What do people think?
What would you like to see?
If you don't currently bike, what might encourage you to do so?
If you do currently bike, what would improve your experience?
If you hate bikers, how can your interaction with them be limited?
Before I even get too far into reading this:
-I love that the city is actually taking a serious look at this. I think it will go a long way to help Calgary become a more forward thinking city. You go to places around Europe (Denmark for example) and everyone rides their bike.
-In the short term, I would love to see more bike lanes throughout downtown, and the belt line (2nd street SW is a good example). Over the long term, it would be great to see roadways dedicated solely to bicycle traffic throughout the core, that would connect to the feeder bike paths along the river ways. Through downtown, it would be great to see bike paths with some sort of divider between bike traffic and regular traffic.
-I bike from just outside the belt line, to the core Monday-Friday, and I find that most motorists have next to no idea how to treat cyclists...I think mandatory education on how to deal with bicycle traffic, before attaining a license would be great. Going the other way...I find a lot of cyclist commuters don't really know how they should act on the road either. Maybe there should be some kind of licence needed to be allowed to ride in the core?
The city should study cities like Copenhagen, or Utrecht (see video below).
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As already mentioned, I'm also glad the city is at least taking a closer look but I remain skepticle in their vision of being a top cycling city in North America. I think this is more due to the people of the city. I can't say I know what a top cycling city in NA even looks like though. If I had to guess I would say San Francisco.
Some of the concerns I have with riding are outlined in the report - mainly in the operations/maintenance section. The gravel, general debris and potholes are annoying especially on the designated shared roads (such as 2nd st.). I'd be more apt to ride in the winter as well if I knew there would be some level of upkeep of the paths/roads.
Well marked on street bike lanes in residential areas on collector streets.
Major roads and up should have a dedicated bike lanes
Downtown, and busy areas should have separated bike lanes.
Change provincial legislation to add category, and specific rules for bikes. Currently, they have to be classified as either a vehicle or a pedestrian. Allow such things as rolling stops at stop signs for bikes.
Implement other operational tweaks that other citys have done, to make biking safer. Bike boxes, etc.
Well marked bike lanes, not just the stencils we have every 100m or so down some collector roads.
Education for bikers and motorists.
Large network of snow clearing/sweeping.
Incorporate bike specific infrastructure with every new transportation project.
I browsed through it this morning (someone had it in their twitter feed who may also be in this thread!). I think it's awesome! Most of the major issues seem to be addressed as far as I could see.
For me the bike to/fro work is about 40k roundtrip. It's not something I can do daily because I do need my vehicle some days, but improving the network of pathways and that sort of thing would be great.
I'm totally behind the city on this initiative and when you look at the costs in the document it's a drop in the bucket!
I think if the city spent more money on road/path maintenance and snow clearing, and less money on 82 page pdfs assembled by consultants, more people would cycle downtown.
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I think if the city spent more money on road/path maintenance and snow clearing, and less money on 82 page pdfs assembled by consultants, more people would cycle downtown.
They'd cycle to the edge of downtown, but biking downtown would still be scary for most. That's why bike lanes etc are needed.
Before I even get too far into reading this:
-I love that the city is actually taking a serious look at this. I think it will go a long way to help Calgary become a more forward thinking city. You go to places around Europe (Denmark for example) and everyone rides their bike.
-In the short term, I would love to see more bike lanes throughout downtown, and the belt line (2nd street SW is a good example). Over the long term, it would be great to see roadways dedicated solely to bicycle traffic throughout the core, that would connect to the feeder bike paths along the river ways. Through downtown, it would be great to see bike paths with some sort of divider between bike traffic and regular traffic.
-I bike from just outside the belt line, to the core Monday-Friday, and I find that most motorists have next to no idea how to treat cyclists...I think mandatory education on how to deal with bicycle traffic, before attaining a license would be great. Going the other way...I find a lot of cyclist commuters don't really know how they should act on the road either. Maybe there should be some kind of licence needed to be allowed to ride in the core?
The city should study cities like Copenhagen, or Utrecht (see video below).
love this video.
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If they don't plow streets, I doubt they'd plow bike lanes. Which they would need to do in order to justify spending the money to make proper, dedicated bike lakes. I really hope they want to do that, but I sincerely doubt this will be anything more than little steps.
I think if the city spent more money on road/path maintenance and snow clearing, and less money on 82 page pdfs assembled by consultants, more people would cycle downtown.
The report was created by existing City of Calgary Transportation staff.
Is this a new initiative or something that was in the works before the election?
It was the result of a Motion in Council last year in June - to create this Cycling Strategy and undergo a Pathway Safety Review. Both reports go to Land Use Planning and Transportation Committee on the 21st and then on to Council.
Creating a strategy though is always really 1% of the work. 99% of the work is actually implementing it, which will be the job of this and future councils as well as Administration (including dedicating the resources to make it happen).
Last edited by Bunk; 06-10-2011 at 05:06 PM.
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It was the result of a Motion in Council last year in June - to create this Cycling Strategy and undergo a Pathway Safety Review. Both reports go to Land Use Planning and Transportation Committee on the 21st and then on to Council.
Creating a strategy though is always really 1% of the work. 99% of the work is actually implementing it, which will be the job of this and future councils as well as Administration (including dedicating the resources to make it happen).
Well with the cost as minimal as it appears I hope the resources are allocated. I once heard a certain employer of yours explain to me that we only need to get a few percent of vehicles off the road to make a huge difference in terms of congestion, so this should be a no-brainer!
Calgary Releases Cycling Strategy
