Halifax Active Transportation

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by atbw

What I notice is that resistance seems sentiment- and anecdote-driven, instead of being based on any sort of data. We hear the same tired and unsubstantiated arguments every time: it won't be used! It will make traffic unbearable! It's for the rich 1%! It'll kill business!

Fortunately, planners take into account this data, not feelings and anecdotes.

Infrastructure almost universally results in higher ridership, fewer accidents across all road users, and each rider is one less car on the road. Cycling, as a primary method of transportation, is most common among the lowest income tiers in Halifax. Furthermore, cycling is more accessible to all ages than vehicle ownership, meaning kids, teens, and their grandparents can get around without buying a car, bumming a ride, or needing a license.

We can rhyme off facts and figures forever in response to these weak arguments, but the best thing to do is to let your elected officials know what you love, what needs some work, and get out there and ride.

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Things can change a whole lot in 14 years. Also, this is a province-wide survey. Obviously people cycling to work or school in rural areas is going to be low, and that right away skews these stats way to the low side.

I actually take exactly the opposite conclusion from this data: 14 years ago, 6% of Nova Scotians regularly biked for "non-leisure" activities, i.e., getting around. That's a provincial average, covering rural areas, suburbs and small towns, where almost no one would bike because it's impractical. So if we were to look just at the urban areas (central Halifax, its inner suburbs, and the downtowns and inner areas of many small towns) the rate of non-leisure cycling would obviously be much higher there, which is where we're taking about building infrastructure.

Anecdotally, it's very obvious that cycling has become more popular in the past decade.

Combine these two considerations and it seems pretty obvious we're not talking about some puny group of people, but a considerable number of people who currently use bikes to get around, and likely a much larger who would if it were safer and easier.

Anyway, if you look at other things we spend public money on for 6% or less of the population, I think we can find far better examples of waste than bike lanes, which can serve to facilitate transportation, save lives, and ease traffic congestion.

Here is story from Global news with some interesting stats especially about bike injury's in B.C.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4316749/sports-injuries-hospitalizations-canada/