The path ahead
Why cities need to take cycling seriously
BY Scott McAnsh
Riding down the street, passing cars and feeling free, I often wonder why there are so few cyclists commuting to work or school. The benefi ts of cycling are many: health, happiness and a clearer environmental conscience. Driving, on the other hand, has a number of known drawbacks including pollution, noise, congestion and cost. Yet 81 percent of Canadian commuters drive while only one percent cycle.
As an active participant in Edmonton’s cycling community, and an all-season commuter, I’ve heard many ideas on how to get more people cycling, and the most popular is adding more bike-friendly infrastructure to our cities, such as bike lanes.
Canadian cities generally fare poorly when it comes to cycling infrastructure. A 2005/2006 Edmonton cycling survey saw infrastructure named as the No. 1 cycling barrier, with 73 percent of those surveyed saying they would cycle more if better bike lanes existed. Those bike lanes are not a signifi cant expenditure when compared with other forms of infrastructure. It costs approximately $13 million to install one kilometre of highway and $150,000 to put in the same length of off-road bike path.
Yet cities seem reluctant to invest in this fundamental infrastructure. Toronto has pledged $73 million over the next 10 years for bike lanes, hardly an amount to brag about, and the city is already well behind in its spending schedule. In contrast, Toronto spent $520 million on roads last year alone.
This lack of bike lanes points to a far broader disregard for bikes in Canada’s major cities. Experience has shown that without a broader planning focus that includes bikes, people won’t be lured out onto the road. While bike lanes are a great start, major things like the mindset that puts cars ahead of all other methods of transport, the sprawl that leaves little choice but to drive and the tendency to trivialize travel by bicycle will need to change to get more motorists to switch to the clean, quiet freedom of a bicycle. Until the public at large sees cycling as a legitimate way to get around, it will fail to be one.
