Below are a few items that I think that you might find interesting:
Recently, my colleague Nancy Smith Lea was interviewed about her nearly three decades of involvement with Toronto's cycling community. I admire the work that Nancy has done through joyful activism and building a case for support with much needed research and evidence. Nancy offers a lot of great insights on how cycling continues to change in Toronto and I recommend checking out the full interview on the Two Wheeled Politics blog.
The North American Bikeshare and Scootershare Association (NABSA) has released their 2022 State of the Industry report! I find myself referencing these annual reports in my work all the time because they include helpful insights about system operations, climate impact, who is using shared micromobility, and more. For example, did you know that shared micromobility trips in Canada increased by almost 50% to 19.2 million trips in 2022? Get the report today and learn more about what's happening with this always evolving sector.
NABSA has been busy this summer developing helpful resources. In addition to the industry report mentioned above, they also released a new resource advocating for the importance of including shared micromobility in electrification efforts. I absolutely agree that shared micromobility charging stations need to be part of our efforts to build capacity for electric vehicle charging, and this new resource includes helpful context for having these discussions.
New research from Dr. Rebecca Mayers and the University of Waterloo urges planners to expand their perspectives and stop valuing “commuter” cycling over “recreation” cycling. There's an all too common belief that investments in cycling are only worthwhile when they support commuter cycling, like cycling to work. This new research argues that the focus on the trip to work not only ignores recreational cycling, but also ignores the travel behaviour of women and individual cyclists, as well as the potential of recreational cycling to increase participation and representation in cycling. If you'd like to learn more, the article is available for free on Academia.edu.
Earlier this year, I was asked by a client what the total number of kilometres of bicycle infrastructure is in Canada, and I had no idea. But my colleague Nancy directed me to the Cities, Health & Active Transportation Research Lab, which has a project mapping bicycle facilities across Canada. Turns out that they identified nearly 23,000km of bicycle infrastructure across Canada, and that multi-use paths are the most common infrastructure type by length, followed by painted bike lanes.
As a new mom navigating public spaces with my daughter, I am often faced with questions like - where did the sidewalk go, why are there no benches to sit and breastfeed, and why isn't there space for me and our stroller on public transit vehicles? So I was interested to see this report on how babies, toddlers, and their caregivers access public space. The report looks at how mobility systems are often not planned with theses travel characteristics in mind, which can negatively affect children's mental and physical health and increase stress for caregivers and families. Caregiving is already hard enough, and we're making it even harder through mobility planning decisions.
Women in Urbanism Canada is now open to members! The national non-profit is a women-led community working to transform Canadian cities into more equitable, enjoyable, and sustainable places for everyone. Join me and a growing network of members today!
The lack of accommodations for e-bike delivery riders on GO Transit is part of a larger failure to imagine the future of commuting, as argued by the Globe and Mail's Editorial Board this summer. Instead of welcoming the increase in e-bikes, the transit agency has been enforcing their limit of two bikes per train car, which has reportedly left some riders stranded overnight at Union Station with their bikes. GO Train stations are largely built around the assumption that passengers are driving and parking (for free!) to connect to the train. It's past time to reevaluate these assumptions and provide better accommodations for people who arrive by foot and by bike, and who travel with their e-bikes.
