Matthieu Gagnon, Vice-President
There has been a lot of talk about bike lanes recently because the province got involved in municipal affairs with Bill 212. I have also been expecting plans for bike lanes on and near Orléans Boulevard between the river and Notre-Dame for a long time. Whenever I post something on Facebook, some people seem to be under the impression that I am trying to facilitate my hobby or even forcing it on people. I thought it would be good to outline who I believe would mostly benefit from bike lanes.
I want to address a few things before diving in. Advocates for a diverse transportation system (like me) are never advocating to remove driving as an option. It is important to us that people for whom driving is the best option are still able to do so. Cars and driving can be incredibly efficient for some trips. However, enabling more trips to be taken outside a car may mean that some cars trips take a little bit longer, and those people who choose to drive will have to be more aware of their surroundings in this scenario. Often though, when less cars are on the road because more people choose other transportation options, driving gets better too.
Bike lanes are a misnomer. There are more users of bike lanes than just people on bikes. When riding in bike lanes, it is common to see people in wheelchairs, scooters, skateboards, etc. I use the term bike lanes because it is the most commonly used term but they should be called something like “micromobility lanes” to reflect the variety of vehicles who use them.
One important target audience for bike lanes should be those who can’t drive either because they cannot afford to drive or those who can’t get a driver’s license. However, many also choose to make use of bike lanes because they just don’t want to drive, or want to be more active, or just prefer to be on a bicycle or other micromobility option.
Driving is expensive. Ratehub estimates the cost of car ownership to be $1350 a month per vehicle, which is $16,200 per year. The minimum wage in Ontario is $17.20 per hour or about $35,776 annually. Even if a person working minimum wage manages to spend half the average of the estimated costs, that comes to over 20% of their income dedicated to car ownership. The average household income in our community is $103,400, which means that a single-car household would spend 15.7% of their income on that car. Given the increasing costs of everything, especially housing, it is reasonable to expect that some people in our community would not be able to afford a car.
Many people can’t drive because they don’t have a license, such as people who are too young to drive. Several medical conditions can cause you to lose your license, including loss of sensory functions like vision, loss of motor function (e.g. joint movement), or loss of cognition (e.g. attention, concentration, memory, problem-solving skills, thought processing, visuospatial skills, insight and judgment). Also, even if those health factors are not severe enough for a driver to lose their license, they may still not feel comfortable driving, or driving may not be the best idea for their safety and that of others. If we don’t want people who can not or should not drive to take the risk and drive regardless of their abilities or have those people trapped at home, we need to provide alternatives.
Those alternatives without bike lanes are walking, taking public transit, getting a ride from someone who drives, or taking a risk and riding in traffic.
Walking in our community is not an easy option since a lot of places where people need to go are too far to walk. The standard criteria for walkability is 400m (5 minutes); however, people have been shown to be willing to walk longer distances, but there is a big drop-off in the number of people who will walk beyond 2km or walk longer than 20 minutes. If we look at the 5 and 20-minute walksheds, according to Traveltime.com, of the Convent Glen Shopping Centre, the most central grocery store in our community, the 5-minute walkshed barely gets you out of the parking lot, while the 20-minute walkshed misses vast areas of our community. The location of the shopping centre is very central in our community and shows that a lot of amenities that people need are not situated within a reasonable walking distance. Those walksheds also assume a certain level of fitness that a lot of people who are not able to drive due to medical conditions do not have. There are also other barriers to walking beyond distance, including long crossing distances at intersections and lack of shade. Walking is not a great option for many people in our neighbourhood who can’t drive.
Transit is also not a great option since the transit in our community is focused on getting people to the major bus stations (LRT stations in the future) as part of their commute downtown. Bus routes in our community, like the 138, only go by every 30 minutes at peak times and hourly off-peak. If I were to take transit from my house to the Convent Glen Shopping Centre, it would take me 16 minutes once I did the 950m walk to get to the stop. I would also have to walk another 160m to get to my destination. The most comfortable walk would be 1.9km and take 26 minutes, according to Google Maps. Transit would be viable if I needed to go along St-Joseph or to Place D’Orléans, but the narrow use case for transit and the time transit would take doesn’t make it a very appealing option as an alternative for people who can’t drive.
Getting a ride either through the generosity of family members, neighbours, or friends can be taxing on those drivers, and those drivers may not be available when the person needs the ride. People, especially those without a medical condition, may not feel comfortable asking for that help. For those too young to drive, it means that parents have to put their own lives on hold to drive and attend activities with their kids or that the kids miss out on those activities if they cannot get a ride. The distances to children’s activities are generally good biking distances under 5km. Distance is not the major issue since a lot of parents would feel uneasy to have their children walk or bike using the current infrastructure due to high-speed roads with dangerous intersections. Providing kids with good alternatives, especially older kids, could save parents a lot of time and could help children become more independent. Getting rides is not a viable or desirable option for people who don’t drive.
The final alternative is to risk using the infrastructure as it currently exists. If we look at Orléans Boulevard, we can often see people riding on it. Riders are usually on the sidewalk, which is not allowed, on the right side hugging the curb, which is dangerous because you risk getting a close pass, or taking a lane, which frustrates drivers. This means that the only people who will use the Orléans overpass are those who violate laws, take risks, or don’t care about inconveniencing drivers. This is a very serious limitation of this approach, making it not a viable alternative for many people who don’t drive.
Providing a good micro-mobility network would give people a good alternative to driving. If we take the same calculator for the 15-minute bikeshed around Convent Glen Shopping Centre, the area covers the entirety of our community including all of St-Joseph, Place D’Orléans and Centrum, most of Châteauneuf, and all of Châtelaine Village. A mobility scooter like the ET4 Compact Mobility Scooter (not the most expensive model), which can go up to 25 km/h and 20km on a charge, a good network would allow it be a good alternative for someone who can’t drive. There are also a wide range of electric and non-electric bikes that cater to people with a variety of disabilities. Bike lanes are an easy way to open our community to everyone and not just those who can drive.
