Notes from the London Bike Summit

In 2006, OPP Sgt. Greg Stobbart was struck and killed by a truck while cycling on Tremaine Road, just south of Main. The truck driver had had his license suspended five times before the accident, owed $14,000 in driving-related fines, and yet he was only sentenced to 100 hours of community service and told to attend drivers ed.

That tragic experience led Stobbart's widow, Eleanor McMahon, to begin a crusade for bike safety that resulted in the formation of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition. The group brings together cyclists, police, and policy makers from all levels of government, all dedicated to “enhancing access for bicyclists on roads and trails and educating citizens on the value and importance of safe bicycling for healthy lifestyles and communities.”

In 2009, Share the Road sponsored the first Ontario Bike Summit. This year, the summit was held in London, Ontario, a community which was recently awarded a Bronze designation in the Bicycle Friendly Community Program. This program - which Milton would do well to implement - assesses the progress made by communities in the 5 "E's": Enforcement, Encouragement, Evaluation, Engineering, and Education.

The keynote speaker was Amy Ryberg Doyle, city councillor in Greenville, South Carolina. She outlined many of the specific measures that have been taken by Greenville over the past 30 years to make it not only bike-friendly but people friendly through its 'Complete Streets' planning policies. These policies have been successful because they are not merely suggestions - they are legislated requirements which mandate the city to consider bike lanes every time a road is repaved, and all businesses to install bike racks. They also closely monitor bicycle use and changing traffic patterns in order to measure their progress. Throughout her presentation, Ryberg Doyle's mantra was, "If you want bikes to count, count bikes!"

Amy Ryberg Doyle, Greenville, SC

The first panel discussed the potentials of bicycle tourism in Ontario, and highlighted the economic benefits of cyclists as visitors who tend stay longer and spend more than other types of tourists. Quebec was held up as a model of a province-wide promotion and infrastructure commitment (through initiatives like Velo Quebec) that has paid off to the tune of $166 million from cycling tourists. They also discussed the Welcome Cyclists program, which allows businesses to promote themselves to cyclists by providing amenities like covered bike racks, enclosed bike lock-ups, bike repair kits, healthy food options, and local bike route maps.

The second panel discussed the specifics of building bicycle-friendly communities, and included Deputy Chief Bob Percy of the Halton Regional Police Service. Percy spoke at length about Halton's 'Share the Road' program, and highlighted the police service's role in educating cyclists and motorists in partnership with local cycling organizations. He was followed by representatives from Waterloo and Ottawa talking about their respective cities' policies, and how they plan to go from Silver to Gold Bicycle-Friendly Communities.

Waterloo representatives Diane Freeman and Scott Nevin

I came away from the conference with a renewed optimism that we really can make Milton more bike-friendly, and a host of practical ideas for making it happen. One of the best of these was the Road Diet.

It sounds like a radical notion: instead of adding lanes to improve traffic, take a lane or two away and give the space over to bike lanes, pedestrian islands, turn lanes, and/or sidewalks. And yet, it's an idea that has been proven to work - in Greenville, in Waterloo, and in dozens of other communities. Here in Milton, this is essentially what was done to Bronte Street.

Diane Freeman, a city councillor from Waterloo, showed exactly how a road diet was successfully applied to Davenport Road, transforming it from a dangerous, deteriorating four-lane thoroughfare that split the community into a quieter, safer two-lane neighbourhood road with bike lanes, pedestrian safe medians and even 'bike boxes' - all without increasing congestion. They even had a street party to celebrate Davenport's re-opening - and a thousand people came!

So, which Milton streets do you think would benefit from something like this?

Moving Beyond the Automobile: Road Diets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Bike Routes in Milton: Bronte and Beyond

Thanks to the efforts of Regional Councillor Colin Best, Bronte Street will have real, on-road bike lanes by the end of the year, all the way from Main to Derry.

Anyone who has ever tried to ride a bike on Bronte knows how terrifying it can be. The speed limit may be 50 for most of that stretch, but the road is so wide that people (and trucks) frequently drive much faster. So these bike lanes are going to be a welcome change - especially since they are going to connect up with future bike lanes on Derry Road going west.

Also welcome is the (re)installation of a pedestrian crossing over Bronte at Barton St, even though it's not quite what it was. The original crosswalk at that location - leading from two large apartment buildings and a townhouse complex on the west side of Bronte - was idiotically removed during the Great Crosswalk Purge of '07. Now it's been replaced with a "school crossing", complete with a crossing guard and zebra markings, but not the more expensive (and far safer) type of pedestrian-actuated crossing with the real traffic lights that they installed on Ontario St. But since that little enclave is really the only residential area on that side of Bronte, the numbers apparently didn't warrant the expense. I guess rental units don't generate enough property taxes.

I took a ride out there to check it out and... wow. I sure as hell wouldn't want to cross there - not even with a crossing guard. I wouldn't even want to BE a crossing guard there. They said the regular crosswalks were too dangerous, but at least they had overhead lights. And if you're just a regular pedestrian, it seems you're out of luck.





I won't even start on the idiot in zoning who decided to allow someone to build apartment buildings on the west side of Bronte in the first place.

But back to the bike lanes. A subsequent editorial points out that Bronte is just about the easiest and cheapest place in town to put bike lanes because it is so excessively wide. Extending the network to other existing roads, on the other hand, is going to take a bit more money and political will, but is necessary if we are going to have a truly usable network of bike routes.

For example, Ontario St. could really use some bike lanes, and is plenty wide enough to do it with some re-jigging. Although apparently the south end of Ontario St. already has what they call "multi-use trails" for bicyclists. Too bad I've never once seen anyone ride a bike on them. Can't imagine why.





Actually, I'm not sure if this sad, narrow strip of bumpy paving is supposed to be the 'multi-use trail', or if they are actually referring to the sidewalk. Which looks exactly like... a sidewalk.

(UPDATE: Confirmation from Colin - yes, those are what they are calling 'multi-use trails'. Sigh.)

Even more useful would be bicycle access to the GO station and the Supercentre at Main and Thompson. This particular corner of Milton is completely cut of from side street access to the south and west due to the train tracks, leaving only the major arteries. And Main in particular is considerably more terrifying that Bronte - so much so that I don't remember ever seeing a cyclist between Ontario and Thompson who wasn't riding on the sidewalk. Myself included. And yet, that section of Main is designated as a "suggested on-road cycling route" in the town's 'Trails and Bikeways Guide'.

Go ahead. Try it. I dare you.

Now that the town is getting serious about developing and 'intensifying' that area, it shouldn't be too hard to get the road widened enough to put bike lanes in. Why they didn't do that when they were reconstructing Thompson is beyond me.

Life isn't all dismal for Milton cyclists, however. One recent project extended a beautiful wide paved trail down the whole length of my favourite secret park-with-no-name (ok, apparently it's David Thompson Park). This park runs parallel to Commercial St. and will take you from Parkway in behind Milton District High School all the way down to Tonelli Arena on Laurier. It runs along a swale with two pretty little bridges over it, and is my favourite shortcut to La Rose and long-cut to work.


View David Thompson Park in a larger map






And now it appears there is another trail going in right across he street from me, along the west side of Sixteen Mile Creek from Sydney maybe right down to the footbridge. This particular stretch of woods has always been one of the favoured 'party spots' for local teenagers (I know, I have one), so they may just end up having to find somewhere else to go.


So there you have it. A quick tour of Milton's bike trails - the good, the bad, and the unfinished.

The Island as Sustainable Community

In many ways, an island is the perfect environment to examine issues of local sustainability. Not only are the boundaries clearly defined, but the costs and consequences of relying on food, goods and jobs from beyond those boundaries are considerably amplified and therefore particularly visible.

I just got back from a week-long trip visiting my sister on Salt Spring Island, BC, so I thought it might be useful to examine how a place like that functions and just how sustainable and resilient it really is.

The Island

Salt Spring Island is located off the east coast of Vancouver Island, directly north of Victoria, and is the largest of the Southern Gulf Islands. The population consists of about 10,000 permanent residents, but summer brings large numbers of tourists to the island. The largest town is Ganges, and there are two smaller towns, Fulford and Vesuvius Bay, which also serve as boarding points for ferry service to other islands and the mainland. The terrain is mountainous, but there are large areas of good farmland in the valleys and at the north end of the island.



Food

Salt Spring is becoming famous for its local wines and cheeses. Many of the farms on the island grow organic produce and other crops, and there is some livestock as well - notably lamb and dairy cows. The grocery stores all carry a good selection of local foods, and there is a very well attended weekly farmers' market in Ganges.

The problem is, the abundance of local food available on Salt Spring is largely an illusion. According to a study conducted in 2005 examining produce farming on the island, only about 5% of the food consumed on Salt Spring is actually produced there. The rest, about four million pounds a year, is ferried in.

The reasons cited for this surprisingly low percentage were varied: the low percentage of active farmland engaged in commercial produce (about 6%); reliance on manual labour rather than appropriate mechanization; lack of farm labourers and lack of affordable rental housing for labourers; lack of larger scale processing and storage facilities, etc.

The study found that producers are, for the most part, selling all of their crops. And, at this volume at least, most prefer to sell retail rather than wholesaling. At the same time, retail grocers and some restaurants reported that they are not able to source an adequate supply of quality Salt Spring produce to meet their requirements. At present Salt Spring produce represents only about 5% of all the produce being transported onto the island.

Clearly, the island is not even close to growing enough produce to feed the population. Changing this situation would mean significantly increasing production. The study found that there are a number of commercial farmers interested in doing this. If this is to happen, however, many obstacles will have to be addressed including: improving the efficiency of farm work through appropriate mechanization; business planning to ensure financial sustainability; and engaging the community in supporting local food security with their food dollars.

One thing I noticed that was not mentioned in the study was that much of the food production on Salt Spring is geared towards the tourist and export markets, with highly specialized and expensive items like artisanal cheeses and wines dominating. While this type of food production is vital to the local economy, it isn't going to feed 10,000 people.


Map of Salt Spring Island showing
Agricultural Land Reserve

For more information, read the 'Plan to Farm' document, which addresses all of these issues and proposes concrete solutions. The plan was prepared for Salt Spring Island but the ideas are also applicable to other rural communities such as Milton.

Energy

Most energy used on Salt Spring Island is electrical, even for home heating, although low and high efficiency wood stoves are also fairly common. Electricity is supplied from Vancouver Island via undersea cables; as far as I am aware, none is generated on the island. An energy strategy study from 2005 suggested an investigation of local power generation on a scale of about 5% through wind, solar and micro-hydro, but so far nothing seems to have been done.

Transportation

Aside from a few small privately owned boats, access to the island is entirely through BC Ferry service. A return trip for one person in a car ranges from about $40 to Vancouver Island to over $100 to the mainland. Trucks pay more.



As far as local transportation goes, while the towns themselves are very compact and walkable, getting there from the rural areas or from other towns still generally requires the use of a car. Cycling even moderate distances is difficult for all but the most hardened athletes due to the terrain, and even for them it's a hazardous undertaking because the roads are narrow and twisting with no shoulder, and the drivers all take them at full speed.

One common and rather unique form of local transportation is hitchhiking. Driving the main Fulford-Ganges Road it is not unusual to spot three or four people by the road with their thumbs out, and they rarely have to wait long for a ride. While in most parts of the country hitching a ride can be a rather dangerous proposition for both rider and driver, on Salt Spring the community is so small and tightly knit that it's considered a safe and efficient form of ride sharing.

Salt Spring recently instituted a public transit system, but so far it is somewhat underused.

Economy, Employment and Housing

Ferry costs make commuting off the island for work pretty much out of the question for most, and bringing in outside workers for summer jobs or farm work is made even more difficult by high housing costs and lack of available rental units.

The economy on Salt Spring is largely tourism-related, with a high percentage of residents who run their own crafts or other businesses, or who are employed in the service sector.



A large artist and artisan community sells its wares principally through the '100% Local' Saturday Market in Ganges, which draws thousands of people every week from the island and beyond. However, with a worsening economy and high fuel prices now resulting in a new surcharge on ferry rates, there is concern that those tourist dollars might be at risk and that the community might need to become even more self-sustaining economically.

Conclusions

While Salt Spring Island is in many ways a model of local sustainability, and the people there take great pride in their local foods, wines and crafts, it is clear that the island still has a long way to go towards becoming truly sustainable and self-sufficient. But the potential certainly exists for Salt Spring Island to feed, power and employ itself. It has done so in the past and could easily do so again.

Happily, enthusiasm for and understanding of sustainability issues is extremely high among island residents, and many practical solutions have already been worked out in detail. So it's really only a matter of time before those solutions begin to be put into place on a broad scale.

Now we just need something like that for Milton.

A Chat With Artist Ann Kornuta

In addition to her work as a reporter for the Halton Compass, Ann Kornuta is pretty much the 'Official Artist of Milton'. She's a fixture at the Farmers' Market, where she can be found painting out in front of the Dorland-Haight Gallery - or in it, if it's raining. Ann is best known for her uniquely skewed vision of the streets and buildings of Milton, and many locals have commissioned 'portraits' of their own houses and stores from her (I want one too!).

We chatted about bicycle accessibility in town while she worked on her latest creation.



And in a hilarious example of blog-on-blog incest, Ann beat me to the punch and posted a video on her blog yesterday promoting THIS blog!