Cycling Advocacy- Bike Lane for Cook Street

General discussion about the Victoria Wheelers

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sonyareuter
Posts:119
Joined:Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:09 pm
Cycling Advocacy- Bike Lane for Cook Street

Post by sonyareuter » Sun Feb 14, 2016 6:01 pm

Hi Everyone - this message is from my friend Cindy Marven, We-Bike Club. She is a cycling advocate in Victoria and asked me to share this:

Not sure if any of the Wheelers are interested in advocacy for protected lanes (they don't necessarily need them themselves, but friends, neighbours, families who don't ride do so it would be great if they could show support.

As you know the Cook St. businesses started a petition (with 700 names so far) to prevent bike lanes on Cook Street - they would prefer them on Vancouver so they don't lose parking spaces - they would lose about 25 to 30 parking spaces (of 50) on the street. Currently however, there is an often unused lot behind the pharmacy and on the busiest day the GVCC ran a survey, only 70% of parking within a half a block of Cook St in the village was full.

The GVCC (cycling coalition) is organizing a ride in support of bike lanes and to show the businesses that there are lots of people who bike and that they do spend money in the village. The ride starts on Feb 27, 11am, starting at the parking lot at the corner of Vancouver and Caledonia. Very short ride just down Cook to the water and back to Cook St Village to have coffee, or a beer, do shopping and basically spend money and show our numbers and that cyclists do actually shop, eat, drink, etc.

Here is a link to the GVCC's Facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/123240884729632/

If someone is interested, encourage them to sign up for the ride just to indicate numbers and support (no charge for this of course; it's just a bunch of people riding down the street - together).

Cindy
"Sometimes you succeed, and sometimes you learn."

sonyareuter
Posts:119
Joined:Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:09 pm

Re: Cycling Advocacy-current events in Victoria

Post by sonyareuter » Fri Feb 26, 2016 11:31 pm

Hi Everyone: A good summary from Cindy Marven of current events in Victoria supporting bike lanes in Victoria:

Cook Street Bikes Mean Business Ride, Saturday 27, 11 AM:
I would like to remind everyone about the bike ride tomorrow to show bicycle riders' support for protected bike lanes on Cook Street. If you can, please come out on your bikes in support - meet at 11am at the corner of Vancouver and Caledonia (parking lot). Very short ride down Cook to the Village so won't take much of your time if you can make it. I would love to see box bikes, cargo bikes, long tails, trailers, kids, etc. I'm getting a little depressed about the level of discourse (and opposition) to something that really is a positive improvement to the street and city. I hope lots of people who travel by bike are able to make it a priority to show up tomorrow. Let your friends know.

The city is hosting 4 open houses to exchange information about the 8 AAA routes. There is considerable opposition from the communities - particularly from the businesses but also residents who don't want parking spaces lost or lanes reduced for cars. So if you can go to any/some of these open houses to add your voice to the positive side of the mix it would be great. I try to stress the benefits instead of focusing on reduced numbers of car parking spots...the main benefit being safety. We are reluctant to ride with our families or friends who are not experienced cyclists, because they don't feel safe on the street. And it's not just perception - protected lanes are much safer than riding with motorized traffic in cities. If you want to check out some research to back that up, see Dr. Kay Teschke's research (from UBC): http://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/. Businesses underestimate how many people arrive by bike and on foot, and overestimate how many arrive by car; they also don't realize that people on bikes spend as much or slightly more than people arriving by car although they make more trips over a month to do so. There are many studies that find this including some done in Victoria and Cook Street village.

Letting the councillors and staff know that you support the bike lanes - and why - is really important. We may not get another bike-friendly council with $$ prepared to build protected lanes for a long while so they need our support.

Biketoria Community Associations Open Houses

Spotlight on: Fernwood and Oaklands
Date: Saturday, February 27, 1 p.m.- 4 p.m.
Location: Oaklands Community Centre, 2827 Belmont Avenue

Spotlight on: Hillside/Quadra
Date: Monday, March 7, 7pm – 9pm
Location: Quadra Village Community Centre, 901 Kings Road

Spotlight on: James Bay
Date: Wednesday, March 9, 7pm – 9pm
Location: James Bay New Horizons, 234 Menzies Street

Spotlight on: VictoriaWest
Date: Tuesday, March 15 at 7pm
Location: Victoria West Community Centre, 521 Craigflower Road

Shelbourne Valley Action Place - Open Houses - Bike Lanes on Shelbourne

Saanich is hosting some open houses for Shelbourne Valley Action Plan - mobility options on Shelbourne that they can implement in the shorter term (over the next 5 years) instead of the longer term (30 years ) that their plan really encompasses - mainly because the main plan depends on them buying right of way to build protected lanes. So there are two shorter term options - option 2 I think is the best because it has continuous bike lanes down the full stretch of Shelbourne. Option one does not - it has protected lanes on only part of Shelbourne, leaving much of it with no lanes at all - painted or otherwise. Read more here: http://www.saanich.ca/business/actionpl ... ourne.html. They also have a 'video' of each option on the site.

Open Houses
Saturday, Feb 27, 2016 - Gordon Head Recreation Centre 2:00-6:00 pm. 4100 Lambrick Way
Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - St. Aidans Church 4:00-8:00 pm. 3703 St Aidans St
Saturday, March 5, 2016 - Cedar Hill Recreation Centre 2:00-6:00 pm. 3220 Cedar Hill Rd
Virtual Open House, with a display of all the posters from the above Open Houses


Complete a survey to provide your feedback on your preference for changes on Shelbourne Street and the Shelbourne Valley. The survey will be open until March 20.

Cheers,
Cindy

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