Raise the Hammer

I completely agree. This year I've seen more bikes on the road than at any point in the past. There is a bike rack outside of my place of employment. For years it has been empty, maybe one bike. Now the rack is full, every nice day from late March until the snow falls. This has happened during the past 2 years. These are not homeless or low income individuals either. Most are post secondary graduates who are young and can't afford to buy a new car, insurance, gas and maintenance not to mention rent and school loans. Even on my way to work, the bike lanes on our local road are well used. Take a look at the HSR buses, most have a bike or more in the rack out front during the day. We need to start making provisions for this type of transportation AND start educating car drivers to watch for bikes. How many people have been hit by cars this year? This isnt' a trend, it's the way of the future.

Here is a question I would pose to you. Please don't take this as an attack, but when is it enough? When will there be enough concessions to automobile traffic for LRT and cyclists that you personally would say "Alright, that's enough, it's the way we want it." At what point would you personally say "We've reached our goal for cycling in this city"

I don't see that as an attack at all. For me it will be 'enough' when a reasonably competant cyclist can go from one point to another in Hamilton, and not feel under attack by the thousand pound steel objects hurtling all around them.

And I should say - not under attack due to any individual driver - although that is fairly common - but under attack due to a system that forces the two groups to compete for limited resources.

And you may not agree, but I strongly feel that in the competition for limited transport space, the preference should go to those transport mediums that do the least damage to the planet, and the health of individuals and the city as a whole. To me, that is cycling and walking.

Don't get me wrong, I do own a vehicle, but I drive it sparingly, and walk/cycle/take transit as much as possible.

It will be enough when we can start accomodating people who don't have cars and don't want cars. I'm not against the car (for the record). I own one myself!
I recently went to Toronto to meet with some friends on Queen St. I haven't been in years. I was struck at how pedestrian and bike friendly Toronto has become. There were bikes and bike racks all over Queen Street. There were street cars, outdoor patios and lastly, cars. I say cars last because there were more bikes and pedestrians. Last summer, I was in Ottawa and the same thing- pedestrian streets, open markets with no cars allowed, hundreds of bikes etc. It was acceptable to be a young urban professional and have a bicycle. We need to be more forward thinking in this city.

One of the most frustrating things in Hamilton is the lack of bike racks or they are broken or they are put in ridiculous spots (i.e. Fortino's on Mall rode - the bike rack out front is broken and I doubt many will realize the other bike rack is around the side by the employee smoking hut).

Bike racks should be placed out front of stores and there should be more than one.

Naturally_Red, This lack of consideration really hit home for me last night, when after a nice bike ride through Ancaster and Dundas, I stopped off at the pet store at Meadowlands Mall on the way home, and discovered no bike racks or anything to secure a bike to! I had to around back and lock it to a stairway at one of the receiving doors.

This is an area that has bike lanes and at least makes a half-hearted attempt to consider cyclists; so I'm thinking that it has more to do with the mentality of the developers of big box malls, who can only see the car-driving public as their customer base!

I encourage you to contact the store manager about the bike racks. I phoned the Rifle Range Road Fortino's store manager about the lack of bike racks and he told me he's already had several phone calls and had two more racks ordered. That Fortino's now has bike racks at both entrances to the store.

Captilist opines that ...

cycling will never become popular in Hamilton because of several factors:

• weather

• escarpment

• time (depending on where you live it just takes too long to bike. People have lives you know and time is money)

• hygine and clothing (people who don't have access to a shower at work or must dress in more expensive clothing will not opt to bike).

Montreal has become a cycling city. It is larger, muggier, snowier and is built on the side of a goddam mountain.

The biggest problem we have is defeatism and entrenched policies which help make cycling difficult.

Comment edited by moylek on 2011-07-08 16:47:45

Capitalist- the weather is worse in Ottawa and it is a huge cycling Mecca. Not everyone climbs the escarpment everyday either. Dare I say that I don't take a shower after every bike ride. A small towel, comb, deodorant and spritz of cologne and I'm good. No one has complained yet and I work in a bank! There are trails up and down the escarpment making transport easier with no cars.

They do not switch to cars they skate.

And 100 years ago how many people drove to work? Things Change. Truth Hurts.

While I for one want cycling to be more accessible in the city, I have a feeling people simply don't want to work to go to work. The lack of motivation and accessible routes ,especially for low income households, is highly related to why hamilton is one of canada's fattest cities

I have a feeling people simply don't want to work to go to work.

Well, it all depends on what you consider work, I guess. Anything up to a twenty-minute bike ride just doesn't feel like work to me. Taking my bike to work, to the grocery store, to the beer store, to the library is how a turn a chore into ... well, into a bike ride.

I don't know if you can say "people don't want to work to go to work".

Obesity is certainly a complicated societal problem, and it it could be solved easily, it would have been solved already.

Some of the factors that result in a high obesity rate in Hamilton might include: the lack of proper grocery stores in the downtown core, and the prevalence of fast food restaurants in the city.

http://www.thespec.com/news/canada/article/185168--fast-food-helps-put-hamilton-on-obesity-map

Some of the factors that result in a high obesity rate in Hamilton might include: the lack of proper grocery stores in the downtown core

Honestly, every time I hear this it makes we wonder if the people saying it have ever been downtown. This is just not our problem.

People with limited financial means being lazy is another straw man that could use a fresh match.

Hells yeah.

Having moved from a relatively high-income part of downtown to a lower one, the rate of hobby cycling (especially featuring spandex) may well be lower, but I've got no doubt that there's more people who use bikes as a way of getting from A to B.

Great article, Jason - and an important reminder because I don't know that that large part of the cycling population is heard from here or on city cycling committees. I've got some germane comments, but first, I'd like to get one tangential pet peeve out of the way ...

Similarly, for all the talk of food deserts in the lower city, the fact remains that for someone living on stretches of Rymal Road, their neighborhood is just as much a food desert as the downtown core without access to affordable, safe transportation.

Whatever the problems of downtown Hamilton, being a food desert - that popular bugaboo of American urban social activists trying to defend the obese poor from the criticism of the smug and trim - is just not one of them. I routinely go to the poorest parts of downtown to shop for groceries (the farmers market; Food Basics by the Barton Jail; No Frills on Main East near Wentworth; the little grocers on James North).

We do no-one any favours by worrying about solving problems which they don't even have.

Comment edited by moylek on 2011-07-08 16:44:04

Cycling on busy streets should be banned.

As should trolling on busy forums.

captialist- no one said that you have to cycle all winter. That is what cars and public transit are for. You can however cycle from late March to about Nov 1.

If you've been to the Ottawa/Gatineau area lately, you'd know that it is a cycling community. Trails and bike lanes are everywhere. Public servants- woman wearing skirts and men in suits ride commuter bikes to work wearing helmuts and no one notices.

Jason, I agree wholeheartedly! What does one do if they have to work a night shift and finish work before the buses start to run?

What we need is a city-wide (or at least Hamilton Core-wide) network of physically separated bike lanes, and bike rental stations along the way. I don't see it being prohibitively expensive or difficult to engineer. The benefits will be immense, and think of what it can do to Hamilton's reputation!

Just thought I'd share this photo of a bike lane in Beijing. Note the width, and also the density of the traffic beside it. http://flic.kr/p/a1RVk2

I'm from Toronto, and I can tell you Hamilton is a MUCH more cycling friendly city than the big smoke. A) There are more bike lanes, and B) Drivers (for the most part) are not snobs who don't give a damn about anybody but themselves.

Thank goodness for road courtesy here in the Hammer. If you don't believe that Hamilton is a bike friendly city, I encourage you to make a day trip to Toronto and ride north along Avenue Road during rush hour. But please be careful.

Hamilton, you have much to be proud of :)

Jason, Ryan, I'm new here, just discovered RTH and this looks like a good place to jump in.

I notice that the critical comments are based on the assumption that car culture is going to continue on as it is now indefinitely into the future. If anyone is paying attention to how near we are to Peak Oil, or the increasing costs of building new roads and maintaining existing ones for the privilege of driving a car - I'm thinking that we better start getting ready for the return to the way things were prior to WWII, when most people took public transit to work, and lots of people rode bikes as well. It's not like we have a choice about making the transition to the post-auto era, and we better do it while we still have the resources to do so!

In the U.S., many cities are bankrupt or near bankrupt, and are losing their existing public transit systems. A lot of poorer people are becoming virtually stranded in cities, and even suburbs that have no transit or roads that are safe for cycling - why copy their mistakes?

Like Undustrial said, Peak Oil is a frequent topic of conversation here. Click on the link at the top of this page for Hardy to Zone 6 for some of the discussion - going further back than that, look for "Special Report - Peak Oil" There's lots of good debate stretching back over 5 years or so.

Peak oil is a very regular topic of conversation on this site, and one of the main reasons we're so critical of car culture.

The automobile age will end one way or the other. But we can't assume the end of cheap oil will miraculously entail the birth of a vibrant and walkable urban life. Many of the changes needed involve enormous amounts of time and funding (ie: LRT). They won't just appear because Ford and Toyota declare bankruptcy.

If the potential for another spike toward $150/barrel weren't enough to kill our chances of paying for these changes, there's the fact that our leaders, at current, are working as hard as possible and spending every dime we can find to move us in the wrong direction. New highways, sprawl and parking lots aren't just costing us billions, but they're also raising the price of any eventual shift toward sustainability.

Many thanks to Jason for the well-written article. You've touched on a number of key concerns regarding the increased use of the road network by cyclists.

However, there appears to be a gap in reaching a concensus on what policies and practices are needed to ensure that the growing number of cyclists are protected from injury or harm...other than the expansion of bicycle lanes on the road network. The assumption being that if Hamilton was to create a utopian cycling network, that collisions with automobiles will no longer exist...or rather that any cycling collision would garner a healthy outcome.

A portion of my earlier comment which Jason refers to in his post, was to highlight the fact that cyclists are no different than motorists when it comes to responsible driving (or riding) habits. Or, rather "assumed" irresponsible driving/riding. A driver who is involved in a collision and was found to either not have had their seatbelt on, or was talking on the phone, or was eating or drinking a coffee, is generally viewed as acting in a careless manner. Cyclists by nature of the current law are governed under the HTA, and as such appear to be viewed in a similar vein.

Recognizing that cycling is becoming more commonplace in our society, furthers the need to have a governing body overseeing the cycling transportation network. Certainly most other modes have such a body in place (air, marine, rail, cars, and transit). The aforementioned representative organizations carry significant weight in determining best practices and laws regarding their corresponding industry.

Vehicular traffic is not going away anytime soon, despite assumptions that fuel prices will drive the automobile into the same demise as the betamax. Electricity or other fuel-cell development will continue to see vehicular movement on the road networks. Planning and construction of current/future road classifications require the cycling industry to lobby as a whole...not as the current piece-meal representative fashion they do today.

Food for thought:
Toronto used to have a bicycle sub-committee of city council before Mr. Ford saw fit to disband it. The councillor on the committee refused to give up and created his own group. Why can't Hamiltonians create their own group?
Form the group and hash out your top 3 objectives to start. Research the studies already out there that support it, check costs, develop implementation plans and present it to council.
We obviously have some passionate citizens out there on the topic. Join together!

Well for starters there are these guys:

http://tlchamilton.blogspot.com/

I have been hit by careless bicycle riders as a walking pedestrian. When will we see fit to make cyclists responsible legally for their own actions?

I believe that we need to have people with licenses to drive a bike on city roads, not sidewalks, and have them tested for competence before we can cater to them. If these people want the same, or similar, privileges, it's time we see to it that hey are competent before they are allowed to use our streets. This is all in he safety of our citizens, both in vehicles, on bicycles, or even on foot.