Washington State has lately passed legislation requiring drivers undergoing refresher courses as part of traffic violation penalties to endure sessions on sharing the road with cyclists.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/03/24/1421584/bills-aims-to-improve-safety-for.html

Winter bound cities like Madison and Minneapolis are catching up to Portland in capturing a growing share of the commuter travel market.

Good data is a always useful though recent cutbacks to collection in Canada could deprive us of the crucial information we need to confirm the success of our efforts to shift transportation habits to sustainable modes like cycling.

See the U.S. data at:
http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2011/03/24/portland-versus-the-portland-of-the-midwest?utm_source=Sightline&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyScore

Bike lanes and other facilities are generating much friction in some communities where drivers bristle at the re-allocation of road space to provide better levels of service for cyclists.  Businesses along affected corridors fight hard against loosing the on-street parking many are convinced are critical to their success.  This story I found on Sightline, a Seattle based source for environmental news and features details some of the struggles and points to sources that deomnstrate that fears are often overblown and business prosperity in particular is often improved by creating more people and bike friendly streetscapes.

http://crosscut.com/2011/03/11/transportation/20699/Seattle-isn-t-alone-in-its-bike-lane-bickering/

Here’s an example of dramatic changes in Vancouver’s downtown street design.  Watch for more to come:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/4776660410/in/set-72157624330232313/

Tom Vanderbilt, an American author who has written a very popular book on the psychology of traffic , talks in an “Outside” article about the psychology of cyclists who are increasingly emerging as players in the complex environment of roads and cities.

See the article at: http://outsideonline.com/adventure/travel-ga-201103-new-york-bike-commuting-sidwcmdev_154507.html

In Victoria, cyclists often do the right thing.  Some examples can be found in the “Bikers” gallery of my flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/sets/72157600001979995/

Count work in Montreal shows dramatic increases in cycling connected with the provision of better bicycle facilities, also noting that bike share program is helping to replace vehicle trips with bicycle trips.

http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/greenlife/archive/2010/12/24/cycling-montreal-v-233-lo-bicyclette-bike-bicycles-paths-piste-bixi-michelle-lalonde.aspx

Melbourne, Australia study shows that converting vehicle parking spaces to bike parking can generate significant improvements in efficiency of shopping dollars generated per metre squared etc.

Read it at:

 http://colabradio.mit.edu/?p=7296

Here’s the model:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/4894336868/in/set-72157594577122134/

A recent study focused on Bloor St., a major commercial corridor in downtown Toronto, would benefit from the addition of bike lanes.  Notable in the study is the strong support for bike lanes among both businesses along the street and users of the corridor.  Also revealing is the note in the Executive Summary that shows how much more appealing a street will be for cyclists when bike lanes are added.

This study is important for Victoria where we are planning a new rapid transit project for downtown’s Douglas St.  Protecting existing bike lanes is an important objective for the design of the new facility.

Toronto study at:

http://www.cleanairpartnership.org/pdf/bike-lanes-parking.pdf

Douglas St. at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luton/4524025237/