2019 Ontario Bicycle Summit – Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Toronto – Key Takeaways
Bike Niagara attended the Tuesday April 2, 2019 cession of this summit, hosted by Share the Road Cycling Coalition (STRCC) and offer the following main messages:
Welcome Breakfast
Minister of Transportation, the Honourable Jeff Yurekwas first up to welcome attendees and lend his support to the summit.
- He congratulated STRCC’s projects such as the Bicycle Friendly Communities and the formation of the provincial all-party cycling caucus.
- He invited input and consultation for further improvements to bike safety and highlighted the importance of cycling and the economy through trails and cycle tourism.
- No new funding or project were announced and an ominous message was received from his statement concerning the upcoming Ontario budget in which “tough decisions” will be made.
Barbara Gray, General Manager of Transportation Services, City of Toronto – Welcome to Toronto
- Toronto’s success stories were identified such as the Bloor St. and Adelaide/Richmond bike lanes.
- Many other projects are on their 10-yr. cycle plan.
- A look at Toronto’s recent Bike Mapshows an impressive network of cycle track, bike lanes and trails.
Jamie Stuckless, Share the Road Cycling Coalition – State of Cycling in 2019
- Jamie gave a brief review of key programs and projects undertaken by STRCC:
- Ride the Riding – over 30 invites to MPPs and 8 rides completed
- Road Safety – education and awareness efforts such as the 95,000 free bike lights provided and the Dutch Reach video and related private members bill
- Bikes Can Do That Campaign – poster showing cycling benefits
- Bicycle Friendly Communities – three new bronze awards (Town of Essex, Saugeen Shores, and Norfolk County) in 2019 gives a total of 44 municipalities being BFC’s.
- Provincial Advocacy – includes:
- Teach the Dutch Reach to help avoid the door prize
- Advocate for more paved shoulders
- Clarify HTA requirements for bicycles
- E-mobility regulatory updates
- Cycle education support – a draft curriculum has been compiled
- Transportation funding for bike infrastructure
- This effort has significant public support as identified from survey data.
Participatory Keynote
Jay Pitter, Placemaker & Author Expanding Bike Lane Conversations: Exploring the Infrastructure and Social Dimensions of Safe Streets
- This presenter gave a message that cycling has an opportunity to be more inclusive in terms of its social/economic outreach, and in doing so can be much more successful.
- Cycling is a positive activity, but not neutral as an identity and lifestyle for those social groups that don’t identify with image usually portrayed (i.e. white, slim, spandex, higher income, educated, successful).
- The cycling conversation centres around being safe on a bike; rather than the role bikes play in creating a safe, socially interconnected, inclusive community.
- Should rethink the moralist messaging to understand that if you preach, the message will likely be ignored and the audience will look for your sin. The conversation will be polarized with no unification.
- Must position cycling with an aspirational message and more inclusion such as the Pride Bike Event in Hamilton, Discovery Ride in Thunder Bay, Reading Lines Event (Bikes and Books) in Toronto and Civil Bikes in Atlanta.
- Cycling conversations and activities must not have any silos. Must be more inclusive of women, blacks and LGBT community, etc.
- The model used should be about leisure and choice, not necessity.
- Recommendations include:
- Realize that design is not neutral
- Ask…who’s not here, to be inclusive
- Create asset-based messaging that inspires
- Collaborate with others
- Don’t forget joy
- For advocacy to work and before the “ask” is made, you must first build up a relationship.
Building Healthy Communities (moderator: Kendra Willard, Halton Region)
- Developing Bike Programs in Remote Communities(Andrew Hibma, New Hope Community Bikes)
- This Hamilton based bike charity organization lead a pilot project that took bikes into a remote Ontario First Nations Reserve Community (Pikangikum) to help build community and individual independence through trust and relationships.
- The project offered 40 loaner mountain bikes and focused on repair workshops and building a pump track course.
- Over 8 weeks, 400 requests for the bikes were tabulated, 6 group rides taken, 30 residents were employed to help and 8 mechanics trained.
- This pilot project was funded by Ontario Sports Recreation and it may lead to similar efforts in other remote communities
- Small Investment, Big Impact: How Saugeen Shores Implemented a Cycling Coordinator Position, the Rural Way (Lisa Billing, Town of Saugeen Shores)
- The Municipality of Saugeen Shores were convinced to hire a part time bike coordinator for $8000
- This idea was started by the Active Transportation Committee and aided by Share the Road Cycling Coalition through a presentation
- Key elements of support included:
- Supportive council member
- The ask aligned with approved plans
- Impacts were demonstrated, and
- Expectations were managed
- Three essentials included:
- Bike information and amenities
- Building collaboration and partnerships
- Link to cycle tourism (Ontario by Bike and the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail)
- Abike mapwas produced, both hard copy and digital versions. The latter for easy updates.
- Ready or Not: Using Public Health “Stages of Change” Strategies to Shift Behavior(Cailin Henley, Alta Planning + Design Canada, Inc.)
- A process model of behavioural change used by public health (for drug addition, smokers, etc.) was outlined in terms of its application to transportation demand management
- The model involves three steps which in turn include a number of possibilities:
- Understanding readiness – what stage a person is in
- Targeting interventions to specific stages
- Evaluating movement across stages
- Stages and actions for individuals regarding behaviour change include the following:
- Understanding Readiness Target interventions 3. Evaluating
| Pre-contemplation | No intention | Examine cost/benefits |
| Contemplation | Consider change | Build motivation |
| Preparation | Intend to change | Commitment |
| Action | Try new behaviour | Build a habit |
| Maintenance | Habit | Prevent relapse |
Building Safer Streets (moderator: Dave McLaughlin, WSP Canada)
- Cycling on the Menu– Protected Cycling Infrastructure in Major Corridor Studies (Matthew Sweet, City of Mississauga)
- From three pilot projects for cycle tracks (Hurontario, Dundas, and Lakeshore) Mississauga now has an extensive network planned for many more cycle track routes within their 2018 Cycling Master Plan.
- Bike Counts Downtown(Justin Bak, City of Toronto)
- Toronto uses multiple types of cycle counts, both temporary (in person counts, video, pneumatic, infra red, and intersection loops) and at 5 permanent location.
- The benefits include:
- Data shows changes in volume over time and an indication of behaviour
- Help to evaluate projects (e.g. before and after)
- Helps to determine improvements or changes to projects
- Used to help determine traffic model factors
- Adelaide Cycle Track data showed that this route has the highest cycling volume in the city at 6160 cyclist per day, with 94% being new cyclists and 74% less collisions.
- Cycling and the MTO(Muktha Tumkur, Ontario Ministry of Transportation)
- TheProvince Wide Cycling Networkwas referred to as an “aspirational” plan, but this 5500 km bike route network on Provincial Highways is still going forward within MTO’s 5-year plan. The goal is to have 50% complete within the 5 years, subject to funding and final approvals.
- There is GIS mapping of the network available on line.
- To date about 3515 km has been completed
- Combined with the municipal portion of the Province wide network (4000 km) the total network will result in over 9000 km.
- Bike design manuals for MTO’s Provincial Highways and Book 18 for municipal roads are being updated and coordinated
- Past Highway Traffic Act updates supporting bike safety and operations were also noted
- The audience responded with congratulations and thanks for the MTO support of cycling.
LUNCH and a Short video presentation by Mike Heinrich, ReFrame Health Lab
- This 5-minute video was about showing the temperament of cyclists and motor vehicle drivers in terms of understanding each other and how to share the road.
- The tile and link to the video is here: Bicycles and Cars; Who Has the Right of Way?
Cycling and Design Workshop with the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals (APBP). Presentations about protected intersections, measuring connectivity and updates to OTM Book 18 by:
- Kate Whitfield, Alta Planning + Design, Benita van Miltenburg, City of Guelph, James Schofield and Jason Neudorf, WSP Canada, Dave McLaughlin, WSP Canada
- Key takeaways included:
- A busy 4-lane Guelph intersection applied protected intersection holding areas for left turns, which were placed across the intersection, instead of putting in left turn bike lanes. The holding areas were eventually pushed up on the curb to avoid right turning trucks
- Community engagement, good data, best practices and design modifications were the key to success
- There is not a silver bullet or best design for all intersections; but design applications have to fit the location and not all intersections can apply a protected design
- Three elements are important for protected intersections:
- Truck aprons provide tight radii and allow positioning for right turns
- Set back distances of bike lanes from traffic at intersections need at least 4 metres
- Proper signal phasing reduces conflicts for right turns
- FHWA Guidelines are available for multimodal connectivity, with a focus between bicycles and pedestrians
- The draft update to Book 18(Municipal Bicycle Design Guidelines) is scheduled for Nov. 2019, with the final done by 2020. Key changes include:
- More design separation between cyclists and motorists
- More about vulnerable road users (VRU’s) and vision zero
- More about equitable access for all users and abilities
- Focused on the “interested and concerned” cyclists to get more people on bikes
- For Network Planning
- More consideration of complete street applications
- Using GIS/data sources to help determine reality of network
- Integrating active transportation with transit
- Design Changes
- In the nomograph, more opportunity for separated design applications
- Refining the 3rdstep which get into more details about speed, volume, other criteria and documentation
- Facilitating intersection design
- Cross-ride designs
Closing Session – Making a meaningful Vision Zero commitment. Speakers include:
- Scott Butler, Ontario Good Roads Association (moderator), Charles Brown, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Deanna Green, City of Kingston, Rebecca Ling, Sick Kids, Adam Bell, WSP Canada
- Key takeaways included:
- Refuse to accept that fatalities and serious injuries are inevitable consequences of mobility on roads
- The challenge is to adapt and advance the safety for all road users
- Realize that design accounts for typical human behaviour
- Collaborative approach to achieve vison zero will be important
- Safer roads will increase mobility for all
- A Vision Road Safety Plan is needed with both quantitative and qualitative data
Notes taken by David Hunt
