Ward Representatives are Bike Calgary's eyes and ears (and sometimes mouth and arms and legs) in Calgary's communities.  They serve as points of contact for cyclists in each of Calgary's 14 wards, and alert the Bike Calgary Board of Directors to cycling-related issues in their wards. They work with the Board, the city, community groups, and aldermen to resolve them, and to improve cycling in Calgary's communities.

• Find your ward by community here.
• Ward map.

We currently have volunteers working out of wards 1, 4, 6-9, 11, 13, and 14.  The more people involved, the better.  Contact the ward teams at wardX@bikecalgary.org (where X is the number of your ward) if you want to join up with them.  But of course it would be nice to have all of Calgary covered, so we're looking especially for volunteers for wards 2, 3, 5, 10, and 12.

Terms of Reference

Responsibilities of ward representatives:

• Consult with Board of Directors (BoD), Advocacy Committee (AC) and Task Forces as needed on local cycling issues in wards (e.g., proposed new bike infrastructure, community planning including cycling infrastructure, maintenance and enforcement issues).
• Assist with Bike Calgary relations to aldermanic offices.
• Attend cycling related Community Association (CA) meetings and other local events (planning open houses etc.) and report to Bike Calgary.
• Serve as points of contact for area cyclists

Depending on availability and ability, ward representatives can also:

• Help organize local events (community bike rides, presentations to CAs)
• Work with local BRZs (Business Revitalization Zones) to address parking (bike and car) issues, promote a “bike friendly” business program, etc.
• Engage with CA planning committees to encourage bike programs included in local initiatives
• Submit cycling updates to local CAs on new infrastructure, submit stories to CA newsletters, help run information workshops on cycling at the community level

Ward representatives commit to:

• Submit regular reports to BoD and AC.
• Monitor CA newsletters for cycling and traffic-planning related issues.
• Alert BoD to local cycling-related issues.
• Review BoD initiatives and meeting minutes in order to stay current on what BC is doing.
• Abide by BC policies and core values for engagement, in particular:
• Have any official mailings representing BC policy positions to aldermanic offices and CAs cleared by and routed through BoD.
• Be a registered member of Bike Calgary

There is cycling infrastructure in Calgary. We'd like to help the City by providing feedback on existing infrastructure, comments on planned infrastructure, and suggestions for new infrastructure. Where should bike routes go? How should they be implemented? Etc. Do you have knowledge of transportation engineering? City planning? Or are you just an avid cyclists on Calgary's paths and streets? We want your help.

Contact: infrastructure at bikecalgary dot org

Most co-ordination is done via a mailing-list, please contact infrastructure at bikecalgary.org or user mikewarren if you want to participate.

Mission Statement

Evaluate cycling trends through review of available data, surveys and community engagement. Compare trend evaluation to current cycling network map in order to provide feedback to the City and Council to inform decisions on infrastructure as well as produce a cycling map for Calgary.

Goals

1. Produce a good cycling map for Calgary
   

   Identify existing high-quality routes that cyclists use to get around the City. Pull this together into a cohesive City-wide network, which will identify where infrastructure is most needed.

2. Use map and other data to inform decisions on infrastructure

Needs

Talent:

• GIS
• Survey/questionnaire design
• Technical computer skills, especially for open mapping tools like qGIS, OpenStreetMaps, etc.
• Mappers -- people who are cyclists in various quadrants and know the roads well enough to come up with "the best" routes through them (with or without GIS skills)
• People to help with a wider consultation process (i.e. once some sort of map is in place, wider feedback from the cycling community)
• People who can produce large-sized maps (and ideally also print them) mostly for above consultations
• Someone familiar with road standards would be great -- then at least we'd know when our favourite infrastructure idea isn't possible due to existing pseudo-regulations like "design standards"...

A large part of what we hope to do is raise awareness for cycling and issues related to cycling -- most pressingly, raise awareness of the Comprehensive Cycling Strategy: what it is, and why it's important to fund it. Are you a graphic designer, photographer, web developer? Do you have marketing skills? Do you know how to write a press release? Would you like to be a media contact? Or do you have time on your hands to help out at information booths or to distribute flyers? This is the task force you want to be on.

Contact: promotion at bikecalgary dot org

Mission

To support and coordinate cycling community activities related to community outreach, publicity, marketing, branding, and media relations, in particular, to inform public and stakeholder groups about the Cycling Strategy.

Tasks

• Create information and promotion materials, in particular, documents summarizing aims and benefits of the Cycling Strategy, talking points in support of funding the strategy, and suggested activities for interested citizens.

1. on BikeCalgary website
2. trifold brochure
3. flyers and posters

• Disseminate information and promote activities initiated by BikeCalgary or others (Good Life, EVCC, ABA, Bow River Flow, Cyclepalooza, etc.)

1. On BikeCalgary website
2. Through social media (facebook/twitter)
3. Postering (cafes, bank and library branches, community notice boards, bike shops)
4. Elevators

• Outreach and volunteer recruitment

1. Information tables at events (Bow River Flow, Chinatown Street Fair, Haultain and 1st, Market Collective, etc.)
2. Information available at and through bike shops
3. Posters, leaflets, information meetings at community associations
4. Guerrilla marketing (spoke cards, guerrilla bike lanes, events)

• Media relations

1. Issue press releases
2. Prepare press kit
3. Provide media contacts

Needs

Talent

• Photographers
• Graphic designers
• Print coordinators
• Web editors
• Media contacts
• Social media monitors
• Volunteers to staff info booths

Contacts

• cycling organisations
• event organizers
• BRZs
• community associations
• media contacts
• transportations/sustainability contacts at UofC, MRU, SAIT, ACAD
• library and bank branches

We want to supplement the information the City provides on cycling in Calgary, and help out the other groups by providing the information they need. Do you have research skills? Do you know statistics, accounting, or traffic law? Are you familiar with the City's budget process?  Do you enjoy scouring the Internet for information?  Please help out!

Contact: research at bikecalgary dot org

Mission

To act as a information resource and support the Media and Infrastructure Task Forces by Collecting information about cycling in cities and compiling it in a useful way.

Goals

Finding raw data and compiling it in a useful way

1. Linkspam posts divided by topics should be a good start
2. a wiki is a notion too
3. “Provides for all the groups involved”--information should be presented in a way that you don’t need to have someone in research translating, which means the information resources need to be both public and well organized.

Needs

Talent

1. database building
2. Wikipedia creation and maintenance
3. search engine knowledge
4. Expertise in statistics, public health, engineering, economics, traffic law

A central information site

Collecting information and presenting it in a useful way requires an online "place" to find information and a means to submit useful links for inclusion in the library.

Contacts

The research Task force will be compiling lists of contacts useful to the cycling advocacy community in Calgary, including information on what that contact is most interested in and the best means of contacting them.

Areas of Interest or Focus for the Research Task Force

There are certain areas of interest for the information database of particular interest to bike advocacy in Calgary, and the research Task force will be concerned most with these general Categories:

Opposition Analysis

1. serves to identify the opposition to bikeplan and pinpoint what issues are the reason for that opposition in order to counter them
2. Are there any groups who are antagonistic to cycling or the Cycling Strategy? Why?
3. A profile on councillors' opinion on cycling on their support and focus issues
4. The art of the press release: find information for the steering committee on how to write a good press release, and list the people who should recieve them
5. The Law: What laws exist to protect cyclists? Identify opportunities to identify gaps in the law to protect cyclists - this could be anything from determining fault to road regulations that hamper the installation of cycling tracks, changing the legal landscape of the intersection, etc.

Opposition analysis was of particular interest to the team and it was generally agreed that we needed to know what barriers stood in the way of getting funding approved for the bike plan in November's budget planning, so this is going to be emphasized in the short term.

Finance

1. Money is a big deal in discussing the bikeplan, but it’s the perceptions held that hold more sway than objective data - related to Opp. Analysis
2. How much does it cost to do a thing?
3. Where do the figures in the report come from?
4. How much do other cities spend? What do they get for that money?

City Liaison

1. Creating a contact database and to interpret the structure of how a strategy will actually be implemented, and by whom
2. Who works at city hall?
   
   • What is the best way to contact them?
   • What can we do to help them get #yycbikeplan on the budget and implemented?
3. What are the processes to put in bike infrastructure?
4. Who does the approvals?
5. Navigating the City of Calgary Websites
   
   • shortcuts to departments and useful information

We all work for free, but eventually we'll need some money to support our efforts. Do you have fundraising expertise? Do you know how to write a grant proposal? Would you like to help us develop contacts in the corporate world? Then sign up for this committee -- it needs the most help!

Contact connect at bikecalgary.org