Below are a few items that I think you might find interesting:
In a win for cycling advocacy, Hamilton City Councillors voted unanimously this month in support of a two-year increase to operational funding for Hamilton Bike Share. This vote came just a few months after staff initially proposed a funding increase and Councillors questioned whether the City should be funding bike share at all. Worried about the future of our bike share system, local advocates at Cycle Hamilton mobilized community members, and I was pleased to partner with them to host a community delegation training session ahead of the vote.Twenty-three people came out to delegate during the meeting and a Councillor posted afterwards about how it was the most thoughtful and well-prepared group of delegations they had seen!
Cycle Toronto has launched a legal challenge against the province's plan to remove bike lanes. Internal documents revealed in court show that the province is aware removing bike lanes may not reduce traffic congestion. These documents included findings from an engineering report suggesting that the removal of protected bike lanes could result in more than 54% increase in total number of collisions. Documents also say that the net result of bike lane removals could simply be more vehicles queued along congested streets without significant reductions in travel times. Thank you Cycle Toronto for your leadership on this. Additional breaking news – a judge has just granted a temporary injunction preventing the provincial government from ripping out Toronto bike lanes until a decision is released on the legal challenge.
Vélo Canada Bikes has released the results of their 2024 Pedal Poll cycling count and they counted 47,064 people on bikes across Canada. Their analysis shows that high-comfort cycling facilities are associated with a significantly higher number of cyclists per hour than low-comfort facilities. The 2025 edition of Pedal Poll is taking place June 3 to 8 and they are encouraging volunteers to sign up and help collect data to build the case for more and better cycling infrastructure.
Save the date! The North American Bikeshare and Scootershare Association (NABSA) Conference is coming to Canada in 2025! The event will be hosted in Montreal October 15-17 and it's a great opportunity to connect with the people powering shared micromobility systems around the world. I'll be there and I am planning a gathering of the Canadian Policy Subcommittee members during the event. Curious to learn more? Let me know!
The City of Toronto released the results of a micromobility count in January 2025. The report is full of of a lot of really interesting data, and I encourage you to check it out. A few highlights for me include that 12% of people cycling were using Bike Share Toronto bikes and 10% were using e-bikes. Of the trips observed to be for the purpose of food or cargo delivery, 43% were made using e-bikes, and the availability of cycling infrastructure resulted in less sidewalk riding.
The Mobilizing Justice team has released a research brief looking at the health and social impacts of the Kikinahk free bus service in Saskatchewan. The brief identifies several policy implications, including the potential of free transit in rural communities to reduce social exclusion and promote access to care and services.
The Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) recently released a helpful report on shared micromobility services in Canadian communities. The report provides an overview of what's happening across Canadian bikeshare and scootershare systems in terms of delivery models, approaches to parking, vehicle types, accessibility, and more.
The City of Welland is looking to implement a two-year pilot allowing e-bikes and e-scooters on their trails. Existing by-laws do not allow engine-propelled devices (regardless of power source) on trails within Welland. It caused a real stir in 2023 when the City issued a news release reminding people of the e-bike ban on trails. Many locals and tourists spoke up because they had purchased e-bikes specifically to be able to cycle on trails throughout Niagara Region, and were confused and disappointed to learn they could not. The pilot would test how well these e-devices fit on the trails.
The City of Kitchener reports a decrease in speeding after improvements were made in “hot spots” around the city, including speed bumps and cushions, an all-way stop, and pedestrian crosswalks. This work is part of the ongoing implementation of their Vision Zero strategy and has led to drivers slowing down by an average of 15%, or 8.2km/h.
In more e-bike news, the Toronto Transit Commission's (TTC) has banned e-bikes and e-scooters from TTC vehicles during the winter months. The ban, implemented in response to battery safety concerns and customer complaints, is notably different from the approach taken by Metrolinx, which permits e-bikes with UL or CE certified batteries on their transit vehicles.
Bike to School Week will be returning to the Metro Vancouver area June 2-6, 2025. Schools are encouraged to register before May 21, and HUB Cycling is hosting a Bike to School Week Knowledge Sharing Session on May 7th.
Bikeshare is coming to Halifax this spring! Halifax Regional Municipality chose Bird Canada for a two-year project that will initially see 300 e-scooters and 300 e-bikes launched in the urban core of Halifax and Dartmouth.
A reminder that Stuckless Consulting Inc. publishes a series of resources to support people working and volunteering to support active transportation. Our dedicated resources page is available at jamiestuckless.ca/resources and includes our active transportation research tracker, National AT Fund tracker, e-bike policy report, and a walking & wheeling skills training resource hub.
