Cycling in Ottawa » economy

A subsidy for your car-free commute

Padraic — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:13:35 +0000

The Wired Autopia blog — which offers an uneven mix of car-worship and American public transit coverage — reports on a Californian health and safety regulation which forces businesses (of 50+ employees) who subsidize employee parking to offer cash to their employees who opt not use said parking. I’m tempted to think that, overall, it would be better if businesses just didn’t subsidize parking in the first place — but who can dislike a monthly cycling allowance?

Who doen’t love tokenism?

Ben — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:34:58 +0000

Dalton McGuinty has announced that he will be taking the PST off of the sale of bike helmets and bikes (up to $1,000… I guess he supports biking, but not competitive biking) as of December 1st.

To me, this is one of those political decisions that you can’t help but look at and laugh. First, I’m generally very skeptical of the effect a PST tax break will have on the purchase of bicycles. (“Wow… the PST has been taken off. Now I’ll by that bike I’ve been wanting for years!!”) More importantly, though, I think it’s unfortunate when politicians lend their support to an important issue – here, sustainable transportation methods – through completely token measures.

Sustainable transportation is an issue that needs government aid. There has to be investment in public transportation (with a capacity to take bicycles on board). There has to be a commitment to building fewer roads, but more bike paths, light rail tracks and subway lines. These involve serious financial commitments (which, to be fair, McGuinty has been better than most) and aren’t helped at all by token expenditures like this one.

I’m glad to see that the McGuinty government feels that bike transportation is an issue worth supporting (I would hope so, given that I happen to know that his son is a member of the U of O Environmental Law Students’ Association). I just hope that next time he will try to win his political points on real investments, not small ones with questionable effectiveness.

Bike city = bike jobs?

Padraic — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:24:17 +0000

The New York Times has a story today on how Portland’s well-known bike-friendliness is also translating into jobs:

Cyclists have long revered Portland for its bicycle-friendly culture and infrastructure, including the network of bike lanes that the city began planning in the early 1970s. Now, riders are helping the city build a cycling economy.

While this is great (and unsurprising) for Portland, I’m not sure how transferable the idea of “bike popularity bringing bike jobs” is. Even if Ottawa became the most pro-bike city overnight, I still have a feeling we’d be buying our bikes from the West Coast…
[Thanks to BikeBlog]