Five Vancouver Transportation-related Projects You Should Provide Feedback on this Fall

Here's your chance to make your voice heard on five different upcoming projects in the City of Vancouver. I'm sure at least one of them will directly affect you. Here's the details from the city on how, where, & when you can provide feedback about each of the projects:

Throughout November, the City of Vancouver is inviting the public to provide feedback on a range of transportation-related projects. We want to hear from you on projects that will help alleviate congestion, make streets safer, create better places for people, and address the changing needs of our streets.

1. Northeast False Creek - Northeast False Creek will be a destination for people from all over Vancouver. With the area plan for Northeast False Creek now in its final stages, the public is welcomed to a pop-up shop to see how community consultation over the past 18 months has shaped the future of the area and learn about how the new transportation network would function.

Pop-up Shop at 511 W Broadway (at Cambie):

Saturday, November 18, 11 am - 5 pm
Monday, November 20, 11 am - 5 pm
Tuesday, November 21, 11 am - 5 pm
Wednesday, November 22, 3 - 9 pm

More details on Northeast False Creek.

2. Cambie Bridge - Over the past decade, walking and cycling volumes have grown steadily on Cambie Bridge. While there is a dedicated sidewalk for pedestrians on the west side of the bridge, there is no dedicated path for people cycling. We are looking to address overcrowding issues for people walking and cycling on the shared-use path on the east side of Cambie Bridge. The City is considering an option to add a new interim southbound protected bike lane is being added on the west side.

Provide feedback into the interim option:
Email: cambiebridge@vancouver.ca

Attend an open house:  Thursday, November 30

More details on Cambie Bridge.

3. Georgia Gateway West - We are beginning a transportation planning process for Georgia Street, between Chilco St and Nicola St, to explore how to make Georgia a complete street that is safe, efficient, and welcoming for people of all ages, abilities, using different modes of travel. We want to learn from residents, businesses, and road users about their experience of Georgia Street and what could make the street safer and more welcoming.

Email: georgiagatewaywest@vancouver.ca
Attend an open house: Saturday, November 18

More details on Georgia Gateway West.

4. Alexander Bikeway - We're planning updates to Alexander Street to make it safer and more comfortable for cyclists of all ages and abilities by slowing traffic. This will help address a major gap in our cycling network by creating better cycling connections between Gastown, Strathcona, and beyond.

Email: BikeUpgrades@vancouver.ca
Attend an open house: Tuesday, November 21

More details on Alexander Bikeway.

5. Mobility Pricing - "It's Time" for Metro Vancouver to have their say on how we use and pay for transportation throughout the region to reduce congestion, promote fairness and support investment in our roads and transit system. The "It's Time" project is looking at how Metro Vancouver's transportation system can be improved through decongestion charges, where users pay their fair share of the road services they use.

Share what you think needs to be addressed from a Vancouver perspective, and help build a tailored approach to alleviating congestion in Metro Vancouver.

More details on Mobility Pricing.

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Making Commercial Drive Better for Everyone

Photo Credit: Canadian Veggie Flickr via Compfight cc

A link popped up in one of my social media feeds today to a British Columbia Cycling Coalition page, asking us to write to Vancouver's City Council in support of adding bike lanes to Commercial Drive. I do occasionally email my various elected representatives, when I get around to it, if I've got the time... You know how it goes. But today I wrote a letter to our city council because it was so easy to do on the BCCC site. They've got a form set up that will email all of City Council--no copying & pasting or clicking through various sites.

There has been a lot of very vocal push back from business owners on the Drive who fear that bike lanes are going to somehow decimate their livelihoods, despite all the research that shows drivers make up a very small portion of their customers. Experience in other cities around the world and research on the separated bike lanes that have been added in Vancouver show that they are a great thing for business and make a neighbourhood so much safer for cyclists and pedestrians too. I fear that the people who support the idea of devoting more of the streetscape of The Drive to all the active transportation that's currently the majority of traffic there are not being loud enough. If you would like to see bike lanes on Commercial Drive, write a quick letter to City Council showing your support.

There's a lot more information on BCCC's site here, including the form to easily write a letter to the city.


Here's what I wrote, mostly off the cuff, this morning:

I'm writing in support of adding bike lanes on Commercial Drive and turning it into Vancouver's first proper Complete Street. This is particularly important to me, as I live in East Vancouver, not far from Commercial, plus walking and cycling are my family's primary means of transportation.

We actually don't shop on Commercial Drive very often anymore, though we would like to, because we don't feel that safe biking there since we've had children. We prefer to shop in areas like Commercial Drive because of all the great independent shops, cafes, and for the community feel to the place. We normally have a few stops to make at various businesses, but on Commercial Drive, that is particularly awkward by bike. We don't feel safe riding *on* Commercial Drive from shop to shop, but riding all the way over to the nearest parallel bike route to go north or south a block or two doesn't really make sense. Walking our cargo bike with the kids in it is heavy & very difficult on narrow sidewalks that are as congested as Commercial Drive can get.

Fully separated bike lanes along Commercial would help us feel much safer riding with our children and make it a lot easier for us to go from stop to stop at the various businesses there. I know the bike lanes would also make it safer for us to walk in the area as well, creating more of a buffer between pedestrians and traffic and narrowing the crossing distance when we do have to cross the car lanes.

Even when we leave the bike at home and walk from place to place around Commercial, the sidewalks feel quite crowded and difficult to navigate with a stroller and small children. Crossing the street at most of the intersections feels risky and I've had many close calls with drivers turning into crosswalks or being rude and aggressive.

My letter has focussed on *our* experience as cyclists and pedestrians on The Drive, but I know there are many other families with young children like us in the city who get around on an ever growing fleet of cargo bikes, as well as pulling trailers and toting child seats on their bikes. Cycling and walking are both growing mode shares in the City of Vancouver, as I'm sure you are aware.

I would love to see Commercial Drive--the space from one property line to the other across the street--devoted more equitably to pedestrians and cyclists, reflecting the fact that walking and cycling make up such a large portion of the traffic through that area. I think this is a great opportunity for the City to show leadership and demonstrate how much better the Commercial Drive community can be when it becomes a Complete Street.

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Have Your Say on 10th Avenue Bikeway

10th Avenue Corridor Public Open Houses
The City of Vancouver wants to hear from you!

The City is improving the 10th Avenue Corridor to better accommodate people of all ages and abilities who walk, cycle, and drive.

Over the past year, the city has built on public and stakeholder feedback to develop a recommended design for the Health Precinct between Oak and Cambie Streets, and to advance potential designs for parts of 10th Ave from Quebec Street to Guelph Street and from Commercial Drive to Victoria Drive.

Public Open Houses
Join city staff and other engaged citizens at a public open house to review recommended designs as part of the city's third phase of consultation. Meetings will be drop-in open house format. City staff will be available to discuss the project, answer questions, and gather your feedback.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016, 4 PM – 7 PM
Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, 818 W 10th Avenue

Wednesday, November 23, 2016, 4 PM – 7 PM
Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, 154 E 10 Avenue

Saturday, November 26, 2016, 11 AM – 3 PM
Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, 818 W 10th Avenue

Tuesday, November 29, 2016, 4 PM – 7 PM
Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive

View display materials and complete a feedback form online at vancouver.ca/10th-avenue or click on the links below. If you can't make it to the events in person, there will be an online feedback form, available November 22nd.

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Welfare Food Challenge: Meal Plan

Adapted from: Rusty Clark - On the Air M-F 8am-noon

The Welfare Food Challenge starts today. If you haven't heard of it before, the Challenge exists to highlight the inadequacy of welfare rates in BC. A single person receives only $610 a month, a rate that's been frozen for over 9 years. After you pay for the bare minimums to survive, you've got about $18 per week for food left over. (more info on the math here) Raise the Rates, with others, is working to increase awareness of the extreme poverty of people on welfare; & how this poverty costs the people of BC in human suffering & billions of wasted dollars every year.

The campaign inspired me to see what eating on $18 per person per week actually means. I sat down with an actual pen & paper, pulling up the calculator & Save On Foods app on my phone. I planned out the cheapest set of 21 meals I could think of. Here's what I came up with:

• breakfast: on sale cereal with milk or oatmeal
• lunch: peanut butter sandwiches with half an apple for lunch every day
• dinner #1: boxed macaroni & cheese with wieners & frozen peas
• dinner #2: beans, rice, & salsa with cheddar
• dinner #3: green beans, potatoes, chicken thighs
• dinner #4: tofu stir fry on rice
• dinner #5: hot dogs with baby carrots
• dinner #6: vegetarian chili with cheese
• dinner #7: tuna rice casserole with peas & cheddar

This limited menu comes to $72, assuming I could get many of the things on sale or at dollar stores. It includes two to three servings of fruit & vegetables per day--much less than is healthy. It also assumes that we already have condiments & pantry basics like cooking oil, salt, spices, sauces. There are no snacks & no desserts. There's only enough milk for 285ml per person per day--cereal & a bit for cooking or maybe a small drink for the kids. It's also counting on a bit of savings from buying a few things in bulk for the four of us--a single person likely couldn't have even this variety of food.

I'm fairly sure it's impossible to get enough fibre, protein, or fresh fruit & vegetables on this little money. & even if you are extremely resourceful with free community meals, picking up the occasional day olds that some restaurants toss out & go to the food bank, you would still be hard pressed to eat healthily.

I can't imagine eating this way, day in & day out. There's no room for going out for treats, there's no room for birthday cake or having a friend over for dinner. There's no room for variety. The stress of shopping for food & making ends meet with this tiny budget would be soul crushing over the long term. 

While I spent an hour or so puzzling this out, I don't plan to actually eat this way this week. Most of us are recovering from bad colds & I honestly don't want to subject my small children to such poor nutrition for the week. It breaks my heart that so many children & adults in this province have to live on so little. 

Please help me send a message to our government that this needs to change. Go sign the petition to raise welfare rates & write a letter to your MLA to ask for action on the issues that impact poverty: get rid of the arduous barriers to receiving income assistance, increase the minimum wage, provide more publicly funded childcare, increase low-income housing stock, & raise the welfare rates. A sample letter is provided at this link. 

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Recap--Cycling at the Crossroads: Advocacy, Policy and Tools for Change from London, U.K.

Chatting with Rachel Aldred after the talk (photo Clark Nikolai)

Last night I attended a free lecture at SFU Harbour Centre: Cycling at the Crossroads: Advocacy, Policy and Tools for Change from London, U.K. There were two speakers, both fascinating in very different ways, & I came home with a lot to think about.

James Woodcock, lead investigator for the Propensity to Cycle Tool who also leads the Public Health Modelling Group in CEDAR at the University of Cambridge, spoke about the soon to be available, open source Propensity to Cycle Tool. It essentially combines data on where people live, where they travel to, how they get there, & how hilly the areas are. The data produces heat maps of places where people would be likely to ride & can even filter results based on targeting areas for the highest greenhouse gas reductions, or the most impact on public health. It could be a really powerful tool to help city & transportation planners decide where to build new cycling infrastructure. I hope the City of Vancouver can start using a similar system--I love that the creators of this tool have kept it open source to share knowledge internationally.

Rachel Aldred, a senior lecturer in transport at the University of Westminster, talked about what London has been doing to improve cycling in the past few years & what challenges remain to overcome. She had a great analysis of the two main schools of thought when it comes to viewing cycling risk.

The first is one very familiar to those of us in North America: individualization, which emphasizes cycling as a personal choice, frames cycling as dangerous rather than drivers or roads, focusses on individual solutions like wearing safety gear & taking training, & good ol' victim blaming.

The second model is the socialization of cycling risk, which sees cycling as a public service or part of the transportation system, blames road design &/or drivers for causing danger, focusses on collective solutions like infrastructure as well as legal & policy changes, plus holding politicians to account. A place like Amsterdam is a good example of the second model--cycling is seen as something normal, safe, & easy that needs to be provided for via infrastructure improvements, laws that assign the burden of liability to drivers. In terms of political accountability, Amsterdam has recently set the bar very high: they have created the position of cycling mayor for their city.

The City of Vancouver has made great strides over the past few years to shift toward a socialization of risk when it comes to cycling, but there is still a long way to go to change the culture here. Having cycled in Amsterdam & seen how far we have to go here can definitely feel overwhelming at times. However, going to events like this is really energizing for me, partly because of the discussion, but also because of the connections I often make there. After this talk I met a researcher at UBC who is studying mothers who commute by bike. I can't wait to hear more about her work.

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CycleHack Talk: Barriers to Family Cycling

Friday I had the pleasure of speaking at CycleHack Vancouver. I was invited to talk about the barriers that biking families face. The goal of the event is to bring makers & idea people together to address some of the barriers that stop people from biking.

I thought I'd share a written version of what I talked about here.



When it comes to family cycling--especially with kids under six--barrier is all the stuff they require. They need enormous amounts of stuff to leave the house: diapers, wipes, extra clothing, snacks, drinks, toys, blankets, even a potty, sometimes. So deciding to bike to your destination, rather than driving seems like a crazy idea.

I've learned that biking is often faster than driving & it's totally possible to live car free with a family. But it's still tough for families to get started--figuring out gear--front seat? Rear seat? Trailer? Cargo Bike?--feels like information overload.

 try to help people overcome these barriers in a few different ways. First is my blog: I write reviews of gear, tips & hacks, upcoming events & recaps of rides, all about how we make transportation cycling & carsharing work with two little kids, & how cycling is awesome.

Second, I organize Vancouver Family Biking group rides. I think that recreational cycling is the "gateway drug" to transportation cycling. I hope by coming on our rides & chatting with other people, families new to cycling will be inspired to get groceries or go to their next appointment by bike.

Third is listening, providing advice, & connecting people when I can't answer a question. Much of this is in the Vancouver Family Biking Facebook group. This group is a great little forum where parents ask questions & share information on things like rain gear, taking transit with bikes & little ones, cargo bikes, and so on.

Fourth, my friend Tonya & I organized the Mount Pleasant Family Biking Festival last year to celebrate family cycling & showcase real family biking setups. We had over 25 families in the show & shine, talking about their seats, trailers, & cargo bikes, as well as offering test rides. We're doing it again this year Stanley Park, bigger & better, on September 24th--stay tuned for more details!

Fifth is education: Tonya & I are providing five workshops on the ABCs of Family Biking this summer, funded by the Vancouver Foundation's Greenest City Neighbourhood Small Grant & supported by prize donations from bike shops & Modo.

There are still a lot of other barriers that I come across that I'd love to see some solutions to this weekend. Here's my list:

Obviously I talk to a lot of families with all the work that I do & the number one barrier I hear people talking about is fear. Riding in & around vehicle traffic with your baby on your bike doesn't feel safe. & when your kindergartener starts riding on their own like mine did a couple of months ago, it's a whole other level.

Another safety issue comes up when using front or rear child seats on a bike. According to my research there's a very very small chance of being injured riding in a seat on parent's bike. It's getting on & off--that's where injuries happen. When it's just one parent balancing a regular bike with one or two children on it mounting can be really difficult.

I've solved this by getting two cargo bikes that have bombproof wide double kickstands. But not everybody has the budget or the space to get a cargo bike.

Front seats don't impede rear panniers, but weight limits are lower, so around three or four years old, you'll need to move your child to a rear seat. Rear seats are often on the rear rack, not usually compatible with panniers. With the weight of groceries, or whatever else you're carrying, plus a kid on the bike, you get the balance problem I mentioned before.

This bike has some cool seats that work great for a four year old & a seven year old. But kids at top of the percentiles for weight & height don't fit seats that will hold them securely. A toddler who still falls asleep on the bike needs to be strapped in but could be past the weight limits of a baby seat. Then there are special needs kids who are older but still need more physical support or restraints--there are few options for these kids & none that are affordable.

Just like anyone who bikes, security is a big issue with family biking, Where it differs though is when you have a cargo bike with a front basket or a child seat on the front. These bikes don't fit well into many of the bike racks around the city. Then there's the issue once all the kids are riding on their own bikes. Locking up one bike not too hard, but locking up four to six bikes means that one parent might be carrying their weight in locks.

The last barrier I'll talk about is storage. When you're going from one store to another or running errands, you can't really leave stuff on the bike, like your tool kit, water bottle, coffee mug, kleenex, diaper bag, grocery bags, or purchases, so you have to drag it all inside when you lock up. My bakfiets has an accessory I can order to create a lockable trunk under the child bench, but that's not really an option on longtail cargo bike or 'normal' bikes.

That's my list! Keep in touch on social media, visit my blog for information on the family biking festival, links to the Vancouver Family Biking Facebook group, & the workshops. Thank you for listening & I look forward to hearing about the Cyclehacks inspired by tonight's talks!

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