by Alayne McGregor

When you look back at 25 years of Citizens for Safe Cycling, three things become clear: We made a lot of noise, we had a lot of fun, and we caused a lot of changes.

There was the time when Jantine and Maggie had to defend the cycling budget before city councillors who had been listening to delegations all day. They wanted the politicians' attention, so they wore their helmets and rang their bike bells after every major point. Sure got everyone's attention, and the budget was saved.

Or there was the time CfSC objected to the Bank Street Bridge being left too narrow for sharing after it was rebuilt. An official opening was announced; CfSC members showed up on our bikes, ringing our bells, and made the point before everyone that bridges need to accommodate cyclists. Every city bridge built since has space for bikes.

CfSC has been successful because we've done our homework. Whether it's 70 pages of comments to the Ontario government on their bicycle policy review (which resulted in bicycles finally being recognized as a means of transportation), or 35 pages on a proposed city official plan, or 20 pages showing how the LRT plan would destroy the cycling routes downtown, we've cared enough to look at the details, because those make the difference in getting real results.

But it's not been an easy fight. Going back through 25 years of history, you'd swear there wasn't one year where we didn't have to fight off an attempt by city staff or politicians to either kill a cycling committee, cut a cycling budget, or fire a cycling coordinator.

CfSC volunteers have also made the difference in the basic work of promoting cycling day in and day out. For 20 years, we've been running booths to promote cycling at community events and workplaces, running workshops to promote cycle commuting and cool-weather cycling, and reaching out to women to address their particular cycling barriers. Our highly-trained instructors have taught effective cycling skills to children and adults to keep them safer on the road. We've run many campaigns to educate drivers on how to share the road with cyclists, and to educate cyclists to get off the sidewalk so they won't endanger pedestrians.

CfSC started in 1984 with a small group of cyclists. They were motivated by the deaths of seven cyclists in the previous year to work to ensure this never happened again. Their efforts succeeded, at the same time as the number of cyclists in Ottawa-Gatineau has continued to substantially increase.

The following are some of the milestones in CfSC's history:

(CfSC achievement list now being extended.)