Let’s make our roads safer for bikes — and everyone
Spending on cycling is worth it: It’s good for us, the environment — and for business,too
I’ve been buzzed while cycling more times than I can count.
Spend enough time on a bicycle in Waterloo Region and you’re likely to have experienced it, too:
The near-misses between the passing cars.
The drivers who hang onto every inch of pavement on the road.
For a community that prides itself on forward-thinking and innovation, the truth of the matter is this:
People on bicycles are often treated as second-class citizens — never mind what Bicycle Friendly Community designations in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge would like you to believe.
To ride a bicycle in Waterloo Region is to be at times encouraged and other times exasperated by the pace of change in our cities, where oversights and missed opportunities pop up on our roads as frequently as the potholes that follow a February thaw.
For every two steps forward, we can’t seem to help but move one step backward — a chain that keeps falling off with each pedal stroke.
Anyone looking for Waterloo’s newlyintroduced protected bike lanes on King Street — one of the biggest selling points of a redesigned uptown streetscape after months of road construction — will find a row of parked cars instead.
Two of Kitchener-Waterloo’s most vital arteries for pedestrian and bicycle traffic — the Iron Horse Trail and Spur Line Trail — lack virtually any signed or protected street crossings.
Cyclists and pedestrians are forced to wait at busy four-lane roads for a chance to cross.
We’ve seen dozens of shared-lane markings painted on city streets, only to realize that nobody really likes them.
Not even the cyclists they supposedly protect.
It’s enough to make you ask:
How did we get here?
It’s not as though our city councils are blind to the issue.
The City of Waterloo’s plan for a highpriority network is a direct acknowledgement of what so many riders have been asking for:
A minimum active grid focused on improving the uptown core.
In Kitchener, city council is nearly halfway through a 20-year cycling master plan aimed at expanding its on-road cycling and trail network.
Just this past year, Cambridge introduced a two-kilometre multi-use trail along Conestoga Blvd.
These are promising signs from councils that want to do the right thing, but it’s not enough.
Kitchener’s spending on bicycle-friendly infrastructure last year was barely one per cent of what it spent on road reconstruction and resurfacing in 2015 alone. A 20-year plan is a nice sentiment to share, but what about right now?
If we truly want to prioritize active transportation, then let’s do it right.
Let’s give cyclists and drivers alike what they both want and build our streets for both of them, keeping them separate whenever possible.
The research bears this out. The City of Portland did a study on cycling habits in 2016 and found that of all potential riders, nearly two-thirds are interested in getting around by bicycle but have concerns about their safety.
A University of Waterloo report in 2015 found the two greatest barriers to cycling uptown were a lack of bike lanes and traffic worries.
The interest is there, but the infrastructure is failing us.
It’s not as if we’re without precedent in Canada.
Calgary — yes, sprawling, car-friendly Calgary — went down this road in 2015 by introducing a downtown grid of protected bike lanes and has seen a 40 per cent uptick in bicycle trips in and out of the downtown core since the lanes have gone in.
Sidewalk cycling — one of the biggest indicators of poor cycling infrastructure and a leading cause in bicycle-involved collisions — dropped from 16 per cent to just two per cent.
In Ottawa and Gatineau, more than 50 kilometres of parkway roads are closed to motorized traffic on summer Sunday morning, a tradition that has lasted since 1970. Change is possible.
Better bike infrastructure is good for business.
One of the biggest “what ifs” bike lane opponents hold onto is the potential loss of business from less parking in our downtown cores, but the numbers suggest the opposite is true.
The City of Waterloo’s cycling report surveyed shoppers in Uptown Waterloo and found that those who travel by active and public transit make more trips and spend more than twice as much as those who drive there.
The arguments against spending on cycling are wearing thin.
It’s been done elsewhere and has been proven to work. It promotes a healthy, active community while minimizing pollution.
It’s good for business, and it puts the focus on keeping all of us safe — not on finger-pointing between drivers and cyclists over who’s at fault and whose behaviour needs improving.
We’ve been innovators before, ready to champion new ideas.
Let’s embrace an idea that makes sense for all of us.