16Sep 2020 by Pete Spearing 1 Comment

#sharedstreets in the news

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Our #sharedstreets campaign hit the news on Sunday night and Monday morning as Global News Calgary reached out in support of a news feature about the allocated roads in the city. https://globalnews.ca/news/7332338/bike-calgary-permanent-lane-closures/ Click to view the Global News Calgary article including a video clip. Bike Calgary is awaiting a response to the open letter issued to the City on the 9th September 2020.

15Sep 2020 by Pete Spearing No Comments

Lime Partners with Bike Calgary to Create Safer Streets

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https://www.li.me/second-street/lime-hero-bikecalgary Bike Calgary is excited to announce our partnership with Lime under their Lime Hero program. Through the Lime Hero program, Lime riders in Calgary can now round up the cost of each ride and donate the difference to Bike Calgary, where this will be used to support our nonprofit volunteer work to make Calgary a great place for all bikers through advocacy, education and community. "Bike Calgary advocates for a better cycling infrastructure (cycle tracks and bike lanes), safely shared roads, and public and government acceptance, investment and support for cycling as a means of transportation," said Peter Spearing, Director at Bike Calgary. "We're excited to work with Lime and their riders to help draw attention to our joint issues and fund our work to shape policy and implement projects that…

09Sep 2020 by Pete Spearing No Comments

#SharedStreets – Open Letter to the Mayor and Councillors

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As part of our ongoing #SharedStreets campaign, Bike Calgary has issued the following letter to the elected officials of the City of Calgary. As well as providing some relevant data, some of which is provided by the City itself, we are asking for a pause in releasing back the adaptive roadways and to engage with stakeholder groups to work together and focus in the right areas, where we can help our local businesses recover and generate community income by change as well as providing safe usable cycling spaces. What can you do? Write to your local member of Council in support of this letter. Contact your Ward community representative to ask how they view the pause and retention of the Shared Streets. As a business, especially local shops, bars, restaurants…

04Sep 2020 by Pete Spearing No Comments

Dam! – The Glenmore Pathway reopens!

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Since 2017 the Glenmore Dam has been receiving construction upgrades including a new deck, as well as gate upgrades and creating unobstructed views of the Elbow River valley. Well today Bike Calgary is pleased to confirm the opening of this important pathway connection. To mark the occasion, Bike Calgary asked Shiv Ruparell, who made regular requests through our websites forums as to when the pathway would be opening, to join us to mark the event. Bike Calgary's Board Member Bill Richardson presented Shiv with our new style T-Shirt to commemorate the event. Shiv added "It is with great pleasure that I cross, for the first time, the new pathway on the top deck of the revitalized Glenmore Reservoir Dam. With dedicated lanes for cyclists and pedestrians going in each direction, as…

01Sep 2020 by Pete Spearing No Comments

#sharedstreets update

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Thank you all for the responses to date. The Twitter activity has been great and CBC carried the story in the link below. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-adaptive-lanes-expanded-patios-snow-pandemic-covid-19-1.5707197 Unfortunately, the City decided to re-open Memorial and the lower deck of Center Street this morning, without any prior public communication. Ironically, the rather large "social distancing" notice remains planted in the middle of the pathway, which in itself isn't wide enough to pass within these requirement. Traffic on Memorial at 7.15am this morning was comparable to that of the pathway. Our current list of #sharedstreets are: – Riverfront Ave (1 St to 2nd St)– Memorial Drive (9 St to just east of Centre Street)– Centre Street Lower Deck– 8th St SW (10th Ave to 17th Ave)– 11th St SW (12th Ave to 17th Ave)– Elbow…

30Aug 2020 by Pete Spearing 3 Comments

Bike Calgary Campaign Launch – #Sharedstreets

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Removal of social distancing could be the end of lane closures? While 2020 will go down in history as the year of the pandemic, it should also be remembered as the year Calgarians became acutely aware of the importance of our local surroundings and our public spaces. Cycling has exploded as a recreational activity and been reinvented, with the City closing roads and lanes to allow people to benefit from socially distanced outdoor activities. Calgary now has the chance to move forwards, not backwards, and to realize that no matter the time of year, We can bank some of the benefits provided to date and enable Calgarian’s to enjoy our pathways safely and to continue the boom in local outdoor activities, which brings huge gains in overall well-being and allowing…

29Aug 2020 by Pete Spearing No Comments

YYC Bike Awards 2020 – Update

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Due to the continuing restrictions on social gatherings, Bike Calgary has decided to postpone the presentation of the 2020 YYC Bike Awards until we can hold the event in person and celebrate as a group. The September 25th event has therefore been cancelled. We will announce a new date once social gathering restrictions have been lifted. In the meantime, we are still welcoming nominations for the YYC Bike Awards. After all, the pandemic messed up much of our usual cycle commuting to school and work. Please consider schools, workplaces, businesses, and individuals who have stepped up during this time and made cycling better in our city so they can be recognized for their achievements. There are four categories for the YYC Bike Awards - School of the Year, Rider of…

24Aug 2020 by ezflyer 3 Comments

Is it time to save the temporary bike lanes?

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The Covid-19 pandemic has brought changes to most of our lives. Although many have been challenging, some have actually been beneficial. For cyclists, one of these positive changes is the many temporary bike lanes that the city has created to help enhance active transportation in Calgary. Next month, City Council will be looking at what to do with these lanes. As you can imagine, there will be advocates for the removal of all lanes, for making all the lanes permanent and for many flavours in between. If you have lanes that you would like the City to make permanent, then make your thoughts known. If you feel strongly about keeping any of these lanes, send a 311 to the city, telling them which lanes you used and how you want…

19Aug 2020 by Pete Spearing No Comments

Pathway wayfinding? Where’s it going?

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With the network now exceeding the 1000kms landmark, there is a noticable lack of wayfinding for those whom are not regular users or seeking to navigate some of the complicated cross City routes from pathway to pathway. The City's website carries mapping of the current pathways, including where regular snow clearing is carried out. But is this enough and would additional signage benefit the casual user trying to navigate to a specific place using the quickest and most direct routes? Smart devices can provide safe navigational routes, but are not always up to date nor might the consider the practicalities of the route condition. Maps are also quickly out of date and not very practical. There is no doubt that some routes are in need of some directional signage and…

03Aug 2020 by Pete Spearing 3 Comments

An Introduction to Bike Calgary’s Infrastructure Taskforce

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Getting the measure - Checking lane distances There are many components to Bike Calgary, one of which is our Infrastructure Taskforce, currently led by Pratim Sengupta. This multi-disciplinary, diverse team of volunteers actively review, research and engage in improving our infrastructure. Its Mission Statement is "to promote the development of safe, comfortable and efficient cycling infrastructure that caters to a wide range of age and ability, level, is accessible 24 hours/day and 365 days per year, with the goal of achieving city-wide cycling network that makes an easy and desirable travel option for Calgarians". Riding, research and advocacy are at the forefront of the group’s agenda. Working on infrastructure development involves multi-dimensional expertise, ranging from “live checks”, technical expertise on engineering design and construction, engagement with civic leadership, an ever…