Anyway, Marcus Gee over at the Globe takes the time to offer a more serious and detailed reason why bicycle licensing is a silly idea. The key part, emphasis mine:

That is the key objection to Mr. Walker’s proposal. There is no proof that licensing would persuade wayward cyclists to pay any more heed to the traffic laws. They already fall under the very same laws that motorists do and police can charge them accordingly. In one safe-cycling drive this summer, Toronto police handed out 1,373 tickets to cyclists for infractions from running red lights to failing to yield to pedestrians. Police can stop an unlicensed cyclist as easily as they could a licensed one.

Nor is there any proof that a testing regime would make cyclists more aware of the rules of the road. Many of them are motorists as well as cyclists and all of them are pedestrians when they’re not mounted up. They know what a red sign saying “stop” means. They just choose to ignore it. The best way to address that is through education, not licensing.

]]> http://cyclinginottawa.ca/2009/09/24/why-licensing-cyclists-is-the-wrong-reaction/feed/ 3 http://cyclinginottawa.ca/2009/08/05/video-burrard-bridge-bike-lane/ http://cyclinginottawa.ca/2009/08/05/video-burrard-bridge-bike-lane/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:35:00 +0000 Padraic http://cyclinginottawa.ca/?p=188 For everyone who is curious about the 3 month trial of separated bike lane on Vancouver’s Burrard Bridge, here is the first-person view:

(link)

It looks like a safe and enjoyable way to get downtown. Let’s hope the trial is successful.

[Via I Bike TO]

The driver has been charged with attempted first degree murder, as he should be. However I want to know what make the cyclists’ helmet is. Quite literally, it is bullet proof. If I was that company’s marketing director I know what my next ad campaign would be.

A fascinating article appeared on The Infrastructurist this weekend which argues that by removing highways, the cities of Seoul, San Fransico and Portland actually reduced traffic. This seems counterintuitive but according to the Braess Paradox, as more roads are built, each driver tries to optimize their own route resulting in greater congestion. If this still sounds like abstract mathmatics read about it on wikipedia. When this idea is coupled with the induced demand phenomenon or Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams syndrome the effect of additional highway construction because dubious.

Link

One of the councillors in opposition declared this initiative a “war on cars.” While the remark was brushed off by those in favour, in retrospect it actually is and I couldn’t be happier about it. Yes it will make traffic on Jarvis worse for the short term. However it also now makes cycling down the same street a legitamite option for people who previously would have driven the same route.

This is what opponents of cycling initiatives don’t understand. Bike lanes and such aren’t catering to a small minority. All of us at cyclinginottawa.ca and I’m sure many readers will use their bikes regardless. Having a dangerous city to cycle around turns off future cyclists. Every time the city does something to make cycling safer, more people are likely to view it as a legitamite means of commuting/travelling. It is exactly the same as transit, as you make it safer and easier to access, more people will leave their cars behind.

Is it a war on cars? Sure is! A war Ottawa should be fighting as well.

Bike Lanes and Bus Lanes in Dublin

I was in Dublin in early January and was generally impressed by the seeming dedication of Dublin to provide bike lanes around most of the city centre. This stood in stark contrast to Cork which had no bike lanes. However, while good intentions are one thing, practical results are another.

Take a closer look at the photo I took outside of my hostel. The bike lane is intersected by the bus lane wherever the city bus stops. Seeing as this is in the urban core, that is quite frequently. In my 15 minutes waiting for the bus two cyclists were almost hit by the bus as it pulled into what the driver thought was its exclusive lane.

While the attempts by Dublin to have the entire city cycle friendly are admirable, the actual enactment of the policy appears to have been done without ever consulting cyclists themselves. While cycling is a legitamite transportation option, it can’t be treated exactly the same as other options. Cyclists have unique needs and safety issues which need to be considered before painting some lines of a road and declaring the city bike-friendly.

As you’d expect, cycling and walking are highest in the downtown, with walking being more popular in the core, and cycling being more popular slightly outside of downtown. However, I would have guessed that in a dense, fair-climate city like Vancouver, that the combined walking and biking share for the downtown would be higher than 50%. Are the other 50% taking the Skytrain to workplaces outside the downtown? Or are they motorists? Although the purpose of this report is to highlight cycling and walking, but I’m instantly curious about the traffic breakdown (although I could dig it up on StatsCan).

“Mounting financial pressures have led to a surge in inexperienced cyclists taking to the roads,”say LV in their press release: “resulting in a 29% increase in road accidents involving cyclists in the past six months.” It’s topical, it involves death and fear, it’s dressed in the cloak of statistical authority: this is totally going on the telly.

The first thing to note is that LV were comparing accidents in the 6 months leading up to November 2008 against accidents in the 6 months prior to that. What these insurance geniuses have failed to account for here, we might reasonably suspect, is the well-documented seasonal variation in road traffic incidents, since fewer people cycle in winter. I shall not be buying shares in this insurance company.

Riding a bike with weather conditions like this, it seems kind of silly…. It’s common sense.