Barriers to Disabled & Family Cycling

Recently, at the at the Active Transportation Summit on June 17, I had the pleasure of speaking as a part of a panel called Breaking Down Barriers to Active Transportation: Lived Experience and Action Items for Policy Change. I thought I'd share my presentation here as well.

I live in East Vancouver with my family & have been using walking, cycling, & transit as my main modes of travel all of my adult life. I started cycling even more since I developed osteoarthritis in my hip. Cycling is much more comfortable than walking for me & actually reduces my pain levels overall. So I use my bikes as mobility devices.

I work as a instructor for HUB Cycling & teach kids & adults how to ride bikes, & how to ride safely on the road. I also organize family rides, festivals, & workshops & talk with a lot of parents who ride or want to start cycling with their children. & I sit on the City of Vancouver's Transportation Advisory Committee

Before we go any further, some definitions of two types of cycle I'm going to be talking about: an adaptive cycle is a two or three wheeled cycle or an attachment that goes on a wheelchair that can allow people with disabilities to ride. Some may have electric assist & some may be operated by pedaling with the hands rather than the feet. These bikes are often wider, longer, & heavier than a typical bike.

Photo: Gabrielle Peters

By cargo bike, I mean a two or three wheeled cycle that is designed to carry large items & passengers. They may have a large box or rack in front or back, & are longer, sometimes slightly wider, & always heavier than a typical bike. Many are also electric assist.

You might be wondering why I'm talking about two seemingly disparate categories of cycling, but there are barriers they have in common as well as some overlap between the disabled cycling community & the cargo biking community.

My kids are neurodiverse, & this means that while they are physically capable of cycling, they are not always able to do it. It isn't always possible to predict when they will be unable to ride safely, so having a cargo bike means I can carry them & their bikes as needed. If I didn't have a cargo bike, I'd need to spend a lot more time on transit, or spend thousands of dollars a year that we don't have to own a vehicle.

My family is not alone in this; I know many other people--mainly women, as we still do the majority of the caregiving work in families--who are able to ride with their older children because cargo bikes can carry teen & adult sized passengers. Like My friend Kath here in these two photos, who rides with her children, one of whom is not able to ride on his own due to his disability.

Photo: Bill Schultheiss

Photo: Madi Carlson

Being able to use an adaptive bike for transportation rather than transit or paratransit (like Handidart here in Vancouver), taxis can mean a huge time savings, not to mention the ability to get exercise, fresh air, connect with other people & all the other benefits that cycling brings. Everyone should be able to cycle if they want to.

So here is my list of four barriers to disabled & family cycling, in no particular order.

I suspect I'm preaching to the choir, but biking in amongst multi-tonne vehicles doesn't feel comfortable to most, & it can be downright terrifying for many people. Just as we have sidewalks to separate pedestrians from motor vehicle traffic, we need physical separation for cyclists so that children, seniors, disabled people, & less confident riders will feel & be safer. We need more all ages & abilities infra like this everywhere, including the main roads where people need to go for medical appointments, shopping, socializing.

These cycle routes need to be wide enough to accommodate cargo & adaptive cycles. Narrow paths with bollards or railing style diverters like in this image make it dangerous or impossible to get through with non-standard cycles. Poor pavement surface, or even curbs or stairs that are part of a cycle route can be completely inaccessible for people using adaptive or cargo cycles.

When there is road work or a special event happening that impacts bike facilities, municipalities or construction companies often put up signs requiring cyclists to dismount & walk. This is difficult to impossible for disabled cyclists & can also be difficult for riders carrying children on seats on their cycles.

I wanted to highlight some statistics from the UK as I couldn’t find similar from Canada
Wheels for Wellbeing National Survey of Disabled Cylists in the UK 2017

• 1 in 3 disabled cyclists had been asked to dismount and walk their cycle even though they were using it as a mobility aid
• A majority of disabled cyclists (69%) said they find cycling easier than walking, which we know is often the case because cycling reduces strain on the joints, aids balance and alleviates breathing difficulties
• Inaccessible cycling infrastructure is the biggest difficulty encountered by disabled cyclists.

I love how cycle racks are usually very close to the door of the business or office I'm going to, so I don't have to walk as far. Unfortunately, most of these racks don't accommodate cargo cycles or adaptive cycles well: larger & wider cycles can only easily be locked at the end of most racks because they're designed for typical bikes that are only wide at the handlebars. Individual inverted U style racks are much more accommodating to all types of cycles & if properly spaced, they allow much easier access for riders with mobility issues.

With bike theft rampant in the city, Locking a bike outside to a rack tends to work fine for a quick stop at a store or cafe or appointment, but leaving a bike regularly for a full day or night outside at a publicly accessible rack is a huge theft risk. Secure storage like bike rooms or lockers are crucial, yet many multi unit buildings & workplaces do not have adequate bike rooms & many buildings have strict rules against bringing bikes inside, or installing racks in car parking spaces or leaving essential equipment like pumps & tools in the garage.

Getting in & out of buildings, through turns in halls, & in elevators can also be difficult or impossible with adaptive or cargo bikes.

For electric assist bikes, like mobility scooters, finding a place to park them & charge them can be a challenge.

Unsurprisingly, larger, stronger cargo bikes & specialized adaptive cycles are expensive, costing more than ordinary bikes, sometimes over $10,000. The government has not incentivized the purchase of cycles in any way with rebates or even just eliminating sales taxes, despite giving thousands of dollars at people who can afford expensive electric CARS.

Grants for adaptive cycles are a patchwork of few & far between with a lot of hoops to jump through to get them & may not cover the full cost.

A partial solution to storage & cost is not to own a cycle, but to use cycleshare. I'd like to applaud Mobi for introducing their Community Pass to make a $20/year membership available to lower income residents. But the service area is still limited. Cycleshare here in Vancouver does not have any adaptive cycles or any that can carry children.

Even if cycleshare included some adaptive cycles, like in this example of a free cycleshare in a National Park in the Netherlands. All the bikes had one or two child seats, there were smaller bikes for kids to ride & some adaptive cycles as well.

However, the reason this is a "partial solution" is because a "one size does not fit all"; an adaptive hand trike, for example, may work for some people, but many disabled people will require a customized fit. For people who use larger assistive devices like wheelchairs or walkers, transferring to a cycle at a cycleshare station may not be possible & where are they going to leave their chair or walker?

There are some great Organizations like Cycling Without Age, or seasonal programs like Blind Beginnings Buddy Up Tandem Cycling Club can help people with disabilities do a limited amount of recreational riding, but not the kind of day-to-day transportation cycling that owning a cycle or having 24-7 access via cycleshare can accomplish.

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Spring Break in Portland & Seattle

Heading out on our first day in PDX: Madi's Surly Big Dummy, Surly Straggler, & Brompton

Most (not all) of Madi's fleet. N+1...

During Spring break we headed down to Portland & Seattle to visit friends & ride All The Bikes. We chose to drive because we knew our kids might likely kill each other on the Bolt Bus & we weren't sure we could actually all get to the train station in time for a 6:30am departure. We very briefly considered bringing a bike or two, but because our friends Madi & Anny both have N+1 bike addictions collections like we do, we were well served by their fleets of kid-hauling machines.

Most of our conversations have been via social media, so it was awesome to spend time in real life with Madi & Anny. It was also fascinating to experience the cities by bike like a local. We only spent about four days in each city, but we did do quite a lot of riding & we got to see many different neighbourhoods.

The multi use path along the Willamette River in PDX

In both places, driving was incredibly stressful. The highways go right through the city (unlike here in Vancouver) so we had to navigate to an unfamiliar destination at 70 miles per hour, with highway exits on both sides (they're nearly always on the left here) & often involving multiple lanes. Other drivers were generally impatient & often speeding on both highways & arterial roads in the city, so it wasn't a great experience.

Drove to Tillamook & Cannon Beach for some fun in the sand & (chilly) sun

Biking & walking was another story entirely on the streets of Portland. The city has a reputation for being a cycling mecca, but I arrived with some healthy skepticism. I've heard criticisms that it is bike friendly, but mainly for more for assertive, confident riders. From our short trip there, I can say I didn't see much bike infrastructure that would qualify as AAA (appropriate for all ages & abilities, from children to seniors).

On the other hand, the drivers seemed to yield to people on bikes & walking a lot more often than we see here in Vancouver. We also saw a lot of people riding, particularly the closer we got to the core of the city. Perhaps it was because we were in a group with several (weird) bikes, but the drivers did seem generally fairly respectful towards more vulnerable road users.

We rode Madi's tandem to Trader Joe's--B loved being able to pedal

Got to meet Kath, another "virtual friend", in real life, in PDX

We took up most of the bike corall at Lantern Brewing

Seattle felt a lot more like home, with impatient drivers who seemed to feel that they "own" the roads demonstrating their attitude that we shouldn't be there on bikes. It's also a much hillier city than Vancouver, particularly the area where we were staying, so having electric assist seems a lot more common there among the family bikers we met. Which was quite a few--we ended up joining a group advocacy ride in favour of the protected bike lane on 35th Avenue with around 50 people. (More details about it here on the Safe 35th FB page)

Before you get the impression that I didn't like riding in Seattle, I should say that we really enjoyed it. In no small part because of how bike & kid-friendly the local craft breweries are. We visited four different places in Greenwood (Lantern, Flying Bike, Chuck's Hop Shop) & Ballard  (Populuxe Brewing), all of which had toys & books for small children, plus the expectation that you might bring in your own food (or buy it from the food truck or hot dog cart outside).

Ice cream for them, beer for us at Chuck's Hop Shop. Not a lot of space for kids, but they were welcome at this brewpub

Families were still arriving for the ride on 35th Ave

Having the opportunity to visit G & O Family Cyclery was another thing that made the trip awesome, but I think I'll have to save that for a whole other post, or this one will turn into a novel!

Gravel & shovels & random toys kept the kids busy at Populuxe Brewery

After we got home & I had a bit more time to think about the trip, I did think of a few things we'd do differently. It was a lot easier to leave on our own schedule with a rental car, but we didn't get there any faster than the train, since we had to stop for so many bathroom breaks & meals. We also waited for over an hour in the border line-up. The stress of navigating American freeways in a Canadian rental car with no miles per hour on the speedometer (we literally had to calculate how many kilometres per hour we were supposed to be driving every time it changed).

Overall it was a great vacation & I would love to go back again. I like both Seattle & Portland a lot & there are tons of museums, parks, shops, & rides I'd still like to experience in both cities the next time(s) we go. Our hosts were both so gracious, letting us take invade their homes & commandeer half their bike fleets, & doubling the numbers of rambunctious children. As a cycling advocate, it was also really valuable to experience first-hand how other cities do bike infrastructure. I wish more municipal government officials, engineers & planners would walk & bike in their cities, as well as other ones--I think we might be moving faster toward safer, healthier cities if that were the case.

If you want to see more of family biking in Portand, I recommend following Madi on social media--she's @familyride on Instagram & Twitter, plus you can check out her regular family biking column on BikePortland. This one on route planning is particularly good!

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Back on two wheels

Went to walk across frozen Trout Lake, along with most of Vancouver

Hello there & happy new year! Hope your holidays were fantastic, or at least not too stressful. We did a lot of sleeping in & eating sugary stuff. We also tried to take advantage of the actual proper Canadian winter that descended on Vancouver for the last five weeks & counting.

I am an all weather, all year round cyclist, partly because I like the challenge, but also because even when it's cold or wet, it's more convenient that transit & not painful like walking (on my arthritic hip) can be for me. But. Big but. We had to seriously cut back on biking once the fluffy, somewhat dry snow transformed into packed lumpy ice alternating with slush everywhere. #VikingBiking doesn't work that well here in Vancouver's wet winters. The iciness of the roads & the lack of control & respect from drivers kept even us off our bikes for most of December.

#BikeToSchool every damn day. Almost.

If I'd looked into the long term forecast in the beginning of December & imagined how what has turned out to be the longest cold snap in my lifetime would impact me, I'd have bought studded winter tires back then. But I didn't realize they'd be necessary until it was too late & they became a scarce commodity. Lesson learned for next year--I'm still hoping to find some near the end of the season for future use.

Aaaaaaaanyway, the winter seems to be fading a bit. It's still chilly today, but we haven't had a proper dump of snow  in over a week & the ice is finally melting on most sidewalks & side streets in our area. Which means we're back to riding most places again.

Thrilled to bike (not walk) this load home

This whole experience has really driven home how much cycling keeps me happy. I don't need to tell you about exercise & endorphins & all that--just the regular physical activity is obviously good for us. Biking keeps my body weight mostly off my hip joint, unlike walking, so it means a lot less pain, which has a huge impact on my mood. Getting out of the house, into the sun (vitamin D!) is beneficial just for a change of scenery. The bakfiets also makes getting groceries a lot easier--carrying bags of groceries while walking even a few blocks is a special kind of hell.

For a family, it's also a lot cheaper than driving or taking transit. For all of us to take transit on an outing now costs about $12, which really adds up if you're doing it most days of the week. tThen there's the kids' happiness to think about. Though they can walk quite far for their ages, the 6km round trip to Linny's school is too much for either of them. He seemed to enjoy the 45 minute walk with me the first day back at school, then day two? Oh, the whining. Too far, too cold, too fast, too slippery. If I can just pop him into the bakfiets & zip him to school in 15 minutes, we're all happier.

So here's hoping we won't have another month of actual winter & we'll get back to the balmy above zero dampness we're all used to here in Vancouver. See you on the bike paths!

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