Cyclist Profile - Cris the Bike Month organizer

Cyclist profiles are part of an ongoing series at Spacing and I Bike TO. In celebration of the season -- and the City's Bike Winter program -- I will now focus on winter cyclists!

Name / Occupation / Age
Christina Bouchard / Bike Month Organizer / 24

What do you use your bike for?
Transportation and Recreation.

How often do you ride?
Daily

How long have you been commuting by bicycle, what made you decide to start and what would you say to someone who is considering trying it for the first time?
When I moved to Toronto for my first year of University, I left my car in Ottawa. I was so thrilled to be out of the burbs and living downtown. I would say:

"Riding your bike is like chopping wood, it will warm you up as you go”.

“Think positive. It may be winter, but it’s still nice to be outside.”

When did you start commuting in winter and why?
By November of my first year, it became winter and I just kept going.

What are the biggest challenges for winter bikers in Toronto?
Be careful of the streetcar tracks.

What reaction do you get from co-workers?
My co-workers all get it, but there are plenty of others who seem to think that my genetic make-up is somehow different from them.

What's the best thing about commuting by bicycle in winter?
The air is generally much fresher than in the summer.

Can you give a brief description of your route?
My route to work generally goes along Queen st. E up Coxwell Ave to the East York Civic Center. If I’m working downtown I’ll often use Queen as it’s fairly sheltered and flat, but I’m comfortable riding just about everywhere.

Where are your favorite places or streets to bike in Toronto? Least favorite? Why?
My favorite place is the northeast corner of the City, around the Rouge Valley headed up to Stouffville.
Least favorite are roads due/overdue for resurfacing. Bathurst was very bad for awhile, it was worse than riding on cobblestones.

What do you (generally) like about biking in Toronto in winter? And dislike?
It’s really not that cold in Toronto. Relative to other Cities noted for their winter ridership, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, we have it pretty easy here in the south.

What could the City do to make winter biking better?
Less salt would be nice. Also I suspect it may be possible to coordinate ploughing with more of an emphasis on the needs of cyclists. I have heard that bike lanes ploughed as part of the roadway often have snow dumped back into them when sidewalk ploughing goes on. There is no ploughing for Multi-Use trails such as the Martin Goodman.

What's your favourite piece of winter cycling clothing?
Various scarves. I’m not interested in having to windburn/freeze my face.

Any bike gadget/gear winter cyclists should not go out without?
I recently got some BLT lights for the nighttime. People keep telling me at night that my bike “looks like a car” because of how powerful they are.

Have you done any Holiday shopping by bike?
Of course. For sure.

Are you a member of any cycling organizations/clubs?
I work with the City in ‘Transportation Planning’ and promote cycling, so am in the lucky position of getting to know many cycling/advocacy groups.
I did a full season of Cyclocross Racing this year which was a blast. I would recommend it to everyone.

Anything else?
I’m driven bananas by people think that my ability to bike in the winter is as a result of magical powers they don’t possess. It’s just not the case. I’m a fairly small person and I’m female, and yet there’s literally hundreds of big strong strapping men out there who are feet taller than me and twice my weight, but for whatever reason, they won’t give riding their bikes a shot. In winter or summer. I don’t get it.
“Pile on some clothes and give it a try.”

Crossposted to Spacing

tammy : 18 years 4 months ago
Tags: Bike Winter, city hall, profiles

Snowed Under

Over the weekend, Toronto got hit by the largest snowstorm in recent memory. This made for difficult travel, but peaceful roads and smiling people. (the ones out braving the weather anyway!) The roads were quiet with light slow moving traffic on them - imagine if that could be everyday! Public transit vehicles were delayed, cycling involved slip sliding through the snow, cars were getting stuck. Bicycles locked up overnight were buried under snowdrifts. The best way today was taking to your own two feet and exploring your local neighbourhood.

Children were being pulled in sleighs, and I saw someone happily getting about town on cross country skis. I had to walk for half an hour on normally bicycle-heavy Queen Street before spotting one brave cyclist to photograph for this article, pulling into the 7-11.

While having fun on foot, I was hoping the roads would be ploughed for cycling to work Monday morning. I fear there may only be one lane on roads like Queen Street to share for streetcars, cars, and bicycles after seeing this:

Snow Mountain

While I appreciate people clearing the sidewalk for pedestrians, and while I understand with this much snow there is not much place to put it, building a mountain this tall in the curb lane is going to take forever to melt away.

Pedestrians all had big grins on their faces, like kids getting play in the snow again. And like a kid playing in the snow again, I took to the best place to enjoy a snowstorm in Toronto: a toboggan on the hill from Broadview into the Don Valley.

Let us know if you braved the big snowstorm on bicycle!

tanya : 18 years 4 months ago
Tags: winter

Convincing the public

Bike Parking at Leiden University, Netherlands
Leiden University, Netherlands

In Friday's Star, Christopher Hume looks "beyond gridlock" as a sort of finale to their series on commuting in cities around the world.

We so often hear that we need to have better public transit and better bicycle infrastructure before people will be convinced to park their cars. Hume's take is that improving non-car transport will never be as effective in changing people's mindsets as increasing the costs of car transport. He says it well, and it's worth a read.

Hume gives us a solution, but there's a certain incompleteness to it that he acknowledges. He points out that no current politicians would implement what we need to do: taxing cars and tolling roads. We won't make progress until the majority of the population is reading and being convinced by people like Hume. As one cyclist said to me a few weeks ago, "People want to be sustainable, but they have absolutely no idea what sustainable is."

We have scientific and economic solutions to our problems, but we still don't have the political one. Since all our solutions need some type of high level coordination, a political solution is key. Even the bicycle's popularity in Scandinavia, Hume attributes to a high car tax that would be considered sacrilege here.

I tend to think that there are a few simple things that can be done to make bicycle commuting accessible to many more people. Things like safer highway crossings, and some high priority bicycle corridors would go a long way to open options up for people. The city could include bicycle paths and bike lanes in the snow clearing programs. Still, people have to vote for these changes that might somehow slow down their car commute.

Attitudes are changing in parts of Toronto, and awareness is growing, but there is still a long way to go. Maybe we need a really good movie by a well respected person that entertains while explaining everything. Hmmm. I'm open to ideas.

darren : 18 years 4 months ago
Tags: car culture, politics, road pricing