Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook Society provides grassroots leadership and an inclusive process, with a voice for all community members, to ensure that our community grows and develops in a way that incorporates an environmental ethic, offers a range of housing and transportation choices, encourages a vibrant and cultural life and supports sustainable, meaningful employment and business opportunities.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Bike to Work Week

With the end of Bike to Work Week (May 20 - June 5) http://www.biketowork.ca/ I wonder why more people in Cranbrook aren't biking to work or school? As someone who has just started commuting to work on my bike in Cranbrook I think we have the potential to be a great cycling city.  Cranbrook is small enough that the commutes aren't overly long and there are many alternative routes to avoid some of the traffic. That said we need more bike lanes and when planning shopping complexes bikers as well as pedestrians need to be kept in mind.  How easy is it to bike on "the strip" or in the WalMart/Superstore shopping complex!?  Many other communities are starting to see the advantages of commuting by bike and are making it easier to commute by expanding the use of bike lanes like the City of Fredericton. Isn't it time that the City of Cranbrook started taking cyclists into account in some of their traffic planning and maybe require businesses to provide a place to park bikes. What do you think about making Cranbrook more bike friendly?
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 8, 2011 at 11:21 AM

    Even in New York City the rate of bicycling in that city has doubled since 2007. Interesting article here: http://onthecommons.org/battle-rages-streets-new-york

    In the "past four years, the city's death rate from traffic accidents has dropped to its lowest level since cars invaded the streets a century ago - and that includes the lives of motorists as well as bike riders and pedestrians. The biggest reason for New York's safer streets is that the city has added 250 miles of new bike lanes, and created popular pedestrian plazas on Broadway and other streets . . . Not only is the city safer, it's less polluted and more livable. . ."

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  2. AnonymousJune 9, 2011 at 4:04 PM

    I cycle to and from work every day and I agree that our city could be much more away of the needs of cyclists. We have rotary way which is a valuable asset to our community but we need more than that. I try to stick to quieter streets because I've been honked at, yelled at, and almost hit on busier streets like Victoria or 14th avenue. Bike lanes would be helpful but so would designated bike routes like in Vancouver.

    Not only that, we need more bike racks in the downtown area. Between Safeway and Cranbrook photo, the only place to lock a bike (that isn't a metre, lightpost, or tree) is City Hall. More access will lead to more users.

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