Paul's 'Wheeling and Walking' blog - Active Transportation - March edition
Hi there! As the weather is heating up, every possible type of bicycle is being prepared for an amazing year of cycling!
In the Active Transportation world, we are getting ready for the roll-out of Cochrane’s first ‘Walk and Bike to School’ program. We’re really excited about bringing bike safety, safer connectivity for kids and adults, and just fun on bikes to the schools of Cochrane. Watch this space for more on this program, and if you’re interested in volunteering, our Active Transportation Committee can always use more help - email to paul@bikecochrane.com.
Thanks to all of you who responded to our ‘Wheeling and Walking’ survey in December and January. With a strong response (N=120), we had almost half the respondents for a typical ‘Let’s Talk Cochrane’ survey, so we were pleased to see the diversity and thoughtfulness in responses.
General conclusions from the survey are:
People feel safe riding their bikes on protected, separated pathways
People generally don’t feel safe riding on roads/highways.
62% of respondents felt that Bike Cochrane’s #1 priority should be advocating for improved connectivity/pathways in our town.
Almost half (48%) of respondents LEAVE Cochrane at least once a week for riding. These are missed tourism dollars for Cochrane!
Specifically, both Sunset and Fireside were called out as communities that aren’t well-connected. While the upcoming Ranche House Master Plan should help connecting Sunset into the pathway system, Fireside is a bit more of a challenge. From our Active Transportation priorities work last year, we investigated an overpass for Highway 22 at James Walker Trail, but it’s definitely not a cheap option (~$1.8M) so it’ll take a bit more work to find better options here.
See below chart showing some of the barriers that stop people from biking for transportation:
Question 2 from Bike Cochrane’s Wheeling and Walking Survey Dec 2020-Jan 2021
In addition to our completed survey, we have also completed an agreement with the Town of Cochrane to partner on gathering better data. Through the generosity of Metrocount, we have a loaner bike counter that we’ll be deploying around Cochrane’s pathways this spring, summer, and fall to validate some of our data around usage, but also to get richer data sets around use in a number of pathways that will help us advocate more intelligently for better connectivity in Cochrane. We trialed it this winter and learned the ropes of analyzing these datasets so it’s ready for our busy biking season! If you see this sign on your pathways, know that you’re being counted and Bike Cochrane and the Town are working to make your town better!
If you are passionate about cycling and active transportation and have a few hours to volunteer, please email Paul at paul@bikecochrane.com. We’ll see you out there on your bike!