Cycling in Victoria -- extreme not mainstream

On April 11th, the Shelbourne Community Celebration conducted a 'Family Bike Ride' (pictured above). Now, I generally have positive feelings about this event. However, I would like to address something that you will notice about the participants -- spandex, reflective vests, mountain bikes, brightly coloured cycle-specific clothing, helmet, and police escort.

This something is the difference (recommended link!) between a cycling subculture and cycling as part of culture.

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Last year, in a a Times (UK) entitled Cycling should be dull, not an extreme sport, author Janice Turner called for Londoners to overthrow the 'cult of the car' before they can expect more people -- other than lycra-clad superheroes -- to ride.

I feel as though this sentiment could be applied to most of North America, including our fair city.

"And yet last Sunday... cars were banned from [some central] London streets... Around 65,000 people gloried in our city, rode beside our pink-cheeked children... Oh, if only it were like this every day, we all cried, as if ordinary citizens... just getting around safely on two wheels wasn't a fantasy."

The article goes on to emphasize how cyclists in other countries -- such as Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands -- represent a cross-section of its citizens: unaccompanied children, the elderly, and women as much as men.

While Victoria is the bike capital of Canada, with a whopping 5.6% of its residents cycling to work, this number pales in comparison to the bike capitals of the world: In Copenhagen, 36% percent of residents cycle to work, and 55% of commuters in the inner city are on two (non-motorized) wheels. In Amsterdam, nearly 40% of all trips (not just work) are made by bike. In both cities, cycling trips exceed car trips and bike ownership exceeds car ownership.



People will cite a variety of reasons as to why those cities might be more conducive to cycling than Canada (e.g., density, topography, demographics); however, we'll debunk all of them in time.

That said, both Amsterdam and Copenhagen, among other cycle-friendly cities, were overridden with cars in the second half of the 20th century. Yet, a combination of policy, innovation, and infrastructure (all to be covered) have allowed cycling to become part of everyday life -- not some 'special' or neglected subculture.

                                           Image from Amsterdamize.com

This bring us back to Victoria. Victoria is the Cycle Capital of Canada! Yet, that doesn't take much.

We need less superheroes and more people on bikes. The more people cycle, the safer cycling is -- its an inverse relationship.

  Citation: Pucher & Buehler (2008) http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/Irresistible.pdf 

Unfortunately, similarly, the less safe cycling is (or is perceived to be), the less people will be inclined to cycle.

I believe that Victoria is far, far, far from reaching its potential as a cycling city.

So, how do we encourage cycling in Victoria?

How do we make it less extreme and more 'mainstream'?

And, why is cycling good?

Well, that is one of many things that MakeVictoriaBetter.com is about. So, stay tuned...