Cycling residents campaign to restore $500,000 funding for cycling projects; Rally on Monday

For immediate release: Friday June 6, 1997

Cycling residents from Cumberland to Kanata are busy e-mailing, faxing and phoning their regional councillors in a campaign to restore a one-half million dollar program of bike lanes and paved shoulders which was axed by a committee of Regional Council on Tuesday. Cyclists are also gearing up for the Rally for Cycling which will be held at RMOC Headquarters at 12:30 on Monday, before Regional Council makes a final decision about the funding on Wednesday June 11.

Regional Councillor Robert van den Ham (Cumberland) moved the motion at Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee that took away the funding for cycling improvements. At the meeting, he called cycling transportation "a poor investment." During last year's regional budget review, he stated that "cycling as a mode of transportation in this region sucks. We have a multi-billion dollar infrastructure system to handle transit and cars. You put one bicycle on those things and it constrains everything... let's not change the whole regional road network to accommodate bicycles."

Van den Ham has been invited to attend the Rally on Monday, to present his views to cyclists firsthand.

The funding for cycling route improvements was included in a Transportation Department report that recommended top priorities for spending $5.5 million in matching funds from the Canada Ontario Infrastructure Works program (COIW). Less than 10% of the program funds would be spent on cycling improvements, with the remainder being spent on road repaving ($4.55 Million), bridge repairs ($500K) and road projects ($2.8 Million). The $500,000 in cycling improvements would only cost regional taxpayers one-third ($167K) under the program.

$2 Million was invested in bike lanes and paved shoulders as part of the $80 Million original infrastructure works program in 1994. Bike lanes were added to roads like Prince of Wales Drive, Blair Road, and March Road. Cycling projects that are being considered for this year include providing space for bicycles from Kanata to Orleans: extending the CPR path from Kanata into Bells Corners to the Moodie Drive bike lanes, paving shoulders on roads like Robertson Road, Fisher Avenue, and adding bike lanes to Montreal Road, Prince of Wales Drive, St. Joseph Blvd. and Old Innes Road, among others.

"Regional residents have said they are looking for greater opportunities for cycling, and the $500,000 of works program funding will provide new cycling opportunities," said Delmage. "Spending money to improve cycling safety and comfort is a great investment in Ottawa-Carleton's future and quality of life, and should be a priority."

In fact just one week ago, Regional Transportation Committee approved a walking, cycling and public transit -first policy, in the Transportation Master Plan which is part of the Region's new Official Plan. It will guide development to 2021. The new focus on non-car modes of travel reduces the need to construct new roads that are costly to taxpayers and the environment and destroy neighbourhoods. Cycling trips are scheduled to approximately double to 8% of all peak trips by 2021 as part of this strategy.

"How are we ever going to achieve the cycling growth target and obtain the full health, air quality and cost-saving benefits unless regional councillors start taking it seriously today?" asked Delmage. "Tens of thousands of residents already are. It's about time some members of Council caught up."

Cycling is a popular mode of transportation in Ottawa-Carleton. One-half of all residents ride a bicycle during the year, and approximately 160,000 trips are made daily by bicycle during the cycling season.

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Contact: Citizens for Safe Cycling 722-4454