City must stop spinning its wheels
City council is so focused on big bang events, it's ignoring its cycling citizens
By RANDY KAY
Local cycling advocates have recently discovered that the modest annual investment of $300,000 to support the creation of bike lanes, multi-use paths, bicycle parking and other needed bike infrastructure, is not in this year s city budget.
Further, it seems that for the two years previous the annual expenditure was not utilized, prompting city council to cancel this year s allotment. That s $900,000 worth of inaction.
This at a time when Hamilton is attempting to finalize plans to bring world-class cyclists to town for the World Road Racing Championships in October (October 6-12).
Hamilton cyclists have to wonder at the city s priorities.
The irony is car and truck drivers will fare better than city cyclists as a result of the week of races: to meet the needs of the road race the City has fast-tracked $17 million in road repairs and sewer upgrades.
Race organizers from the local business elite are in eleventh hour negotiations with the city, seeking $2.5 to $3.5 million (or more) in public money to help them put on their race. The city had promised $400,000.
Yet the money required to drastically improve the lot for city cyclists is minuscule in comparison to such costs. One kilometer of multi-use bike path, like those found currently in Red Hill Valley, the Chedoke and the Hamilton to Brantford Rail Trails costs as little as $30,000 per kilometer (Shifting Gears, p.31) whereas road re-surfacing rings in at $150,000 per kilometer per lane (five times as much), and construction of one kilometer of road costs $540,000 per lane (18 times the cost). (Hamilton Roads Department).
We could outfit the entire HSR bus fleet with front-mounted bicycle racks for between $164,000 and $300,000, a one-time purchase which would aid cyclists faced with the challenging geography of "The Mountain."(HSR)
For very little expenditure Hamiltonians could easily have an integrated network of multi-use paths, bike lanes, and/or wider curb lanes. Creating safe routes throughout the city that connect people with transit, business districts and parks, natural resources like Red Hill Valley, Lake Ontario, Bayfront, Cootes Paradise, and Dundas Valley would go a long way toward bringing tangible and lasting results in terms of quality of life improvements to the city.
The plan to make these things happen is already official, and can be found in the City of Hamilton s "Shifting Gears Cycling Plan."
That's if you can find it. The plan sits moldering on a shelf as time-lines for implementation pass by with no results, year after year. Citizens can no longer pick up a copy from the city, there is no link to it on the city web site, and the pdf file I obtained includes charts that are barely legible when printed off.
In times of frustration the document is sometimes referred to as "Spinning Wheels."
We know there are thousands of would-be cyclists out there looking for the opportunity to ride on safe, designated bike routes. According to the Hamilton-Wentworth Community Cycling Survey, 40% of adults in Hamilton cycle, and with improvements, a significant number of citizens (14%) would join them. (Shifting Gears, p.5)
The group I volunteer with - Transportation for Liveable Communities (TLC), a working group of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) McMaster - has made presentations at City Hall as far back as 2001, urging the city to implement their Shifting Gears plan, to steer Hamilton into a cycle-friendly sustainable future. We ve had zero success so far.
Hamilton politicians are apparently so focused on the multi-million dollar big bang events like the Commonwealth Games, The World Road Racing Cycling Championships, a new stadium on the waterfront, or an expressway through Red Hill Valley, that they are missing the fuse right under their noses: quiet and sustained support for local, grassroots incremental advances that directly benefit the citizens of the city.
Forget the facade of expensive public relations "branding" campaigns, jingles and slogans: word of mouth will do wonders for a city s image and future if you give people something lasting to brag about: big sellers in the future will be things like clean air and water, quiet natural spaces, rail trails, car free pedestrian zones, affordable housing within walking distance of amenities, frequent and affordable access to public transit, and a recovering, naturalized harbour.
Come October, if I were forced to choose between passively watching a bunch of visiting cyclists racing through streets that a week later will be given back to cars and trucks, or actively riding throughout the year on safe bike routes to work, to visit friends, family, a favourite park or cafe, which do you think would be preferable? Which is the more sustainable?
Perhaps Hamilton Council will realize that we can have both and fast-track Shifting Gears the way they ve fast-tracked road repairs for the race (and at a fraction of the cost).
This way council will avoid the embarrassment of catering to the world s racing cyclists while ignoring the needs of their own cycling citizens. Remember: unlike visiting cyclist athletes, a month after the race Hamilton cyclists will still be in town for civic elections (Monday, November10) and may have something to say to local politicians about the way they ve been ignored.
TLC home
For an example of a city supportive of cycling, see Portland Oregon