Cycling in Victorian Victoria

From John Luton’s Bike Walk News in the Capital Regional District, this extraordinary bike-route map from 1897 Victoria:

How long has Victoria been the Cycling Capital of Canada?  Well, officially only since 1997 or so.  That’s when we made our declaration.  Locals, it seems, have long been discovering the Capital on two wheels. 

A University of Victoria bike map discovery is now online and presents some appealing routes to explore.  The online map dates from 1897 and illustrates a Victoria vastly different from the modern city of today, but many of the routes and features live on.

I’ve never seen an equivalent for Vancouver.  Not surprising, I suppose, since the city had only been incorporated in 1886.  But there was an active bicycle community, best captured in a famous photo taken at Prospect Point in 1895.

What’s often forgotten is how essential cyclists were in literally paving the way for Motordom, particularly when they lobbied for better roads.  Bike mechanics adapted their skills to service the first automobiles.   And their cycling customers, looking for easier transportation, followed them into automobility.

Summer Break

Back after Canada Day.

Marketing

Last Thursday: best breakfast I’ve had all year.  Reason: the Vancouver Farmers Market society was giving their annual briefing at Heritage Hall.   

It was worth showing up just for the new potatoes.  But also, of course, to hear more about their plans – and they have some big ones.

Farmers market are exploding in popularity all across North America.   In fact, they’re often too popular, rapidly outgrowing the temporary spaces (like the Trout Lake Community Centre parking lot) they’ve been occupying and pushing the boundaries of bylaws that never anticipated the revival of what were once essential facilities (Vancouver had three permanent locations at one time).

So now a coalition of interests are coming together to fund-raise for a new city market building.  Here’s a conceptual rendering by architect Jay Cassels:

They’re even including space for food processing – something more necessary than ever as farmers lose local and affordable places to sell their produce and as the agri-food industry consolidates its operations in ever larger and more remote  facilities.  (Did you see the announcement that Starbucks is dropping its local suppliers of pastries so that it can truck in frozen muffins from Ontario?  So sustainable of you, Starbucks.)

They don’t yet have a site for the proposed market building, but are looking for locations near SkyTrain.  One city staffer thought the EasyPark lot across Terminal from the Main Street/Science World station might be ideal, perhaps something that could be bonused as part of a redevelopment project.

Best of luck to them – and keep those new potatoes coming.

… a brand new start of it

More good news from New York, a city that almost monthly sets public-space precedents for North America.  Yesterday, the High Line opened.

 More pics from Fast Company here:

From the NY Times:

The High Line project is something of a New York fairy tale, given that it started with a couple of guys who met at a community board meeting in 1999 — Joshua David, a writer, and Robert Hammond, a painter — and discovered they shared a fervent interest in saving the abandoned railroad trestle, which had been out of commission since 1980 and was slated for demolition during the Giuliani administration.

That began a decade-long endeavor that involved rescuing the structure and enlisting the Bloomberg administration in its preservation and renovation.

The High Line, though unique on this continent, has itself a precedent in Paris’s Promenade Plantee.   More about that in this issue of Price Tags.

Falcon changes course?

I’ve been holding off on reprinting this article, in part to see what response it would get.  So far, nothing.

Which is extraordinary, given that it suggests a profound change of view on the part of our Transportation Minister, Kevin Falcon – not to mention the implications for Delta, Richmond and the region.

Here’s the article from the Richmond Review, May 8, 2009.  I’ve highlighted the really signficant parts in bold:

Tunnel good ‘for another 50 years,’ says minister.

By Matthew Hoekstra 

 

Boasting new transit options, an effective counter-flow system and a seismic upgrade adding 50 years to its life, the George Massey Tunnel is here to stay, B.C.’s Transportation Minister said.

In an interview with The Richmond Review, Kevin Falcon said the province’s infrastructure priorities are the new 10-lane Port Mann Bridge and the four-lane South Fraser Perimeter Road.

“That’s going to be it for the immediate future. We’re now focusing very heavily on our transit plan initiatives. We think that giving people a really attractive transit option is going to be one way we’re going to make better use of the existing road network that we now have.”

The tunnel, built in 1959, turns 50 this year.

Once those projects are complete, transportation planners will mull any possible infrastructure changes in the South Fraser corridor.

Meantime, new bus lanes are being built on the north side of the tunnel for a so-called rapid bus service in both directions, and the province’s $20 million investment in seismic upgrades will extend the life of the tunnel “for easily another 50 years,” said Falcon.

Improvements have also been made to the counterflow lane technology, Falcon said.

Building a new span over the South Arm would only be a temporary solution, he said.

“Vancouver, of course, has made it very clear that they’re not interested in improving the Oak Street Bridge corridor. So you basically make a very large investment to move the choke point down a little bit further to the Oak Street Bridge.”

When the new Port Mann opens in December 2012, drivers will pay a toll to use the crossing. But that shouldn’t affect tunnel traffic, said Falcon. The new bridge will draw the same amount of new traffic as it loses in people who go elsewhere to avoid the toll, he said….

But according to Stephen Rees, the best way to improve the movement of people and reduce emissions is to build more accessible transit options now, instead of new highways and bridges.

“We’ve got to do something quickly. This is a pressing problem,” said Rees, a former transportation planner and Green party candidate in Richmond East.

“Most of what Kevin Falcon is saying about transit expansion is too little too late. If you spent the $3 billion that you’re spending on Highway 1 or the $15 billion that the Gateway program is costing, on transit expansions [instead] you would have seen a great deal more people-moving capacity in the region a lot quicker.”

Rees acknowledged some people may insist a new span be built now that the tunnel is 50 years old. That, however, will only lead to more traffic and more urban sprawl, he said.

“Personally I’m not in favour of lots more traffic and urban sprawl, but if that’s what you like, fill your boots.”

Gateway consequences

Engaged in a heated but friendly debate last evening with an engineer who worked on Gateway. 

His position: Gateway – the highway widening and new bridge - is serving an already existing need, namely the growth that has occurred south of the Fraser.  Cars aren’t going away, even if we have to switch to electricity.  Land use is in the hands of municipalities, and not a responsibility of the Gateway project.

Next day, I opened the Sun to the business pages:

Massive mall near Abbotsford interchange stirs up debate

A new shopping mall planned for an eight-hectare site near Abbotsford’s Mount Lehman interchange will be a major retail draw for Fraser Valley residents, according to the city’s mayor.

  “The potential regional draw for that centre is enormous,” Abbotsford Mayor George Peary said in an interview about the $170-million, 600,000-square-foot Shape Properties development, dubbed Abby Lane.

“It’s huge and it’s got amazing freeway access. I think this will be the largest mall in the region. It will be relatively easy for people to get there from Langley, Chilliwack and Mission. Millions travel that freeway and they’re all potential customers.”

Opponents of commercial sprawl say the new plaza is an example of the type of retail they expect will pop up all along the highway because of the provincial government’s Gateway Program to add lanes to Highway 1 and double the size of the bridge.

I confess, I get annoyed by highway planners and advocates who ignore, discount or wash their hands of the consequences of their projects, especially when the evidence is so obvious.  Highways generate car-dependent urban form, which then produces the congestion that the highways and arterials were meant to address.   It’s a self-defeating cycle they seem not to acknowledge.  (Which means that TransLink , Metro and the municipalities must have a pro-active startegy to offset the consequences.  Otherwise we get more and more Abby Lanes.)

So, as always, I asked him this question: name me one good example of a place that had successfully addressed congestion with more roads and bridges.  A place that can serve as a model for what we are doing.  A place you want the South of the Fraser to become more like.

No answer from the engineer.

A Great Debate

Every year the SFU City Program presents a speaker in urban design, sponsored by VIA Architecture.  This year, something different.  Given that it’s the firm’s 20th anniversary (some will remember it as Baker, McGarva, Hart) and that they have offices in both Vancouver and Seattle, we came up with an idea to ‘celebrate’ both cities:

The idea, you see, is that two proponents of their respective cities will reverse roles, and argue for the merits of the other’s city.

That means I, as the Vancouverite, have to bump off the arguments of Peter Steinbrueck, an articulate architect and previous city councillor in Seattle, to make the case that his city is actually superior to Vancouver.

Help!

It seemed like such a clever idea, until I actually had to think about what I’d say.  So Price Tags readers, how about it: what examples would you put forward to make the case that Seattle in so many ways is a much better town than this village on the edge of the rain forest?

And while you’re at it, you might want to reserve a space for the event on Tuesday, June 16 at 7 pm – SFU Harbour Centre.  Email cstudies@sfu.ca or call 778-782.5100.

In addition to questions taken from the floor immediately following the debate, attendees will have an opportunity to submit questions in advance through VIA’s website at www.via-architecture.com (click on ‘The Firm’—’VIA Blog’).

Walking Around the World

A free lecture as part of the “Shifting Gears” series:

Walking Around the World: Innovation and inspiration for Designing, Engineering and Planning our Cities
June 8, 7 pm

Dr. Rodney Tolley with Bronwen Thornton, Walk 21

Note: the lecture takes place at UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street.
Reservations required: Call 778-782-5100 or email cstudies@sfu.ca

The obesity epidemic, congestion, pollution, peak oil and climate change are just five of the imperatives that demand we walk more — and walk more often. Yet the barriers to walking have intensified in recent years.

This presentation will show how streets around the world are being opened up again to people on foot, with spectacular benefits for our personal health, and the health of our cities, our communities and our children.

These lectures are sponsored by the Bombardier Foundation and the Active Transport Lab at the University of British Columbia and BC Recreation and Parks Association. Program partner: Simon Fraser University City Program.

Good News, Bad Laws

The Sun reports reports the good and bad for Vancouver cyclists.

The bad news is that during June, Bike Month in the city, traffic cops will be ticketing cyclists who violate the rules of the road.

The good news is that they’ll mostly be handing out “information tickets” aimed at educating bikers.

No problem there.  As cyclists get more respect, and more road space, there’s a quid pro quo: know the rules, respect others, obey the law.

The problem is aspects of the law.  Some make sense:

Cyclists can be dinged for $109 for riding without a bell, another $109 for not having a red reflector on the rear of the bike or a light on the front. Talking on a cellphone while wheeling down the road is also worth $109.

And then there are others:

Forget doubling your kid on the back; that’s another $109. …. Nor can you stand up on your pedals to get up that hill — if you don’t have your butt in the seat, that’s another $109.

What!  Standing on the pedals is cycling. It’s how one handles a steep grade by using the muscles and body weight effectively.  Cyclists train this way.  

Who wrote this?  Someone, I suspect, who sees cyclists more as a nuisance to the ‘legitimate’ users of the road.  Not surprisingly, cycling comprises a few sections of the Motor-vehicle Act – and the name says everything.

I assume the police will be selective in their enforcement, and ignore the peloton that pushes it way up a hill, each lycra-clad body out of the seat.  And that’s the problem: the absurdity of some aspects of cycling law casts doubt on all of it.

As the numbers grow, it’s in everyone’s interest to design the transportation to safely accommodate a multitude of users, to write reasonable laws, properly enforced, and to create a social consensus of mutual respect.  Tall order, but doable.

And speaking of social change, the New York Times commissioned David Byrne (he of the Talking Heads) to review Jeff Mapes book, Pedaling Revolution.  Writes Byrne:

Mapes finds the experience of riding around Portland — North America’s most bike-friendly city (though I think Vancouver is close) — so enjoyable that he takes as a given that it’s a positive thing, something that more communities should accommodate without question.

But as he and I know, there’s a lot of opposition. The United States is as much a car culture as ever, even if the companies that helped make us that way are now in ruins. And governments and urban planners have all been in on the game, helping make the idea of cheap, effortless transportation and a car of one’s own a dream every American might aspire to.

The Daily Dose from Toronto

Brilliant images (as always) by Sam Javanrouh of protesters greeting Bush and Clinton in Toronto:

Sam’s blog is daily dose of imagery.