Since the sunshine returned last week it is tough to walk down Bell Road, Vernon or Agricola Streets without seeing someone on two wheels zipping by. This palpable surge in bicycle culture is not unique to Halifax; cities all over Canada are seeing growing numbers of cyclists. Bicycle culture in Halifax is a relatively recent phenomenon.When I moved to Halifax in 2007 council had just adopted its first comprehensive plan for cycling. Local citizens were mobilizing to form an advocacy organization that would become the Halifax Cycling Coalition (HCC). I want to be clear. It’s not all rainbows and bike bells for cyclists in Halifax. We have some serious work to do if we are to realize our potential as a cycle city. As the outgoing co-chair of the HCC, I was involved in three years of kitchen conversations about bike lanes, Bike Week and business commissions. I saw first-hand the growth of cycling in Halifax and the appetite that exists for better cycling conditions.
So why is Halifax primed to be a cycling city? A lot of it comes down to geography. Studies that investigate transportation behaviour identify the sweet spot for cycling as trips of five to eight kilometres. This is the distance where someone is most likely to leave the station wagon at home and ride the Schwinn to work. Given the compact character of the peninsula and the high proportion of the 70,000 or so residents that live, work or study in the centre of the city, there are a lot of trips that would be classified as “bicycle friendly.” Throw in three major universities on the peninsula, a less than luxurious transit system and rising gas prices, and you start to see why the bicycle is emerging as a viable option. The Halifax Cycling Coalition is not the only group that is taking notice.
One area where we have witnessed some change is from the business side of cycling. Cycling and cyclists are being recognized as a market that deserves attention beyond just lycra. In 2011, I Heart Bikes launched bicycle tours, rentals and discounts, putting a whimsical spin on bicycle tourism. Recently, the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission put bicycles front and centre in its rebranding campaign. New cycle shops popped up in Dartmouth and on Quinpool targeting cycling as a lifestyle choice as much as recreation. Bikes are a serious part of the conversation when it comes to urban living, and there’s been an explosion of Bike Valet and Bike Week interest, and a growing number of branded bike racks around town.
The HCC has also seen a healthy bulge at local cycling events. In 2009, public lectures featuring the Bike Gurus from Portland brought crowds of 50 to 60 people. By 2012, a standing room-only crowd came to hear Mikael Colville-Andersen, a bike advocate from Copenhagen, speak. The Open Street Party evolved from a small grassroots event to the jewel of Bike Week, with thousands of people coming out to celebrate bike culture. The bike movement brought us Switch: Open Street Sundays, challenging our perception of how we use streets and public space. The HCC has worked to support the Planning & Design Centre as it works to expand Switch Open Street Sundays in 2013 (the first is this weekend, June 9th!) and two more in the works. In 2012 Switch parlayed two kilometres of open streets into an event that attracted 3,500 Haligonians to explore the streets by bikes, proving again the appetite for investment in cycling.
The next step in the development of bicycle culture is to meet the growing demand for cycling in urban areas. The bottom line is that we need a connected network of routes where cyclists have space on the road, making it safer and easier to get around on two wheels. This requires some bold decisions that challenge some of the values that have been the norm the last 60 years.
Cycling isn’t exclusive. It is inclusive and you’re all invited. Explore your community at a different speed. Every new cyclist makes our city a more interesting place to live. Together we can build a cycling culture that keeps us all safe, happy and healthy.
Ross Soward, is a community planner and cycling advocate who has volunteered with the Halifax Cycling Coalition for the last three years.
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This article appears in Jun 6-12, 2013.
“Cycling isn’t exclusive. It is inclusive and you’re all invited.”
Unless you’re poor, of course. Bikes are frikkin’ expensive these days (especially if you want something even vaguely durable or a fixie)
You can get a bike at an auction or second-hand for a very reasonable price, and there are a ton of free or nearly free clinics out there on how to maintain it.
It may not have all the modern bells and whistles, but a 1970’s Peugot will get you from A to B comfortably.
@ the orge:
I agree with dfleming – I don’t have a lot of extra cash floating around to spend on bikes. There are many different options to getting on a bike at a low cost, not to mention a large number of enthusiasts that would be willing to help you out!
Better connected routes would be great, but please design them better than some that there are out there already. I had to go to Dartmouth a few days the other week and it was so annoying to be forced to cycle all the way to the bottom of the hill to then have to turn around and cycle all the way back up it to get onto the bridge, with a high barrier to stop you from getting off your bike and walking it on to the route! Thank you HRM, great planning!
Agree about the damn bridge. Nothing is more despiriting for me, as a poor person who can’t afford a bus pass, then taking my bike over the bridge- because at the end of the day, after working 2 jobs, I have to go up that stupid ramp. Even worse is when I go to my job in the north end where going straight up North Street involves, like Drewburt says, going alllll the way to the bottom of a hill then all the stupid way back up.
FYI if you do have issues with the bridge you should attend this:
Macdonald Bridge & AT Access Meeting June 11, Halifax
Do you currently cross the Macdonald Bridge using the sidewalk or bike lane? If so we invite you to attend our Active Transportation Meeting being held on Tuesday, June 11th at 7p.m. at the Dartmouth Sportsplex. We will be discussing options of how to utilize active transportation during the Macdonald Bridge Suspended Spans Redecking Project, scheduled to begin in early 2015. For more information please visit: https://www.hdbc.ca/news.asp
The bridge is really disheartening, as is Prince Street or Duke or any of the direct east-west uphill routes from the waterfront to the plateau neighbourhoods. (did someone say funicular bike railway? dare to dream). Another disheartening struggle is that stretch of Bell Road from Quinpool to Sackville. It’s been a mess for two years now with some kind of paving project or manhole raising work each year, disrupting everything from painted lines to crosswalks.
This year when the snow melted the street sweeper machine carefully brushed all the grit and sand from the gutter to the middle of the bike lane where it sits today. Then around a month ago a contractor did a shoddy paving job resulting in a tooth rattling bumpy surface plus the complete obliteration of the white bike lane lines with the result that cars squeeze bikes over to the edge of the new bad paving and into the aforementioned gravel and grit.
The city should have a whole section in each roadwork specification requiring immediate reinstatement of bike lanes. As it is it seems like paving contractors don’t really care about bikes and I suspect the city inspectors don’t actually get on bikes to ride the lane for their inspection, as perhaps they should.
It seems like such a small thing to take care of in a big city. Despite all this, average daily workers continue to take up cycling in droves. Ride that route any morning and you see them with their baskets and panniers and blinky lights and hand signals, etc.
We’re looking forward to the day someone gets this principle: “If you build it they will come.”