epicenter of national and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy for nearly two decades. Charlie is one of our best innovators and translators, often moving outside bicycle and pedestrian circles to get our message across to elected officials, business leaders, and other non-traditional audiences. As the Mobility Coordinator for Long Beach, California's Bike Long Beach program, Gandy played a lead role in the award winning "sharrow" experiment, the 3rd and Broadway national "protected bike lane" pilot program, and collaborated on the nation's first Bicycle Friendly Business Districts. Prior to moving to Long Beach, Charlie was Director of Advocacy Programs for the Bicycle Federation of America (NCBW's precursor) from 1994 to 1998. At the Bicycle Federation, he organized and launched citizen based advocacy groups for walking and cycling in thirty states and metropolitan areas, and coached and trained advocates in all fifty states. Gandy developed and launched the "Walkable Community Workshops," which have traveled to more than 1,200 communities nationwide. Charlie is President of Livable Communities Inc. Pictured above: Charlie (left) talks with Gary Toth (PPS) about an intersection redesign in Long Beach. -> Fans of Charlie: Don't miss the Charlie Gandy Honorary Roast that will take place at PWPB® 2012. Time: TBD. ------------------------------ Next in our December edition -> Our Call for Proposals -> A Sneak Peak at the Program! ------------------------------ Thanks to our conference sponsors <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=sflbpacab&et=1108637759142&s=11728&e=001qKwyk…><http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=sflbpacab&et=1108637759142&s=11728&e=001qKwyk…> If you are interested in being a sponsor or exhibitor at Pro Walk/Pro Bike® 2012, please contact: Mark Plotz Conference Director Pro Walk/Pro Bike® 2012 202.223.3621 phone 202.223.3477 fax mark(a)bikewalk.org conference website<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=sflbpacab&et=1108637759142&s=11728&e=001qKwyk…> ------------------------------ National Center for Bicycling & Walking | 1612 K Street, NW | Suite 802 | Washington, DC | DC | 20006 *Forward email<http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?llr=sflbpacab&m=1101674884274&ea=…> * **<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&mse=001Fn1fHTcb0koJrY6Q8eE_USQ3W…> ** ** ** This email was sent to beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca by newsletters(a)bikewalk.org | Update Profile/Email Address<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=oo&mse=001Fn1fHTcb0koJrY6Q8eE_USQ3W…> | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&mse=001Fn1fHTcb0koJrY6Q8eE_USQ3W…>™ | Privacy Policy <http://ui.constantcontact.com/roving/CCPrivacyPolicy.jsp>. ** National Center for Bicycling & Walking | 1612 K Street, NW | Suite 802 | Washington, DC | DC | 20006

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Macleans: Canada's best cycling schools
by Beth McKechnie 20 Nov '11

20 Nov '11

Canada’s best cycling schools By Macleans.ca <http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/author/macleansca/> | November 7th, 2011 | 9:46 am *From the 21st Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now. Story by Jason McBride.* If you were to design the perfect bicycling environment, it would include safe, well-maintained and lit streets. It would have almost no car traffic, dedicated bike paths and ample secure parking and storage. It might even have showers purpose-built for sweaty commuters and a well-equipped repair shop where cyclists can get help fixing a flat tire. In short, it would look quite a bit like the campus of McMaster University. McMaster is located in blue-collar, largely car-centric Hamilton, Ont.—an unlikely champion of the bicycle. But in the past two years, the city has been in the vanguard of sustainable travel, expanding cycling infrastructure, improving regional transit and adding carpooling programs. Municipal support has, in turn, emboldened the university, and encouraged both students and faculty to take up, in great numbers, alternative modes of transportation. According to Kate Whalen, manager of McMaster’s office of sustainability, a 2010 campus survey revealed that 37 per cent of students walked or cycled to school. “We have a very engaged population,” she says. And the university is very responsive to the needs of that population. Just one example: after a civil engineering student did a systematic geographic information survey of the use of university bike racks, underutilized racks were relocated to more optimal spots on campus. Ten additional racks are installed each year, Whalen says. Biking has always been an if-you-build-it-they-will-come culture. It’s a no-brainer: the easier and more convenient it is to bike, the more likely people are to use their two-wheelers. And there are no better candidates for cycling than university students: largely able-bodied young people, with tight budgets and, usually, an awareness of the fitness and environmental benefits cycling offers. In recent years, students and faculty have been encouraged even more to ride to school—with universities struggling with the demands of their own growth. Congestion and parking have, meanwhile, become pressing concerns. In 2008, a Transport Canada report highlighted ﬁve post-secondary institutions—McMaster, the University of Ottawa, McGill, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Victoria—and their respective, campus-based “Transportation Demand Management” initiatives. These initiatives all seek to reduce the number of students and university staff that take single-occupancy vehicles to school, offering alternatives from universal student transit passes, carpooling and, of course, improved cycling facilities. Those five universities still offer the best cycling experiences in the country. Each boasts its own cycling co-op where students can rent or borrow bikes, get their bikes fixed, share ideas and work together to better life on campus for all cyclists. And each school adds new services or facilities almost every year. The University of Ottawa, for example, started a bike-share program in the spring of 2011. McGill has had such a program in place for almost a decade, but the newish BIXI system, operated by the City of Montreal, and with many hubs on campus, has expanded this fleet of bikes for rent. The school also aims, in the next year, to double the number of bike racks. The University of Victoria and UBC have long been cycling pioneers. Obviously, the gentle B.C. climate is a major factor, but both schools have created, over the past decade, the most robust and comprehensive bike infrastructure in the country. At UVic, where the percentage of people travelling to and from campus by bike increased 67 per cent in the last four years, there are 3,000 parking spaces and 96 bike lockers. UBC’s bike co-op offers numerous repair and safety courses, including some specifically geared to women, and a nascent cargo bike-share program. The inclusivity and diversity of the programs, as well as the planning and design of Vancouver itself—there are no highways through the city, and all buses can carry bikes on their front racks—have all contributed to an increase in biking. Jean-François Caron, a graduate student in physics and a former president of the co-op, says, “Cycling is no longer a symbol of poverty or low status; it’s just something people do.” And they’re doing it in increasing numbers on more surprising campuses as well. Students at the University of Calgary were delighted that their much beloved volunteer-run community bike shop, the Bike Root, found a new home this fall after its temporary campus location closed; the city’s progressive mayor, Naheed Nenshi, and his own new municipal bicycling strategy, have put more wind at their backs. Even at the University of Windsor, in a city where Fords are a far more common sight than Schwinns, a growing community of cyclists has made its presence felt. “People are waking up to the fact that Windsor’s a great place to cycle,” says Christopher Waters, the associate dean at Windsor’s law school. “It’s flat, the climate’s mild relative to the rest of Canada, and we have a beautiful waterfront trail from one side of town to the foot of campus.” Waters, a member of the Windsor cycling committee, proudly makes a point of riding to school no matter the season or weather: “I, quite literally, did not miss a day last year.” *Canada’s top five biking schools* *University of Victoria:* Victoria is Canada’s cycling capital. UVic offers tons of parking, lockers—even a bike bursary program where old bikes are refurbished and lent to students. *University of British Columbia:* UBC’s famous purple-and-yellow bike-share program and good number of end-of-trip facilities (with lockers and showers) make cycling in Vancouver easy and accessible. *University of Ottawa:* Parking doesn’t come cheap in the nation’s capital (or its university) but upgraded cycling amenities—including an effective theft-prevention program—and 500 km of bike lanes in the city are quickly reducing car use. *McMaster:* The school’s Sustainability Office monitors and improves biking infrastructure, bolstered by Hamilton’s increasing municipal efforts on alternative transportation. *McGill:* A Danish urban planning authority recently named Montreal North America’s top cycling city. McGill even has its own Bicycling Research Centre. http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2011/11/07/canadas-best-cycling-schoo…

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Trucks can be made safer for cyclists, study shows
by Beth McKechnie 17 Nov '11

17 Nov '11

Trucks can be made safer for cyclists, study shows renata d’aliesio Published Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011 9:25PM EST / Last updated Monday, Nov. 14, 2011 10:37AM EST http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/regulator-unmoved-by-s… It’s a debate that’s gone on for years: Should truck drivers be forced to install side guards to help prevent pedestrians and cyclists from being crushed under their rear wheels? To families and friends of the victims, it’s a life-saving measure, a position reinforced after the tragic death of a cyclist in Toronto last week. But the trucking industry and the federal transportation regulator argue the evidence of the side-guard’s effectiveness isn’t clear. The debate moves to Ottawa on Monday when opposition MP Olivia Chow will press the government to make the protection mandatory on trucks across the country. A report from 2010, commissioned by Transport Canada and made available to The Globe and Mail, shows that since the introduction of guards on the side of most trucks in Europe in the late 1980s, the number of cyclists and pedestrians killed or seriously wounded in crashes with large vehicles has dropped. However, the National Research Council Canada, which produced the study, found it unclear whether the safety measure was entirely responsible for the decrease in deaths and injuries, or one of several factors. Transport Canada spokeswoman Melanie Quesnel said in an e-mail that her department would be open to examining the issue further “should any valid information become available in the future to support the use of side guards as a significant means to improve safety.” That’s not going down well with friends and relatives of people who might have been helped, if not saved, by these protective guards. “The truck that was involved in Toronto’s incident [last] week would have cost $800 for a side guard,” said Jeannette Holman-Price, whose 21-year-old daughter was crushed by a snow-removal truck in Montreal six years ago. “Do you think that company wouldn’t have wished that they had that side guard in place? Do you think that driver wouldn’t have wished to have had that in place? “Eight hundred dollars to save that woman’s life.” The Canadian study cited a British probe that zeroed in on crashes involving the sides of trucks. A substantial reduction in cyclist deaths (61 per cent) and serious injuries (13 per cent) occurred 10 years after side guards were introduced. Still, the government research agency cautioned side guards are only part of the solution and an uncertain one at that. “It is not clear if side guards will reduce deaths and serious injury or if the guards will simply alter the mode of death and seriously injury,” it concluded. Several of Jenna Morrison’s friends believe safety guards might have saved her life. The 38-year-old yoga instructor was five months pregnant, and on her way to pick up her five-year-old son from school, when her bike collided with a truck turning right on a major Toronto street last Monday. She was pulled under the truck and crushed beneath its back wheels. Toronto police are investigating the circumstances of the crash to determine whether charges should be laid. At a downtown Toronto intersection Monday, bike riders will gather to ride in honour of Ms. Morrison. The cyclists will pedal to the intersection where she died and stop for a moment of silence. Later in the day in Ottawa, Ms. Chow will reintroduce a private member’s bill urging the federal government to make side guards mandatory on most trucks in the country. This is the NDP MP’s third try at changing the regulation. >From 2004 to 2006, 77 pedestrians and 24 cyclists died nationwide as a result of collisions with heavy vehicles in urban areas, government statistics show. Another 1,410 people were injured. Estimates on the cost of side guards range from $600 to $2,600, depending on the type of truck and guard. In some cases, the cost could be recovered through improved fuel efficiency, the National Research Council study said. “The cost would be minimal, compared with the lives that could be saved,” Ms. Chow contended. “It’s just a tragedy all these senseless deaths.” Ontario’s chief coroner’s office recently announced it would review cyclist and pedestrian deaths in the province. The probe will look at what has changed since a 1998 examination of fatalities involving cyclists. That coroner’s review recommended Ottawa examine the life-saving potential of side guards. The 2005 death of Toronto bike rider Ryan Carriere, a father of two young girls who was crushed beneath a truck, also sparked demands for change: the City of Toronto requested that Transport Canada introduce side guards on trucks in 2006. Mr. Carriere’s widow, Megan Holtz, said she believes the safety device would have saved his life and added she hopes the latest coroner’s review presses the federal government to act. She also wants the city to build bike lanes separated by barriers. “He was not riding recklessly. He was riding carefully, and yet he was killed,” she said. “It terrifies me that my children want to ride in the city.” For now, the federal government has no plans to regulate side guards. Prominent Toronto neurosurgeon Charles Tator wants the federal and provincial governments to take a closer look at the safety tool. But Canadian Trucking Alliance president David Bradley doesn’t believe sufficient evidence exists to support making side guards mandatory. He maintains there are better measures to explore, such as adding bike lanes and education campaigns on sharing the road. “Everybody feels badly for what’s happening,” Mr. Bradley said, “but too often people jump to conclusions about things that really might sound like they would work but don’t hold up to empirical scrutiny.” Ms. Holman-Price has no doubt side guards work. The Newfoundland mother said they would have prevented her daughter’s death and her son’s brain injury. The pair were standing on a snowbank in Montreal, waiting to cross the street, when the 10-year-old boy was snagged by a snow-removal truck and pulled underneath in December, 2005. His sister scrambled and pushed him to safety, but in doing so, she slid under the truck and was crushed by its wheels. Their mother has been campaigning for safety guards on trucks ever since. “I’m 100-per-cent positive that they would have made a difference in my daughter’s case and my son’s as well,” Ms. Holman-Price said. “Had there been a side guard there, they wouldn’t have been able to get underneath the truck.”

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Webinar - Parking: Buffers, Bikes & Cars (Wed, Nov.16, 2-3, EcoCentre)
by Beth McKechnie 10 Nov '11

10 Nov '11

Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us for a local viewing of the APBP webinar on *"Parking: Buffers, Bikes and Cars" *at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth 925-3772 Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) presents: Parking: Buffers, Bikes and Cars Wednesday, November 16 • 2:00 to 3:00 pm CST On-street parking is a significant issue for urban bike lane design; it has thus far not proven feasible to reduce [image: image]large quantities of on-street parking to create high quality bicycle infrastructure.This discussion will be relevant for professionals struggling with how to create bicycle infrastructure that is as comfortable and safe as possible within constrained environments where it is politically impractical to reduce parking. This webinar will provide you with simple, practical solutions to reduce conflicts between parked cars and on-street bicycle facilities. You will learn how to apply low cost solutions that are mindful of federal guidance but also capitalize on the latest advances in the U.S. and elsewhere. Solutions discussed in this webinar will address engineering liability concerns and consider maintenance impacts (cost and manpower). Many agencies are supportive of these concepts in theory but struggle to get past these two issues. Specific discussion will focus on: - Buffered bike lanes, parallel lines, cycle tracks, door zone markings, facility dimensions, color, signs, educational/marketing efforts - How the MUTCD and AASHTO apply to the various treatments - The state of the practice in the U.S. and around the world - The state of the research for each treatment - Identifying when and where it may be appropriate to deploy particular treatments. The presenter is Bill Schultheiss, PE, Senior Engineer, Toole Design Group. Bill has more than a decade of experience on high quality engineering and design for a range of projects including bicycle master plans for the cities of Seattle, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.; pedestrian and bicycle design guidelines for state and local governments; and site specific solutions for urban, suburban and rural design challenges. He is a member of the Bicycle Technical Committee of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. He holds a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

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Nat'l Post: Don't let dimwitted rules push e-bikes off the roads
by Beth McKechnie 09 Nov '11

09 Nov '11

Interesting discussion from ON / TO about rules regarding e-bikes vs scooters and their place on the road / bike lane / pathways... Don't let dimwitted rules push e-bikes off the roadsTerence Corcoran, National Post · Oct. 29, 2011 http://www.nationalpost.com/news/dimwitted+rules+push+bikes+roads/5626449/s… I love my e-bike and I'm here to defend it. Save the E-Bike! - the real, the genuine and the only e-bike - is a campaign I hope my fellow opinion mongers here at the National Post will join. More directly, this is an appeal to Peter Kuitenbrouwer and Chris Selley, who recently wrote columns on e-bikes, to take a fresh look at the issue, refine their views and sign up for a rational and consistent e-bike policy for Toronto. If we do not do this, one of the greatest two-wheel transportation concepts since the invention of the bicycle could be lost to this great city. The true e-bike is one with working muscle-powered pedals and an electric battery assist. Thanks to dimwitted policy from the provincial government, the e-bike is being driven off the market in Ontario. The province has created such confusion that both Mr. Kuitenbrouwer and Mr. Selley took positions that came down solidly in favour of two opposite policy options that are both wrong. The Kuitenbrouwer policy: Ban all e-bikes from bicycle lanes and force bikers and their aggressive speeding machines to be licensed as the equivalent of motorcycles that must drive on regular roadways. "Pedal a bicycle or go slug it out in traffic with cars," he wrote in a recent column. The Selley policy: Leave the e-bikes alone. Let them use bike lanes. The problem isn't the e-bikes, it's the e-bikers. "Cyclists and e-cyclists alike do stupid things out there. But let's hate the sinner, not his ride." I will now drive down the middle of this debate on my e-bike, the Schwinn I-Zip Electric Bike, purchased about four years ago from Canadian Tire for an end-of-season bargain price of about $350. It has an excellent gearing system. If I want, I can pedal the I-Zip from a standing start to typical bike speeds; it's heavy, so the start-up is slow by Tour de France standards. Alternatively, since my knees are a wreck, I usually turn on the battery, turn the right handlebar power grip, and gently power the bike forward. At any speed, I can pedal my I-Zip or engage the electric power assist, or do both. As anybody with bad knees can tell you, pedalling uphill is a killer. My I-Zip takes me up hills painlessly and with great ease. Coasting down to the Lake Shore from midtown is always a pleasure. With my I-Zip, so is the ride back up. The I-Zip looks like a bicycle and rides like a bicycle, although purists still scoff at the idea. Cycle enthusiasts believe riding should be work by definition. They view bicycles as machines to crank up their cardio-vascular systems. To them, a bicycle with power is a contradiction. "What's the point?" One point is fun, enjoyment. Bicycles, after all, originated as leisure vehicles. The point is being able to enjoy them without the pain. For older people, e-bikes can open up the pleasure of cycling that age might have taken away. The first problem with the Kuitenbrouwer/Selley positions is that they are not talking about e-bikes. Both their columns were accompanied by pictures of e-scooters, and both columns consistently referred to e-bikes and e-scooters as if they were one and the same. But e-scooters are not e-bikes, a distinction that is carefully made by lawmakers in Europe and the United States. It is a distinction that Toronto's scooter retailers consistently obscure and fail to make. Thanks to bungled provincial rules, electric scooters are treated as bicycles, even though their pedals are awkwardly placed and rarely used. Like bicycles, they require nothing more than the cash to buy the scooter. "No pollution, no gas, no licence, no insurance, no tickets, no parking fees, no noise, no brainer," touts one retailer. Drive anywhere - on the street, middle of lanes, in bike lanes. How did the province come to this policy? Whatever its origins, the effect has been to create a surge of interest in electric scooters and to squelch interest in genuine e-bikes. The City of Toronto has an opposite and equally dumb rule. In the city's view, e-bikes and e-scooters are the same. All motor-powered vehicles are banned from park pathways. And only "muscle-powered vehicles" are allowed in bike paths on city streets. Smarter rules exist elsewhere. In Europe, where e-biking (as opposed to e-scootering) is more advanced, rules allow e-bikes on bike lanes but force e-scooters out into regular traffic. Jeff McGuane, president of the Cycling Sports Group of Dorel Industries of Montreal - which makes Schwinn, Cannondale and other e-bike models - says "strict regulations" differentiate e-bikes from e-scooters in Europe. E-bikes must be pedal-operated (e-scooters are not) and the power assist from the battery is limited to certain speeds and wattage. Rules may vary, but a typical German rule would prevent the use of e-bikes that exceed 30 kilometres an hour or have wattage exceeding 450. Escooters are treated as motorcycles. The market for e-bikes this year in Europe is about one million, 30 million worldwide, mostly in China. Mr. McGuane says it may be three or four years before North America picks up the trend. In the United States, federal rules and regulation in states such as Oregon have clear e-bike standards that are well ahead of Ontario's mindless policy. Oregon describes an "electric assisted bicycle" as one with "fully operational pedals for human propulsion and an electric motor" limited to a maximum 1,000 watts. Top speed is limited to 20 miles per hour. The City of Portland, using state definitions, allows e-bikes to use the city's extensive bike-lane infrastructure. In Minnesota, the City of Minneapolis has similar e-bike allowances. At Schwinn, e-bikes are seen as a future wave. My I-Zip (450 watts, top speed about 20 km/h, range 25 kilometres) isn't available any more at Canadian Tire. Best Buy offers a similar model in the United States, but not in Canada. Mr. McGuane, however, sees a boom coming. More than 10% of all bicycles sold through specialty retailers in Germany and the Netherlands are genuine e-bikes. Schwinn has models in the U.S. priced from $799 to $2,800, with a new Cannondale state-of-the art model boasting a "Bosch power system" that calibrates pedal power and motor output. But will they ever make it to Toronto? My speculation is that genuine e-bikes were pushed out of the city by a dumb regulation that allowed e-scooters on the road as bicycles. That gave scooter retailers a market advantage at the expense of e-bikes. The policy should be changed and made clear: e-scooters licensed on the road as motorcycles, e-bikes allowed in bike lanes as bicycles. tcorcoran(a)nationalpost.com

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Webinar tomorrow! Small and Rural Communities: Planning and Implementing Sustainable Transportation
by Jessie Klassen 08 Nov '11

08 Nov '11

Hi All, Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future invite you to join us for a local viewing of the following webinar at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion - *Wed, Nov. 9th, 12:30-1:30 pm – Improving Travel Options in Small and Rural Communities *(Transport Canada) details below _____________________________ *Improving Travel Options in Small and Rural Communities* *November 9, 2011, 12:30-1:30 pm CST* Geoff Noxon, Noxon Associates This webinar is intended to help practitioners - engineers, planners, health professionals, economic development officials, and others - produce plans and implement appropriate travel options for residents of small and rural communities. This includes a range of actions that make personal transportation activities more sustainable, such as encouraging drivers to operate their cars more efficiently, or to leave their cars at home and walk, cycle, take transit, or carpool instead. This webinar will look at how to use three guides available for free from Transport Canada: - Improving Travel Options in Small and Rural Communities; - Transportation Demand Management for Canadian Communities: A Guide to Understanding, Planning and Delivering TDM Programs; and, - Changing Transportation Behaviours: A Social Marketing Planning Guide. For more information: http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-urban-guidelines-practitioners… http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/environment-urban-menu-eng-2054.htm *Hope to see you there! *** *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/memberships/>

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New research: Stroke & traffic-related air pollution
by Beth McKechnie 07 Nov '11

07 Nov '11

*Some new research (article pdf attached) forwarded by Cyndi Otfinowski...* Stroke. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22052517#> 2011 Nov 3. [Epub ahead of print] Stroke and Long-Term Exposure to Outdoor Air Pollution From Nitrogen Dioxide: A Cohort Study. Andersen ZJ<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Andersen%20ZJ%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Kristiansen LC<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Kristiansen%20LC%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Andersen KK<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Andersen%20KK%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Olsen TS<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Olsen%20TS%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Hvidberg M<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Hvidberg%20M%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Jensen SS<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Jensen%20SS%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Ketzel M<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Ketzel%20M%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Loft S <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Loft%20S%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Sørensen M<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22S%C3%B8rensen%20M%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Tjønneland A<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Tj%C3%B8nneland%20A%22%5BAuthor%…>, Overvad K<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Overvad%20K%22%5BAuthor%5D>, Raaschou-Nielsen O<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Raaschou-Nielsen%20O%22%5BAuthor…> . Source >From the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark; Informatics and Mathematical Modelling, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark; The Stroke Unit, Frederiksberg Hospital, Frederiksberg, Denmark; the Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark; the Section of Environmental Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; the School of Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; and the Centre for Cardiovascular Research, Aalborg Hospital, Aarhus University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark. AbstractBACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Years of exposure to tobacco smoke substantially increase the risk for stroke. Whether long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution can lead to stroke is not yet established. We examined the association between long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and incident and fatal stroke in a prospective cohort study. METHODS: We followed 57 053 participants of the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort in the Hospital Discharge Register for the first-ever hospital admission for stroke (incident stroke) between baseline (1993-1997) and 2006 and defined fatal strokes as death within 30 days of admission. We associated the estimated mean levels of nitrogen dioxide at residential addresses since 1971 to incident and fatal stroke by Cox regression analyses and examined the effects by stroke subtypes: ischemic, hemorrhagic, and nonspecified stroke. RESULTS: Over a mean follow-up of 9.8 years of 52 215 eligible subjects, there were 1984 (3.8%) first-ever (incident) hospital admissions for stroke of whom 142 (7.2%) died within 30 days. We detected borderline significant associations between mean nitrogen dioxide levels at residence since 1971 and incident stroke (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.99-1.11, per interquartile range increase) and stroke hospitalization followed by death within 30 days (1.22; 1.00-1.50). The associations were strongest for nonspecified and ischemic strokes, whereas no association was detected with hemorrhagic stroke. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution may contribute to the development of ischemic but not hemorrhagic stroke, especially severe ischemic strokes leading to death within 30 days.

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Employment opportunity - Sustainability Coordinator RRC
by Beth McKechnie 07 Nov '11

07 Nov '11

While this employment opportunity goes beyond AT, I thought it might be of interest to subscribers of this listserv. Please share widely. cheers, Beth ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sara MacArthur <smacarthur(a)rrc.mb.ca> Date: Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 10:37 AM Subject: Employment opportunity **** Hi, **** Red River College’s Office of Sustainability is growing – we’re hiring a Sustainability Coordinator. Please pass this posting around to your contacts who might be interested. Thanks. ** *Sara MacArthur **MCP LEED® AP*** Manager of Sustainability [image: Description: Description: Sustainable leaf.jpg]**** Red River College**** C409-2055 Notre Dame Avenue R3H 0J9**** **** p: 204.632.2166 f: 204. 632.9661**** e: smacarthur(a)rrc.mb.ca**** ** ** Become a fan of Sustainability@RRC on Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Winnipeg-MB/Sustainability-Red-River-College/…> **** ** **

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NYC encourages AT for students, launches program to encourage walking to school
by Beth McKechnie 05 Nov '11

05 Nov '11

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Release # 11-91 Wednesday, November 2, 2011 Seth Solomonow/Nicole Garcia (212) 839-4850 *NYC DOT Commissioner Sadik-Khan and Mayor Koch Encourage Active Transportation for New York City Students, Launch Program to Encourage Walking to School New initiative allows schools to opt-in for program to develop lesson plans to further promote walking as a safe, healthy way to get around Officials read Koch’s book, “Eddie Shapes Up,” to Manhattan’s P.S. 64 students, underscoring the importance of encouraging walking, biking and taking transit * New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Mayor Edward I. Koch today hosted a special reading of *Eddie Shapes Up*, a children’s book written by the mayor, and launched Walk Ways, a new program that helps schools establish the importance of active transportation and gives them the resources to encourage walking among students. Schools can visit nyc.gov/dot to register, download lesson plans and connect with DOT safety educators for guidance and to develop tailored walk-to-school route plans. The Commissioner and Mayor joined fourth and fifth graders from P.S. 64 in Manhattan’s East Village for the event. “With unprecedented safety redesigns and educational initiatives in all five boroughs, our streets are shaping up for New Yorkers of all ages to walk and bike more,” said DOT Commissioner Sadik-Khan. “By teaching students the benefits of active transportation, we’re helping them build healthy habits for life.” “The most marvelous sight in New York City is to see youngsters, adolescents and adults cycling on the many bicycle paths we now have which separate bikers from vehicular traffic,” said Mayor Koch. “It is glorious to watch, and I wish I were young again to participate.” Co-written with Mayor Koch’s sister, Pat Koch Thaler, and with illustrations by Jonathan Hoefer, *Eddie Shapes Up* describes an overweight student’s path to getting healthy by eating better and exercising more, and how fun being active can be. DOT works with New York City schools to encourage safe, active transportation and educates students about the benefits of walking and biking to school. In addition to launching the citywide contest, “We’re Walking Here NYC,” last month, DOT Safety Education hosted a special Walk to School Day event with P.S. 197 in Manhattan as part of International Walk to School Day. Similarly, the agency organizes annual Bike to School Day activities. This June, it worked with the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene and Bike New York to conduct rides with students from P.S. 89 and I.S. 302 in Cypress Hills, Queens. In the last decade, pedestrian traffic fatalities have dropped more than 25% and DOT is working to combine education and engineering to achieve its aggressive goal of reducing all traffic fatalities by 50% by 2030, focusing on tailoring streets so they are safer for the most vulnerable pedestrians: students and seniors. As part of its Safe Routes to School campaign, the DOT makes safety upgrades that can include improved signage and marking, among other additions, to make motorists more aware of the high volumes of student pedestrians, as well as make the streets easier for youths to cross safely. The agency also launched efforts to triple the number of 20 mph speed zones around schools from 25 to 75, among other initiatives. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dot <http://www.nyc.gov/dot>. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pr2011/pr11_91.shtml

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EcoMobility Gaining Ground, Step by Step
by Beth McKechnie 03 Nov '11

03 Nov '11

EcoMobility Gaining Ground, Step by Step By Stephen Leahy * http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105672 [image: Bike sharing system in Changwon, South Korea. / Credit:City of Changwon] Bike sharing system in Changwon, South Korea. Credit:City of Changwon <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105672> * *CHANGWON, South Korea, Nov 1, 2011 (Tierramérica) - Berlin is a big capital city of a country famed for making excellent automobiles, but it can no longer afford roads and is now moving people by transit, bike and especially through walking.Berlin is not alone. Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Bogotá, New York City and other major cities simply cannot afford the cost, the pollution, the noise and the congestion of more cars. They are embracing a new concept called EcoMobility - mobility without private cars. "EcoMobility is not only walking, cycling and public transportation. It is about these three systems clicking together: connectivity is the key," Gil Peñalosa, former director of parks and recreation in Bogotá, Colombia, told those attending the EcoMobility Changwon 2011<http://ecomobility2011.iclei.org/>congress. The congress on Mobility for the Future of Sustainable Cities was organised by the South Korean city of Changwon and ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability <http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=about>, an association of local government members from more than 1,220 cities in 70 countries. "The famous Times Square in New York City is now a permanent pedestrian mall. Who would have believed that could happen just three years ago?" Peñalosa commented to Tierramérica. "Five years ago who would have thought Paris would have over 22,000 bikes as part of a tremendously successful bike sharing system?" added Peñalosa, who is now the executive director of 8-80 Cities<http://www.8-80cities.org/>, an NGO based in Toronto that promotes walking, cycling, parks and urban trails to improve the public life of cities. "We need to build cities around people and not around cars," he stressed. EcoMobility is defined as moving people and goods in urban areas using combinations of walking, cycling (including electric bikes) and wheeling (roller blades), public transport, and light electric vehicles. The concept is being widely embraced by cities looking for affordable and effective forms of sustainable transport. "Cities should focus more on moving people rather than moving vehicles," said Stephen Yarwood, mayor of Adelaide, Australia. The fact is, cars are not very good at moving people. A standard 3.5-meter-wide city street has a maximum capacity of 2,000 people in cars per hour. The same road can carry 14,000 cyclists or 19,000 pedestrians each hour. Light rail in the same space can move 22,000 people, and a double lane of bus rapid transit will move 43,000 people, said Manfred Breithaupt, director of the GIZ Sustainable Urban Transport Project<http://www.sutp.org/>, a German NGO. The transportation sector is one of biggest contributors of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, responsible for 25 to 30 percent of the emissions causing climate change. Cars and scooters are by far the biggest sources of carbon dioxide on a per-kilometre, per-person basis, said Breithaupt. Cycling or walking produces no greenhouse gases at all. Moving people out of cars is an enormous challenge. One major reason is the endless multi-billion-dollar advertising by automobile companies telling people that buying a car is the ticket to success, freedom, status and other nonsense, said Peñalosa. "Car companies attack transit with their commercials. Someone told me that in their country, one advertisement suggests people using subways have some kind of 'subway stink'," he said. In North America the cost of owning and operating a private automobile amounts to 8,000 to 12,000 dollars a year, according to automobile clubs. That can be 25 to 50 percent of the average family's after-tax income, illustrating the success of automobile advertising. "How else could we be spending 20 times more than we need to get around?" wondered Peñalosa. This is changing in Germany. "More than 80 percent of young people don't think they need private cars," said Bernhard Ensink, secretary general of the European Cyclists’ Federation, an NGO based in Brussels. Car ownership in Germany and other European countries is slowly declining, he said, because there are cheaper and easier ways to get around. Mobility is also a moral issue, Ensink said. "Who gets the negative impacts of car ownership? It is never the car owner, it is always the public and particularly the poor, especially those living in car-dependent cities." Among those impacts are accidents where cars kill and injure thousands of pedestrians and cyclists every day. In fact, car accidents are the primary cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29 years worldwide. But shifting to an EcoMobility focus is difficult, said Yeom Tae-Young, mayor of the city of Suwon outside of Seoul, Korea. "Citizens must know about EcoMobility and the government's commitment must be clear," he told the congress participants. Suwon, an ancient city with just over a million inhabitants, is competing with Changwon to become South Korea's greenest and lowest-carbon city. Not all people will agree, and there will be inconveniences, but the public will still support the changes if they understand it is for the greater good. "We cannot close our eyes to the challenge of climate change," he concluded. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Bike trails, house prices and property taxes
by Beth McKechnie 03 Nov '11

03 Nov '11

[Thanks to Ian Hall for sending this along...] ** Interesting short news item: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/10/how-much-bike-trail-worth/… "...according to research coming out of the University of Cincinnati<http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=14300>, proximity to trails in urban areas increases property values, which in turn boosts the amount of property taxes filling government coffers. The research, by planning professor Rainer vom Hofe and economics professor Olivier Parent, looked at houses along a 12-mile stretch of the Little Miami Scenic Trail <http://trailsfromrails.com/miami_scenic_trail.htm>, a former rail line that cuts across the northeastern portion of Cincinnati. The pair found that home buyers were willing to pay a premium of $9,000 to be within 1,000 feet of access to the trail." -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Reminder: Transportation Master Plan Open House - Wed, Nov 2nd
by Beth McKechnie 01 Nov '11

01 Nov '11

*Find out where our roads, buses, bike lanes and pathways are heading over the next 20 years!* Stop by the third and *final* Open House for the *Winnipeg Transportation Master Plan* <http://transportation.speakupwinnipeg.com/>. Date:* Wed, Nov. 2nd *Time:* 4:00-8:00 pm *Where:* Millennium Library* (Carol Shields Auditorium, 2nd floor) ** ** ** This is an open invitation to anyone interested, so please share widely. (Poster attached.) -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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Dana's Walk (Nov.2) - A Welcome to Winnipeg Event
by Beth McKechnie 01 Nov '11

01 Nov '11

please see invitation below... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Margaret Boyechko <margaret(a)mrta.mb.ca> Date: Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 12:01 PM Subject: Dana's Walk - A Welcome to Winnipeg Event Please see the attached invitation to a MRTA/TCT special event to be held tomorrow in Winnipeg. Please join us and bring out as many of your friends and family members as possible to join in the fun and adventure. Forward the attachment, Tweet or Facebook the news. All are welcome.**** ** ** See you there J**** Margaret**** Administration Assistant/Bookkeeper**** Manitoba Recreational Trails Association**** 1007 Century Street**** Winnipeg, MB R3H 0W4**** 204-633-9879**** 204-945-1365 (fax)**** www.mrta.mb.ca**** *"In every walk with nature one receives ***** *far more than he seeks."* - John Muir**** ** **

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[At-network] Car, public transport commutes show links to ill health
by Beth McKechnie 01 Nov '11

01 Nov '11

http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20111030/7712/commuting-ill-health-negativ… Car, Public Transport Commutes Show Links to Ill Health By Medical Daily Reporter Commuting by car or public transportation is associated with ill health compared to walking or cycling also known as active commuting, as sleep quality, exhaustion and every day stress were evaluated in a new study. Lund University researchers looked 21,000 people aged between 18 and 65, who worked more than 30 hours a week, commuted by car, train or bus and also active commuters who commuted by walking or cycling. The study was published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Public Health. Americans on average commuted 25.3 minutes to work. The percentage that drove to work alone averaged 76.6 percent. Only 4.9 percent take public transportation, 2.8 percent commuted by walking or bicycling according to the U.S Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 2010. "Generally car and public transport users suffered more everyday stress, poorer sleep quality, exhaustion and, on a seven point scale, felt that they struggled with their health compared to the active commuters,” said Erik Hanson, a Faculty of Medicine at Lund University. "Car drivers who commuted 30 – 60 minutes experienced worse health than those whose journey lasted more than one hour, he said” He said more research was needed to learn exactly how commuting is related to the ill health observed in order to readdress the balance between economic needs, health, and the costs of working days lost. Published by Medicaldaily.com

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New report (Florida) - passing distance btwn motorists and cyclists
by Beth McKechnie 29 Oct '11

29 Oct '11

*Operational and Safety Impacts of Restriping Inside Lanes of Urban Multilane Curbed Roadways to 11 Feet or Less to Create Wider Outside Curb Lanes for Bicyclists (September 2011, Florida Department of Transportation)* Thought folks might be interested in the general findings on the amount of passing clearance motorists provided cyclists when there was a wider outside lane (closest to curb) and a narrower inside lane(s). Note that the roads investigated were high speed and multi-lane, and data was collected during peak hours. The entire report can be downloaded here: http://www.dot.state.fl.us/research-center/Completed_Proj/Summary_RD/FDOT_B… * Background*: The operational analysis involved investigation of the influence of several site characteristics on the operational behavior of motorists when passing bicyclists on asymmetric curb-and-gutter roadways. The research team collected data on curb-and-gutter asymmetric four- to six-lane roadways with posted speeds ranging from 30 to 45 miles per hour. * Conclusion*: The results from descriptive statistics, 95% confidence intervals, and regression modeling, all point out that lateral separation between motor vehicles and bicyclists is highly influenced by the width of the outside through lane. * Lateral Clearance Findings * - The greatest lateral separation (averaging 5.5 ft) was obtained when bicyclists rode between three and four feet from the face of curb. - An increase in the width of the outside through lane resulted in greater lateral separation between motor vehicles and bicyclists. - As the volume of motor vehicles increased, lateral separation decreased. - Motorists provided less separation to bicyclists when other vehicles were present in the inside lane. - Motorists provided 0.5 ft additional lateral separation to female bicyclists and 0.35 ft additional separation to casually dressed compared to athletically dressed cyclists. *Lateral Shift Findings * - The amount of the motor vehicle body partially shifting into the inside lane was reduced with the increase in the width of the outside through lane. - Passenger cars were observed to have the lowest amount of lateral shift when passing a bicyclist. - Large trucks were observed to provide the greatest amount of lateral shift when passing, often slowing down and completely moving to the inside lane to allow sufficient lateral separation to bicyclists. - Less lateral shift was observed with increased vehicular traffic volume. - The tendency was for drivers to move left if they had the opportunity. *Motor Vehicle Lane Usage Findings * - Given acceptable gaps, there was a tendency of motorists to move from the outside through lane to the inside lane after recognizing that there was a bicyclist downstream. - In the absence of a bicyclist, more vehicles (56.2% for 4-lane segments, 30.6% for 6-lane segments)) were observed to use the outside through lane. - In the presence of a bicyclist, a considerable proportion of motor vehicles shifted to the inside lane before passing the bicyclist to avoid sharing the outside through lane with a bicyclist. - Only 40.2% of vehicles used the outside through lane when a bicyclist was present for 4-lane segments; 25.7% for 6-lane segments. *Motor vehicle Speed Finding * - On average, drivers reduced their speeds (from 34.13 to 32.76 mph) when passing bicyclists to ensure safe passing maneuver and accelerated (from 32.76 to 36.86) after passing bicyclists.

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Webinar Reminder: Wed, Nov. 2nd, Accessible Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way
by Jessie Klassen 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

Just a reminder of an upcoming webinar on November 2nd. Green Action Centre and Bike to the Future are hosting a local viewing of the APBP webinar, Accessible Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way, at the EcoCentre (3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave) followed by group discussion: - *Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2:00-3:30 pm – Accessible Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way* (Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals) Hope to see you there! ____________________________ Update on the Proposed Rule for Accessible Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way *November 2, 2011, 2:00-3:30 pm CST* Scott Windley, Accessibility Specialist with the U.S. Access Board, will deliver detailed information about the proposed rule regarding Accessible Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way, including pedestrian accessible routes, curb ramps and blended transitions, street crossings, on-street parking, and more. This is a 90-minute webinar. Scott Windley has been an Accessibility Specialist with the U.S. Access Board since March, 1997. He oversees staff work on the Board’s public rights-of-way rulemaking, and provides technical assistance and training on the ADA Guidelines and other standards. Mr. Windley previously worked for two years with The Center for Universal Design in Raleigh, NC, as a technical assistance specialist; before that, he worked as an Intern Architect for the Facilty Planning Department of the University of Idaho. Mr. Windley received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Idaho. ** *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/memberships/>

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A Bus Pass with Every Condo (& bike stuff, too!)
by Beth McKechnie 26 Oct '11

26 Oct '11

A Bus Pass With Every Condo at Lansdowne Proposed *Josh Pringle* Thursday, October 20, 2011 Each residential unit at the redeveloped Lansdowne Park could come with a one-year transit pass for OC Transpo. The Transportation Demand Management Plan report by McCormick Rankin recommends the City require the developers to provide all purchasers of residential units with a transit pass to "create and establish a culture" of transit amongst the residents living at Lansdowne. The report notes the City of Toronto recently introduced a policy requiring all new condo developments with more than 20 units to include a one year TTC Metropass with the purchase of each unit. The Transportation Demand Management Plan outlines ideas to ensure the Lansdowne Park redevelopment achieves maximum benefits from a wider use of sustainable transportation modes, including public transportation and bicycling. The City is also encouraged to set up enhanced bicycle parking facilities, create preferential parking for registered carpools and build showers and locker room facilities for employees at a redeveloped Lansdowne Park who bicycle to work. http://www.cfra.com/?cat=1&nid=82258

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[At-network] Transportation Master Plan Open House - Nov 2nd, 4-8 pm, Millennium Library
by Beth McKechnie 20 Oct '11

20 Oct '11

*Find out where our roads, buses, bike lanes and pathways are heading over the next 20 years!* Stop by the third and *final* Open House for the *Winnipeg Transportation Master Plan* <http://transportation.speakupwinnipeg.com/>. Date:* Wed, Nov. 2nd *Time:* 4:00-8:00 pm *Where:* Millennium Library* (Carol Shields Auditorium, 2nd floor) ** ** *Please forward the attachments throughout your organizations and networks*. This is an open invitation to anyone interested, so please share widely. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

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