Next City is doing what it can to help:
Calgary Bike Advocates: Don’t Call Our City the Houston of Canada
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Calgary’s petroleum-driven economy has earned the province’s largest city the nickname “the Houston of Canada,” but the streets of this city of one million feel far more welcoming to pedestrians and cyclists thanks to a proactive city government. …
If a city’s tone starts from the top, then Mayor Naheed Nenshi has made it clear what civic leaders want Calgary not to be. “The mayor said that he doesn’t want the city to build out in an uncontiguous, really bad way,” councilor Evan Woolley recalls. “So we asked, ‘what city is that?’ He said Houston and Denver.”
In 2014 alone, city council passed a Complete Streets Policy and approved a 3.4-mile cycle track network that will break ground in March. Now, building on a cycling strategy adopted in 2011, the transportation department will spend this year preparing a pedestrian strategy. …
… different priorities echo in city council chambers. “On the same day, council may debate a $1 billion transportation budget for roads with very little scrutiny for just a few minutes of debate. Contrast that with hours of debate around a cycling project,” councilor Druh Farrell says, alluding to the $10 million or so spent on the pilot cycle track network.
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Calgary City Council’s Druh Farrell says the Peace Bridge was a turning point in the city’s attitude about pedestrians and cyclists. (Photo by Tom Babin)
These car vs. bike wars, common to cities across North America, have nevertheless played out in favor of the brave souls who take to city streets on two wheels, oftentimes feeling they have no alternative. …
Cyclists in the city are in positions of power. “Since I got on council, I have been pushing hard for us to begin to build the required infrastructure, and all the supports required, to make cycling a viable transportation choice in our city,” explains councilor Brian Pincott. “The main reason is that before I got on council, I was a 365 days a year cycling commuter. I saw the gaps, experienced them firsthand, and knew that we had to do more.” …
Until this point, winter riders have veered toward the dedicated. “Winter bike culture in Calgary right now is mostly made up of bold and brave men,” says Tom Babin, the Calgary-based author of Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling.
That, however, is changing, with a downtown bridge bike counter showing an impressive 25 percent of summer numbers during the bitter cold months. Babin says, “This winter, I’m seeing a lot more people riding in their regular work clothes, rather than that hardcore winter bike gear, which I think is a reflection of the improvements the city has made in inner-city bicycle infrastructure.”
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Maybe Calgary could entice more cycling holdouts if bikes were equipped with this technology: http://ow.ly/HMgaV
While there has been resistance to cycling infrastructure in Calgary, it has not been as boisterous or persistent as in Vancouver. Calgary approved a cycle track network pilot for the city’s downtown despite having a council dominated by suburban ridings. Politically, it’d be like having Metro Vancouver (including Langley, West Van, etc.) approve a cycle track network in downtown Vancouver.
Having said that, it’s a baby step. There is still a lot of work to do.
Good to hear about those initiatives but 3.4km does not sound like a lot …
For those Vancouver bikers that never have biked in Calgary: it is actually quite nice as Fish Creek Park, Bow River and Elbow River have extensive cycling networks for hundreds of kilometers. Due to weather and size of city it is not that great in the car oriented suburbs but most are connected to the park system, too. [ btw: when we lived in Calgary I actually biked more than in Vancouver now, perhaps because it is flatter or perhaps because the bike lanes where in parks as opposed to Vancouver’s street orientation ( except Kits and Atanley Park) .. or perhaps because I was younger ) ]
Perhaps Jens Von Bergman can chime in here too as he is a bike fanatic and has lived in Calgary, too …
Try it out when you visit next time, preferably summer as winter is cold, although the Chinook might make it plus 12 even in January.
The new Calgary East, between Stampede ground, Bow and Elbow is also very ped and bike friendly, kind of like Yaletown or Coal Harbour in Vancouver. Maps, apps and overview here
http://www.calgary.ca/CS/IIS/Pages/emaps/Bike-and-pathways/Map-Downloads.aspx
and here
http://bikecalgary.org/routes
I lived (downtown Vancouver), worked and worked in Vancouver for 8 yrs. before moving to live, work and bike in Calgary for so far last 4 yrs.
I also lived (Scarborough), worked (downtown and North York for several employers) and bike-commuted through the city’s ravine bike-ped park pathway system and its waterfront trail, etc. for 14 yrs.
I live in downtown Calgary very close to the city’s major river bike-ped. path.
I still visit and bike Vancouver and Toronto since family in both cities also for me. I literally leave and keep bikes in these 2 cities with family to allow me to do this. 🙂 I am still “rooted” in understanding local cycling patterns in Vancouver and Toronto. Toronto’s cycling mode share in downtown core has increased noticeably to me since now it’s tough to find bike rack posting space to park in the downtown core. (This was in Sept. 2014). It happened daily to me for 1 wk.
There are more and more cyclists each year in Calgary. To me, as a long-time woman cyclist (who has been car-free for past 3 decades), commuting cyclists tend to be skewed to more males, especially in the winter.
It is very true that Calgary, now nearly 1.3 million people, is a very sprawly city. It has just begun with its new incoming transit buses equipped with bike racks. But I haven’t seen them often on at all any buses running into the downtown area. So transition to new buses has been very slow.
Even the cycling community in Calgary aren’t even used to the idea of bike racks on buses yet…. I asked on the local forum and many cyclists wouldn’t really think to use them. Strange, since Calgary does have some days of high winds, ice, snow. (Rain is a lot less in Calgary compared to Vancouver.) I certainly hope we get over the tough image of regular cyclists in Calgary to take the lead for locals to change the mindset for multi-modal transportation on a broader basis.
One thing noticeable in downtown Calgary is the lack of pedestrian, cyclist-activated traffic lights. Different from downtown Vancouver and Toronto. To my understanding, this is tied to Calgary’s street level light transit rail. Very little of the lines downtown run underground. 2 lines with some partial running on elevated aboveground.
When I was searching for a downtown place to live, a real estate agent was very surprised that I didn’t even have a car. He couldn’t fathom how I could deal with the winter cold. (I managed fine Toronto…without a car.) Even after I told him I worked downtown ….
The long, icy/snowy cold winters are often used as a reason for less cycling infrastructure, less funding committment. However through Calgary’s park pathway system, there is a lot of snow/ice clearing which encouraged me to cycle in winter more often. In Toronto, I stopped cycling in winter at that time because the paths were not all cleared all the way.
A greater problem, is literally building cycling lanes and paths in the new developments from the blueprint phase in an integrated manner….not as an afterthought or many years later, when community has already been established.
“On the same day, council may debate a $1 billion transportation budget for roads with very little scrutiny for just a few minutes of debate. Contrast that with hours of debate around a cycling project,” councilor Druh Farrell says, alluding to the $10 million or so spent on the pilot cycle track network.
What a load of crap. Calgary has never spent anywhere near $1 billion on roads. In fact, it’s been about a decade since roads even received 50% of the transportation budget. Councilors such as Farrell have a very hard time with the truth when it comes to transportation in Calgary. Road projects are studied and debated for years, sometimes decades. Cycling projects are approved in secret and then the public is given a dog & pony show to make it seem like there’s debate. All one needs to do is go to the city of Calgary website and start digging around.