Oct. 21, 2005

Bike activists peddle green ideas

KEVIN MCGRAN
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
Toronto Star

Quebec expert calls cycling clean, efficient transportation
Workshop discusses ways to develop local cycling paths

Whether it's to improve their health, cut their fuel costs or to steer clear of traffic jams, more and more Canadians will use bicycles for transportation, so cities must prepare now, says one of this country's leading cycling advocates.

"Biking is the most efficient mode of transportation in towns," Marc Jolicoeur, chief research analyst for Vélo Québec, said in an interview yesterday.
"You don't have gridlock when you're cycling. You need such a small space — you can go much faster than cars when there's gridlock and you can go much faster than pedestrians."

Jolicoeur was the keynote speaker for about 30 municipal planners and transportation planners from southern Ontario who gathered yesterday for the Bikeway Planning and Development Workshop at Ontario Place, the first such workshop to be held in Ontario.

Jolicoeur told participants that getting politicians on side may be easier than they think; two out of three adults told Vélo Québec in a poll they cycled at least once a week and half called themselves regular cyclists.

"Those are good numbers to tell politicians because half of voters are cyclists," he said.

Quebec is at the forefront of creating cycling infrastructure in Canada, putting Jolicouer and members of Vélo Québec in demand as speakers across the country.

"Really, what we want to do is pick the brains of Vélo Québec experts and pass that on," said Vicki Barron, executive director of the Waterfront Regeneration Trust and workshop co-host. "They represent a wonderful example of how it can be done."

Quebec recently announced a $5.4 million investment to complete 4,300 kilometres of bikeways through the province, largely through the creation of bike lanes on most secondary highways. The Quebec government says that with 76 per cent of the bikeways already complete, "Route verte" generates annual economic spinoffs of $95 million, including $15 million in taxes.

The experience in Ontario is not as rosy. Toronto, for example, is four years behind on its 10-year schedule to create 1,000 kilometres of bikeways. City council did, however, recently approve new bicycle lanes on both sides of Dundas St. W. from Sorauren Ave. to College St., and on College St. from Dundas St. W. to Lansdowne Ave. Work will be completed this fall.

And there's a three-year plan to expand bike lanes to many suburban streets.

Durham and York regions are beginning to incorporate cycling needs within regional transportation plans. Ajax hopes to compete its waterfront cycling paths within two years. Markham hopes to have 70 kilometres of bikeways in roughly the same time frame.

The Waterfront Regeneration Trust is a charity best known for developing a 650-kilometre Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail and Greenway. Most of that trail is done, but bits and pieces of it are missing, especially through Scarborough. Within five years, Barron expects the trail to connect Bluffers Park at the foot of Brimley Rd. to East Point Park near the Pickering border.

A more difficult challenge will be to connect Bluffers Park to the Martin Goodman Trail in The Beach area because most of that waterfront is privately owned, said Barron.

"Slowly but surely, it's getting connected," said Barron. "A lot of the easier gaps have been closed, and now it's the tough nuts to crack that we're on."
While Jolicoeur sees cycling growth everywhere, in tourism and for recreation, Barron believes Ontario should target cycling growth among commuters as a green transportation alternative.

"When we talk to the province (of Ontario), cycling is not seen as something that is on the radar screen as a contribution to green transit," said Barron.
"I know they've got their hands full even trying to get people on public transit. I know it's never going to be big, but it could be better than it is."