Sticking it to the HST

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sticking it to the HST

Spoke at an anti-HST rally about the unfairness of the new Harmonzied Sales Tax that applies now to bicycles but exempts motor fuels.

It's counter-intuitive to talk about fighting climate change while reducing taxes on the most siginficant source of greenhouse gas emissions - motor fuels - while increasing taxes on one of the solutions - bicycles.

We need more carrots and fewer sticks. Supporting sustainable transportation is important not just for the environment, but also for individual and community health. Getting people active helps reduce the load on our overburdened health care system too.

My speech at the rally is now up on You Tube. Many thanks to Saanich South MLA Lana Popham for organizing the event and keeping the pressure on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqXduJ_Fi2g

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Tyee covers the politics of bicycling

Story at:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/10/21/ProvinceBikeProjects/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=251010

Bicycling is a hot issue in some places around the country. Certainly in Vancouver some heat has been generated by new facilities introduced by Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver colleagues. Elsewhere, in Toronto, suburban gasaholics have just elected new Mayor Rob Ford to take on a number of issues, including the so called "war on the car".

Here in Victoria some of the frustrations of car dependence are showing up in letters to the editor about the latest construction projects snarling traffic, some of which will offer significant improvements, by the way, for the region's many cyclists.

While the aggrieved drivers rail away at wasted dollars and too many bikes in their way, reality is somewhat more benign. Most roads are paid for by property taxes and have nothing to do whether you drive or not. In fact, those who don't drive are paying a heavy subsidy to support those that do.

Moreover, the many in Victoria who are cycling actually provide a real benefit to drivers - just imagine if the several thousand cyclists who use the Goose every day decided to get back into their cars and drive the Colwood crawl. We're taking traffic off the roads and that benefits everyone else who must or who choose to drive.

Now look again at downtown and see how many bikes are parked on the street, in parking garages, and then there are may you can't see. We aren't competing for the parking spaces drivers suggest there are never enough of.

As transportation policy, supporting bikes makes good sense, but the nickels and dimes we are getting from the province doesn't go far. Check out the Tyee for more.

And, just for fun, here's the "road hazard" I encountered on the long ride to Whistler:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/5085070252/

Victoria's Official Community Plan in Development

Victoria's Official Community Plan will sketch out the future of land use and community development in the city for decades to come. Citizens, activists and business voices are joining the discussion and have attended council, open house workshops and guided committee discussions to map out what is important to our community, how and where we will want to live, work and play, and how we plan to transport ourselves from here to there.

I'm encouraged by the emphasis on sustainable transportation and the green economy - people want mixed used communities, affordable housing and safe and easy access to cycling and walking for many of their trips. They want a vibrant, welcoming community that preserves the best of the past while embracing the needs of the future. And they support a healthy and inclusive economy that generates jobs and security for local families.

We're moving along to develop the plan but we still need your help. We're inviting you to participate in your own community circle to bring friends, neighbours and communities of interest together to review issues, challenges and opportunities and develop ideas about what Victoria needs to embrace to ensure a sustainable and vibrant future.

Check out more at: www.shapeyourfuturevictoria.ca

Late Night Strategy Goes South

Victoria has embraced a successful menu of strategies to help address the darker side of night.

The bright lights and hot entertainment scene downtown sometimes frays around the edges. We are like most cities, big and small, who suffer a little too much alcohol, bravado or excitement when the town starts to rock.

Our tools include a beefed up police foot patrol on weekends to keep an eye on the bars and nightclubs, and their patrons, trying as much to be helpful as to keep a lid on the unruly. That's been working.

Getting the food vendors out on the streets and putting in some temporary or even permanent public washroom facilities feeds the crowds and keeps the streets a little cleaner as the human traffic meanders between venues or home base after the night has wound up.

We've also lately approved another go at the late night transit service that proved popular with university students and late night workforces that need to find a safe way home after the city closes shop for the night. (As a new transit commissioner, I voted to put the buses back on the road for the fall return of student populations.)

Here's a snapshot of what our late night strategy is all about:
http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/pdfs/taskforce-downtown-late-night-mr-091116.pdf

Lately, Mayor Fortin met in Seattle with his counterpart, Mike McGinn, to talk shop and share ideas. Seems like one of the discussions may be connected to initiatives in the big city. Here's an opinion piece on Mayor McGinn's late night strategy. It's a good program to pursue, despite the challenges of funding.
http://www.publicola.net/2010/07/13/why-im-skeptical-of-mcginns-nightlife-initiative/?utm_source=RSS+Feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+publicola+%28PubliCola+%7C+Seattle%27s+News+Elixir%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Vancouver's Evolving Transportation Choices

Toronto Globe and Mail author Frances Bula covers Vancouver's planned study of the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts pouring traffic into the city centre.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/repurposing-the-viaducts/article1617267/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

A progressive council is moving quickly on numbers of projects that are improving conditions for cycling and enhancing livability for downtown residents. Dispensing with these remnant freeway facilities would free up land for more productive uses and the traffic scheme just might work.

Interesting for us here in Victoria are Bula's comments on the Burrard St. Bridge bike lane project where she notes that the experiment works because of extra capacity on the Granville and Cambie bridges into downtown.

Comparisons in Victoria with the Johnson St. Bridge where a more severe lane reduction is proposed, break down in the comparison. Victoria's alternatives don't have spare capacity and as noted in Bula's piece, real issues arise from trying to constrain access through very key access points into Vancouver, something we also need to be mindful of in Victoria.

I'v also put up a couple of pages of photo illustrations of the new project on my flickr pages. Go to www.flickr.com/photos/luton/ and check out the Dunsmuir Bike Lane gallery.

Vancouver models laneway housing

New housing options are being piloted in cities across North America. Here's a Vancouver idea that Victoria is also considering. In a very Victorian fashion, we're investigating "garden homes" that might be tucked into the plush greenery and floral displays of the capital's fewer lanes but sometimes underutilized lots where garages - housing for cars - may be converted to housing for people.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/living-small-in-vancouver/article1567855/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

My photos fly to Chicago

Better bicycle parking is the low hanging fruit of bicycle facilities. It's relatively easy to design and plan (if you know what you are doing I guess), and pretty inexpensive.
My work at Capital Bike and Walk has often focused on upping the quality of bike parking. We've written a manual of best practices, noted online at http://www.bicycleparkingonline.org/, provide consulting services, and I've got a huge photo library to illustrate examples of issues and solutions.
My photos can be found in bike plans across Canada and the U.S. and here's a link to a new article by Chicago activist Steven Vance, who's written about bike parking needs at airports.
http://www.stevevance.net/planning/2009/12/improving-bicycling-to-airports/

Victoria - The Sustainable City

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sticking it to the HST

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