Hamilton’s controversial bike sharing project is a major success already serving hundreds of riders every day and accumulating over 3000 registered users in just the first two months of operation. That significantly bolsters the city’s annual bike month that gets underway today and features multiple events including a 140 km weekend bike-camping trip to Lake Erie organized by Environment Hamilton.
That annual lake-to-lake Carbon Cycle supports the non-profit citizen group’s work against climate change. It takes riders along rail trails and backcountry roads to and from the Haldimand Conservation Area on the shores of Lake Erie on the weekend of June 6 and 7.*
“The purpose of the event is to provide an easy introduction to bicycle touring, promote cycling, celebrate our geography, and support the important work of Environment Hamilton,” says the group’s website. “This beautiful ride takes us from downtown Hamilton, along an easy grade traversing the Niagara escarpment, across the Lake Erie watershed, through the Grand River valley, and across the plains to Lake Erie, on a route that minimizes interaction with vehicles.”
A record 350 people participated in this morning’s Bike to Work event at Gore Park. Bike month also features a return of Open Streets on June 28 with a one-day conversion of James North to non-motorized use. And for less ambitious cyclists on June 6, New Hope Community Bikes is doing a Ride for the Masses starting at 6:30 pm in Victoria Park. Both it and the Carbon Cycle are among dozens of community events on June 6 in Hamilton’s first 100in1day event.
The explosive growth of the Social Bicycles (SoBi) initiative suggests non-recreational cycling is being taken up by many more Hamiltonians who are venturing out onto city streets. Registered users have quintupled since SoBi launched on March 22 with over 600 to 800 riders per day so far in May.
Somewhat over half those bike trips are being taken by individuals who have an $85 annual membership in SoBi or are paying $15 a month – both of which allow 60 minutes use per day. But two-thirds of the 3256 registrants (as of May 22) are pay-as-you-go users picking up a bike for $4 an hour at over 100 hubs across the lower city from Gage Park through Dundas.
Provincial funding paid for the bikes and racks but a local non-profit operates the system with operating costs covered by users that amount to about the same as running an HSR bus. The quick success increases pressure on the city to expand cycling infrastructure within the updated transportation master plan that continues public consultation in June with four meetings across the city.
So far, installation of bike lanes, trails and other cycling services has been much slower than promised when the current master plan was approved in 2009 that promised a four-fold expansion over 20 years and the addition of more than 250 bike lanes or multi-use paths. But the budget for that plan is over $50 million and the annual allocation for cycling is only about one percent of that amount.
As a result implementation has proceeded at less than a third the speed required to meet the stated objectives. Last year’s addition of the two-way track on Cannon Street boosted hopes of an acceleration of the program, especially the new lanes attracted up to 400 riders a day in the first months of operation.
The city website lists ten cycling projects “in the works” and around 25 in “the planning stage”. Changes underway this spring include intersection pavement markings to improve safety on the Cannon track and plans to paint bike lanes between Sherman and Kenilworth Avenues.
Doubling of cycling and walking in the next six years will be required just to meet the 2009 objectives of one in ten of daily trips by 2021 by those modes instead of the current 5 percent. Over half of current trips by Hamiltonians are less than 5 kilometres.
*CATCH coordinator Don McLean will be one of the participants in the Carbon Cycle. He can be sponsored at http://bit.ly/LakePledge.