Halifax - Plans for new terminal altered

Halifax regional council is expecting a public backlash because the pedestrian bridge is being removed from the plans for the new Dartmouth bus terminal.

Ottawa - Even some cyclists oppose cycling lane

It's no surprise that the Bank Street BIA opposes reducing parking on Laurier Avenue to accommodate a special lane for cyclists. Businesses get agitated when parking is reduced. Similar opposition killed the original plan to use Somerset Street as a cycling route.

What's surprising is the opposition from a new coalition of veteran cycling advocates.

[Sometimes our "friends" are also our worst enemies. -MH]

People riding bikes aren't jerks, they're just like you

Expanding bicycle infrastructure requires political support. That means showing residents and elected officials that cyclists are not some strange, alien species, but fellow people just like them.

Changing Transportation Behaviours: A Social Marketing Planning Guide

Transport Canada has recently released a new on-line resource, called “Changing Transportation Behaviours: A Social Marketing Planning Guide.” The guide’s worksheets walk you through each step of the social marketing planning process, provide quick access to the key questions to ask, and link to associated recommendations for further details.

Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Media Monitor

More great stories relating to active transportation, built environment and trails can be found on the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Media Monitor.

Vancouver - Bike route infrastructure causes school chaos

Vehicles jammed East 44th Avenue between Rupert and Killarney streets in front of Dr. George Weir elementary just before 9 a.m. Wednesday. Cars and SUVs travelled in both directions along the narrow road and struggled to pass one another alongside parked cars. Some were passing through the neighbourhood, but many were dropping children off at the school, which enrolls close to 500 students in kindergarten to Grade 7.

The congestion that occurs twice a day during student drop-off and pick-up largely arose after the city installed a traffic diverter on East 45th at Rupert on a trial basis last September. It's aimed at calming traffic on the designated bike route, but as a result traffic volume has doubled on East 44th.

Toronto - Separated bike lane plan floated by Ford ally

The chair of Toronto's public works and infrastructure committee is proposing a plan to convert bicycle lanes in the downtown to a network of curbed, physically separated paths.

Orillia - Inactivity is the new crisis of our age

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is in the news this week because it is about to lower its recommended levels of activity for Canadians. The PHAC is the body that sets guidelines such as "children should get 90 minutes of activity a day" in order to be healthy.

Connecting Communities: BC Youth Summit for Sustainable Transportation

From August 19 to 21, 2011, we're inviting youth from all over B.C. to a summit on sustainable transportation in Vancouver, sponsored by TransLink, B.C. Transit, and the Canadian Urban Transit Association.

Montreal - Editorial: We should listen to our kids when it comes to crosswalks

The Montreal Urban Ecology Centre recently took a group of third-and fourth-graders on a tour of Notre Dame de Grace, giving them cameras so they could take pictures of areas they found problematic and asking them to draw their suggested improvements on their photos. Their suggestions, according to Gazette reporter Michelle Lalonde, who accompanied the group, included speed bumps and speed-limit signs to slow down traffic, more trees and planters, more garbage cans and recycling bins, more benches and, for cyclists, bike racks and paths. (And then there was the delightful idea from one 9-year-old of planting vines that would grow on the cement walls of the Decarie Expressway.)