Funding for bicycle plan

I have had interest in the past on this blog about the City’s efforts to promote the use of bicycles in Guelph.

We recently received funding to support our plans.  The following was a piece published in the Guelph Tribune:

“We’re excited. It’s quite a good amount to get us started and hopefully build a strong foundation,” said the city’s transportation demand management co-ordinator, Jennifer McDowell.

The funding announced Thursday will allow the city to establish its Bicycle Friendly Guelph Initiative, she said.

The city will conduct a survey in the spring to collect “public input on what they’d like to see in cycling networks and infrastructure,” said McDowell. The funding will also allow for a co-op student to be employed by the city in the summer to work on the initiative.

The initiative “is not your typical bicycle plan,” said McDowell. Part of it is adding to the city’s network of bike lanes, she said, but it will also focus on education, enforcement, evaluating bylaws and regulations, and ways to encourage citizens to cycle.

The city hopes to triple the number of cyclists in 10 years.

McDowell said the city is also in the last stages of forming a cycling advisory committee.