March 2012 - AT-Network - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

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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