Regional Cycling Strategy

Last month TransLink released their regional cycling strategy as part of Transport 2040. The strategy is called "Cycling for Everyone - A Regional Cycling Strategy for Metro Vancouver" and has lots of interesting stats about cycling in our region.

Existing and Potential Future Major Bikeway Network. Click image to enlarge.

In the South of Fraser, it looks like many of the corridors that have been identified for rapid transit will also act as the regional cycling spine. Both the BC Parkway and Central Valley Greenway where constructed this way. This should highlight the need for building rapid transit today and not in 20 years as I doubt that regional cycling infrastructure will be installed beforehand.

Existing and Planned Cycling Network. Click image to enlarge.

One of the stats that I found most interesting about cycling in our region is that the more money you make, the more likely you are to cycle. I don't know if this has more to do with the fact that Vancouver has more cycling infrastructure than the rest of the region because it seems odd.

Only 28% of cyclist are female and that number should be closer to 50%. One of the reason that women don't cycle is because of the perceived lack of safety. Separated bike lanes are the best way to increase perceived safety and in Vancouver and New York have been show to attract more cyclist and more female cyclist.

While TransLink proposes to spend $6 million per year to help with regional cycling projects, it is still local municipalities that are responsible for the provision of cycling infrastructure and some municipality are more committed to cycling than others (especially in the South of Fraser.)