Photo of convert Kerri McKenna – 2010

What triggered the decision to start riding your bike to work?

[KM] It was the commuting time added on by moving to a new office location. Even though driving cut my time down substantially, I knew that illogical traffic jams and construction could still be counted on to make my commute vary from day to day.

How comfortable is your bike commute? Have you encountered any bad roads that you try to avoid?

[KM] I ride along the path (Martin Goodman trail) on the eastbound Lake Shore to Front/Bathurst – so it’s great. Before my first official bike to work, I tried the street routes (Annette > West Toronto Bike Rail Path > Dundas > Queen > Bathurst) and felt a bit nervous. But the dedicated paths along the lake make my commute easy and enjoyable.

What is your favourite part of your commute?

[KM] Hands-down, it’s enjoying the views of the lake in the morning and in the evening.

Are you using your bike for other trips besides commuting? (e.g. going out for dinner, going to the store, etc)

[KM] I attached a basket to the back of my bike and I don’t know what I would do without it! I store my clothing and laptop in it to and from work, but also use it to pick up groceries and dry cleaning on the weekends and in the evenings. It’s invaluable.

Where did you pick up your bike? How much did it cost?

[KM] I didn’t want to spend a lot of money at the outset because I didn’t know if I would like cycling or stick with it. My parents kept an old bike my brothers and I used throughout high school, and my dad was only too happy to finally get it out of the garage. We got it tuned up and I purchased a new seat, bell and the basket. My initial outlay was $150-200 – which was in the range that I wanted to spend. In the Fall I will have to purchase lights, but after that my setup should keep me going for a while.

What advice would you give to someone else who is considering making the switch to a bicycle?

[KM] Just try it – cycling really allows you to experience the city in new ways. The addition of new bike lanes throughout the city really helped persuade me that I could do this and not be nervous about all of the cars. As a driver in the city, I know how crazy they can be! I don’t see too many other people with baskets, but I would encourage people to think about getting one because they enable you to run all kinds of practical errands, rather than just riding to and from places.

Have you become an overnight advocate for better infrastructure? Have you joined the Toronto Cyclists Union yet to advocate on your behalf?

[KM] I don’t think I’m there yet. I noticed the Toronto Cyclists Union just this week – they had a tent set up along the Lakeshore. I had no idea that such a group existed, although I shouldn’t be surprised. There really seems to be a strong community of cyclists in Toronto, and I expect it will continue to grow as the city expands its infrastructure.

Is there a model city that you have visited in which Toronto should get ideas for better bike infrastructure?

[KM] I haven’t consciously noticed this aspect when I have travelled but I’m sure I will now. The Bixi program in Montreal seems interesting, and I hope it takes off here.

Do you know someone who has recently started using a bicycle for transportation, and would possibly be willing to do an interview? If so, please contact us!

James D. Schwartz is the editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com.

Beijing traffic jam photo courtesy of Proggie (this is not the 100KM traffic jam)

Even if this were the case, there simply isn’t enough room or cars. They are too bulky - taking up too much space, and there isn’t enough land to pave over to accommodate everyone in the world driving an automobile.

This is a reality that the Chinese will face as car ownership increases. In 2007 I sat in a Beijing traffic jam, and I was fascinated by the extremely wide highways at full capacity – and it can only get worse.

This is where the bicycle comes in. It is a proven tool that the Chinese have relied upon for many decades.

Here’s a live version of one of my favourite songs of all time – Nine Million Bicycles by Katie Melua:

Here’s a Chinese traffic jam in Chengdu Sichuan:

Photo courtesy of Mike Lowell 

“Progress” is not taking ideas from cities like Los Angeles to solve transportation issues. Progress is taking something that has been trusty and proven for the last 100 years – the bicycle - and building upon its successes.

Thankfully, the Chinese government hasn’t turned its back on the bicycle (not yet at least). When I visited earlier this year, I saw great, wide, segregated bicycle infrastructure being built in Chinese suburbs.

Hopefully the 9-day, 100KM-long traffic jam will make people realize they had it better off before the automobile came along.

The last thing China needs is to expand its road capacity only to have a 200KM, 18-day traffic jam 2 years later.

James D. Schwartz is the editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com.

Photo “Toy Cars” courtesy of Andrew Dai

Photo courtesy of Patrick Chovanec

It’s hard to eradicate the indoctrination of the automobile marketing machines; especially when they reach you at a very early age. The first 7 or so years of our lives are the most important development years that will shape us for the rest of our lives.

As a kid growing up, most of my hobbies involved cars. From my “dinky cars”, to model cars, to sandbox trucks, to the Power Wheels jeep that I always wanted - but only the rich kids seemed to get.

Photo by Will White

Over the years, those Power Wheels cars have evolved. Check out these stylish Mercedes SLK roadsters for kids being sold in China:

Photo courtesy of Patrick Chovanec

What kid growing up in this environment wouldn’t be looking forward to driving a car when they become of age?

Frankly, it’s amazing car companies aren’t handing out free toy cars at schools. Auto manufacturers of course aren’t strategic enough to invest that far in the future since it’s all about shareholder value – right now.

The problem of course with our addiction to cars is that it has resulted in a slew of problems for our society. It has encouraged developers to push further and further into forest and farm land, displacing animals and eliminating farms. People are living farther and farther away from their workplace and spending countless hours in their cars commuting. With less time to exercise, we are seeing soaring obesity rates.

Cars have also been the largest contributor to our oil addiction – leading to disasters like the Gulf Oil spill and countless wars for control over oil states.

The other issue with automobiles and one that perhaps resonates with drivers, is that there simply isn’t enough space to support our population levels. People migrated to California because they wanted bigger homes and more park space. Instead, they got wide highways, atrocious traffic jams, and no time to enjoy their big homes and park space.

Bikes are an affordable, proven tool

Bikes on the other hand are an affordable, proven tool that can help us reduce our reliance on automobiles. But when it comes to safety, our perception is too easily influenced by those who feel threatened by any changes to our current way of life.

Take utility cycling as an example. Although there are many barriers to prevent people from using their bike for transportation, the one I hear most often in Toronto is the lack of comfort and the lack of safety because of all the cars.

The media tends to exaggerate the dangers of cycling whenever an incident occurs. Motorist deaths here in Toronto is so common that it barely gets reported. Cyclist deaths are so uncommon that they get extra attention in the media, resulting in a perception of danger that is unwarranted.

It’s not surprising, because there are institutions that profit from your fear. If a hundred thousand more people decide to ride their bikes for transportation and get rid of their cars, the auto manufacturers and oil companies will suffer. They profit from your fears by instilling in you a perception of safety and comfort for driving cars, and a perception of risk and danger for riding bicycles.

But let’s look at the data to see if the safety angle is misguided. For every million hours of travel, bicyclists experience 0.41 fatalities. For the same million hours of travel, a car occupant will experience 0.46 fatalities. The number fares even worse for pedestrians at 0.80 fatalities for every million hours of travel, and motorcyclists experience 7.50 fatalities.

Keep in mind that drivers and motorcyclists are required to be trained and licensed, whereas the pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities include children and licenses and training are not required.

When it comes to hospital admissions for head injuries, bicyclists experience 2.2 head injuries for every million hours of travel, while that number is 2.0 for pedestrians, 1.6 for drivers, and 18.0 for motorcyclists.

So in looking at these statistics, riding a bicycle is a comparable risk to driving an automobile. But people don’t look at scientific data to assess their risk. The perception is that riding a bicycle is far riskier than driving a car.

There’s a reason why auto manufacturers don’t show you videos of mangled body parts spread along a highway, or crushed torsos from a head-on collision. Instead, they show you smooth, quiet, comfortable automobiles, with endless safety features and thrilling corners and great acceleration.

Sometimes you might even see a bicycle in an automobile commercial, but the cyclists are painted as risk takers, pulling dangerous manoeuvres, traveling at high speeds, zig-zagging through traffic.

Of course they are showing you this to keep cyclists and drivers divided and prevent you from ever considering giving up your beloved automobile for a bicycle.

This is a tactic to validate that you made a wise decision in driving your car instead of “risking it” on a bike. Why would Mercedes have any interest in making bicycling appear to be safe? Bicycles are a threat to their revenue stream.

You would never see an auto manufacturer include a video like this in one of their commercials:

These are everyday people riding bicycles for transportation. Gaining their daily exercise while traveling to work or to the store, and having more time to spend with their families instead of sitting inside an automobile.

A city’s culture doesn’t get much better than that.

James D. Schwartz is the editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com.

Photo courtesy of Mully Children’s Family 

According to BikeSnobNYC’s descriptions of different types of cyclists, I would be categorized as “The Righteous Cyclist”.

“The Laden Righteous Cyclist, who makes a point of transporting unwieldy objects by bicycle or even moving to a new apartment by bicycle. (This is to reduce vehicular emissions, even though the miles of traffic that forms behind the Laden Righteous Cyclist more than makes up for the three gallons of gas they might have saved by not using a car to bring home the new-to-them couch)”

“Also, all of these (Righteous) cyclists will take great pains to remind you that they don’t have a car, unless they can afford to own a car or a parent or relative gave them a car, in which case they will provide a lengthy rationale and tell you how they never use it”

BikeSnobNYC takes amusing shots at several other cyclist personas, including the following:

The Messenger

“Like cobblers, blacksmiths, cowboys, and Luke Wilson, bicycle messengers continue to exist despite increasing irrelevance and a constantly shrinking demand for their labors.”

Image courtesy of toronto.bixi.com 

And I’m not the only one who thinks BIXI is a great idea – the program has exploded to cities around the world, including Melbourne, Boston, Washington, and Minneapolis. Most recently, BIXI launched in London, UK with more than 6,000 bikes at 400 stations for its first phase.

All Photos by James D. Schwartz / The Urban Country