It doesn't get much better

After being away in Saskatoon last weekend, and with an upcoming trip to Edmonton next weekend, I wanted to spend this weekend having fun in my city with my family. As it turned out, I was not disappointed! From quality time with my husband, to art-filled time with my kids, plus a nice little surprise to start the weekend off, I have had a whirlwind of a time, and the fun we've had will be with me throughout my next trip.

The Southsiders arriving at Terry Fox Plaza before
the match

Saturday, after about five months of waiting, the Vancouver Whitecaps began their season with an emotional game against Canadian rivals Toronto FC. With the start of the season also returns a regular date night with my husband, and over 1200 other loyal Southsiders, one of the supporters groups for the club. After reconnecting with some of our football friends at Doolin's Pub, we marched en masse along Granville and Robson Streets, clapping and chanting in support of our team. It's a tradition held every game, rain or shine, and passersby are always entertained by our enthusiasm. In the stadium, we took to our new seats for the season...front row! We got acquainted with our new neighbours, all of whom are incredibly friendly and eager to share the season's excitement with us, and began to cheer on our team proudly. It seems all our cheering, both on the march and during the game, paid off with a 1-0 victory for the home team, and I left the stadium feeling elated and excited for another season with friends new and old.

Just a taste of the support we show to our home team

Our new pitch-side seats!

Leaving BC Place these skies were
waiting to great us!

Enjoying a sunny ride to the Art Gallery

Sunday's activities were all focused on time as a family. As a special treat, mother nature decided to clear up the rainy skies and give us a glorious day of sunshine. We set off just before lunch to meet some friends in Strathcona, and enjoyed a picnic lunch in the sun. After lunch, we set off for the Vancouver Art Gallery for their Family FUSE weekend. All weekend long there were a variety of activities geared towards children and all focused on different art styles from dance, to graphic novels creation and even mixed media. As we entered the gallery, the kids got to make a "CO-MIX button" using collage techniques. Coralie said it was definitely a highlight. From there, we headed into the main gallery, where the kids learned about how to build a comic book story, followed by some pretty neat shadow art and puppetry with the use of projectors in "Projectorland". Coralie had fun using the Wolf mask, reminiscing about learning about Peter and the Wolf in Kindergarten, and Etienne seemed a bit confused by what to do with his cat mask, standing still almost the whole time. We finished up on the 4th floor in "The Making Place", where Etienne was thrilled to be able to cut out and glue various items to a life-sized Etienne superhero. After nearly three hours of creativity, it was time to get our artistic, but exhausted, children home.

Cutting out images for his button

Coralie was amazed by the button making machine.
Possible gift in the future?

The finished product

Coralie creating her own comic at the KAPOW! station

Shadow puppet time!

Having fun with projectors

Coralie's RAW Magazine cover collage
in the Art Spiegelman collection area

A little something for the parents...anyone remember Garbage Pail Kids?! In the Art Spiegelman collection

Our sunny ride home on Sunday

With the sun still shining , we took the opportunity to ride South on the Hornby separated lane to the False Creek seawall. As always when we've had long spells of rain in Vancouver, the seawall was packed with people on foot and bikes enjoying a very high dose of Vitamin-D. Along the way I got to chat with my husband and daughter while our son snoozed in the trailer, getting some much deserved rest. It was truly a great end to a fabulous weekend, especially now that our faces are all a little bit sun-kissed!

Even after all the weekend's excitement, the highlight for me actually happened on Friday afternoon. If you recall, back in August the Velo Family took a bike vacation to Portland, Oregon. Before I left, I spoke to some people at Momentum Magazine about possibly writing a piece for their magazine about the successes and challenges about bike travel with children. Well, I am so pleased to report that it's official! My article about our trip and what it was like to travel with our kids and our bikes has been featured in the 60th issue of Momentum Magazine. I feel so grateful to have been given the opportunity to share my experiences with a broader audience, and am excited at the possibility of continued contributions if or when I am asked. It makes me eager to see what the future holds, hopeful that this will be just the start of a new adventure for me and the Velo Family!

See the full piece at momentummag.com

A quiet send off and looking ahead

For New Year's Eve we decided to do something a little bit different, at least for us. Instead of heading off to a party to ring in the New Year with a large group of people, we bundled the kids into the trailer and headed off for a ride around the city. It was a nice change, and just what we needed after a busy year full of change and excitement. While the children stayed toasty, nodding in and out of sleep, my husband and I rode at a leisurely place, chatting about the year gone by and the year to come. We passed many familiar places, heading into downtown through Strathcona, then coasted down to the seawall at Hornby and enjoyed the quiet and beauty of a clear night. We made it back home just in time to wish our kids a Happy New Year with our Eastern Time Zone counterparts, and then sat and chatted over some wine until midnight, listening to the revelry outside and grateful for some quiet time together. All in all it was a nice way to welcome 2013.

Riding into downtown on the quiet bike lane

Bright light on a quiet night

When reflecting on the year to come, it's easy to understand why many people come up with resolutions. It's something that I've never really done, though, knowing that it was likely I wouldn't stick to them. This year is not too different, but I have made a few promises to myself that I hope to fulfill over the next 12 months, and would like to share some with you.

"I promise that I will not shy from change": I have never really been one to fear change, but this past year brought a new challenge professionally for me. I am still learning and adapting to my new role, and have entered the new year excited and still a bit nervous to throw myself into my role. I will be travelling regularly, and meeting many different people, which will take me out of my comfort zone as a stay at home parent, but I know that it will also help me grow personally and professionally, and that can never be a bad thing!

"I promise to respect myself and my body": Many resolutions centre around weight loss and achieving the "perfect" body. I could likely stand to lose a few inches or pounds, but this promise is meant to focus on understanding that I'm not perfect, and so long as I stay healthy through eating habits and physical activity, I am doing the best I can for my health and well-being. I will also respect myself enough to know that it is not a failure to indulge once and a while. After all, food is meant to be enjoyed, otherwise chocolate wouldn't taste so good!

"I promise to make time for the important people in my life": As life gets busy, it seems the first thing to go is time with friends and family. So I make a promise to myself and those important people to make time, even an hour, to catch up, share a coffee, and share a laugh.

"I promise to be civic-minded": In 2012 I posted about several issues regarding infrastructure and the way my city could use improvements or is succeeding. This year, I will try to do more than just write. Whether through volunteering or activism, I promise to put my words into action and try to effect change in the things I am unhappy with.

There you have it. A few simple promises, all meant to help make the year ahead successful. I wish all my followers a wonderful 2013. May the year bring you excitement, adventure, and love!

Cheers to you and yours!

Separation anxiety

Back in July I wrote about how great an idea separated lanes are and that the City of Vancouver should work to expand the network of such lanes in the city, including in my own neighbourhood of Commercial Drive. To my surprise and delight, I have started seeing more and more articles about separated lanes in my city, including along the Cambie and Granville Street Bridges.

However, much to my dismay, there is still so much aversion to them by various city officials and business owners and some of the general public. Rhetoric about bike lanes being "anti-car" is being thrown around in local publications, and one member of the Downtown Business Association states that separated lanes may "choke the lifeblood out of downtown". Is this really the view of population of Vancouver, or the voices of just a small few? I looked up some facts about separated lanes and their benefits, and wanted to share them with you. Maybe if we start looking at the long term benefits, we can stop arguing about separated lanes are start emulating some truly innovative cycling cities that aren't afraid to make some real change to their infrastructure.

In New York City, The Department of Transportation built a bicycle path and traffic calming pilot project for Prospect Park West in Brooklyn in 2010 and published their results in early 2011. The path was 2-way and separated from traffic lanes by a 3 foot parking lane, and meant the removal of just one lane of traffic. Here's what they found:

• weekday cycling traffic tripled after the implementation
• cyclists riding on sidewalks fell to 3% from 46%
• speeding dropped from 74% to 20% of all vehicles 
• crashes for all road users were down 16% and injuries to all road users were down 21%
• the was no change in traffic flow or travel times

A study was conducted in Montreal in 2010 that compared the amount of cyclists using separated cycle tracks vs regular road traffic without any dedicated cycling infrastructure. The streets ran parallel to each other and had similar intersection and cross traffic frequency. Again, the results are pretty convincing:

• 2.5 times as many people used the separated cycle track than the road without dedicated infrastructure
• the relative risk of injury on the cycle track was lower than cycling on the street

Here in Vancouver, while our adoption of separated cycle tracks has been met with diversion each time, their results have always shown a positive increase in cycle traffic.

• Trips over the Burrard Bridge increased 15% between July 2010 and July 2011, and saw over 1 Million trips taken in that time
• Between 1996-2011, there has been a 25% decrease in the number of vehicles entering downtown, but an increase of 10% of people entering downtown (during peak hours)
• In June 2011, there were 55,000 recorded trips along Dunsmuir
• Total trips on Hornby grew from 60% of Dunsmuir levels in January 2011 to 80% as many in June 2011
• Women riders were up slightly versus the previous painted lanes, making up 1 in 3 cyclists on Hornby in 2011
• Children were now four times more prevalent in stats collection in 2011

My own personal reflection:

You know my story. I'm a mom with two young children, living without a car in Vancouver. We try to use our bikes whenever possible to get around the city, and use they cycling infrastructure in this city to do it. My eldest is 6 and travels on her own bike now, which means I am very conscious of being sure the areas we ride in are safe, with as little risk as possible of us coming into close contact with fast moving cars. So when we are heading into downtown, we make a point of using the separated lanes on Dunsmuir and Hornby. Before the completion of Hornby separated lane, I used the painted lane only once with the kids in tow, and refused to do it again until the cycle track was built. Having cars race past at high speeds and risking running across a vehicle parked in the lane made it incredibly nerve-wracking and dangerous. Now that the path is separated, I have no qualms about using them with my kids.

My youngest trailing behind with a green
buffer from the cars

My eldest on the Dunsmuir Viaduct

It's time we stopped fighting about bike lanes. It's a waste of time, especially for a city that wants to be the Greenest City in the World by 2020. If we don't provide the average person with a safe means to travel by bike, they just won't. Separated lanes also make trips more pleasurable for pedestrians, creating a barrier between them and the cars. My husband, Chris, actually commented last week that his walk home with the kids the 3 blocks along Commercial Drive was unpleasant with all the cars and exhaust during rush hour. Something as simple as a separated lane would have made that journey even slightly better, and who can really argue with that?

Some final words on the topic from Brent Toderian, the City's Planning Director for 6 years and now and independent planning consultant, “Bike lanes are not a fad. They are part of a multi-modal city, a critical part of the city working well in the future.” Well said.

Sources:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/prospectparkwest.shtml

http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2011/02/02/ip.2010.028696.full.pdf

http://pricetags.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/cashing-in-why-bike-lanes-dont-create-costs-for-cars/

http://spacingvancouver.ca/2011/07/25/vancouvers-hornby-and-dunsmuir-separated-bike-lanes/

Some other articles to check out:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/stop-bike-lane-fight-vancouver-urged/article4558182/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/editorials/separated-bike-lanes-are-the-way-to-go/article4431730/
http://spacingvancouver.ca/2011/09/26/vancouvers-separated-bike-lanes-more-popular-than-ever/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/09/23/bc-bike-use-vancouver.html