We are not Cyclists....we are People Riding Bicycles!

Here comes the Sooke Slow Food Fashion Contest!

New signs on Sooke River Bridge/ HWY 14; SHARE THE ROAD

Part of the work we are doing with MOTI is trying to get some signage on the highway. This is one of the first steps at the Sooke River Bridge and Ayum Creek Bridge. I believe this will help with awareness and hopefully help legitimize the presence of bicycles on the highway. (Some people still think that they aren't allowed or shouldn't be there)

And here is a photo that helps remind us why we need to be vigilant...and sometimes downright scared riding on the shoulder of highways!

Yikes! Glad I wasn't riding there!

Sharrows

Here are a couple of articles from Mia Birk's Blog regarding Sharrows. Timely as we hope to see what the District of Sooke will be doing regarding Sharrows and Bike lanes. The plans for a bike lane on Rhodonite were nixed by residents, and council was supposed to be looking into trying sharrows.
Here are  the two articles; Seattle's Sharrows; Love Em or Hate Em? and
Four Solid Uses for Sharrows

Response by our Mayor and District staff to concerns from a visiting cyclist

Take a look at this post from Average Joe's Cycling Blog. We are not impressing visitors that come by bike!

Life Cycles Film in Sooke Friday Oct 8th

Check out this film! Friday Oct 8th at EMCS theatre. Admission$10. Lots of door prizes. Amazing cinematography!

HWY 14 road works

Many of you will have noticed that work has begun on HWY 14 between Sooke and Luxton.
We will not be having bike lanes all the way, but here is what will be happening as per Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure;

The Asphalt Resurfacing contract which is about to get underway will be focused on specific areas which the ministry has identified for asphalt resurfacing. In these locations shoulder widths suitable for the area will be constructed or rehabilitated as needed. The areas under the current Major Works contract are;

· Fullerton Road to west of Luxton Rd.

o 2 meter paved shoulder

· Gillispie Road intersection area

o 1.5 meter paved shoulder

· Ludlow Rd (Coopers Cove) to Kaltasin Rd

o 1.5 meter paved shoulder

· Kaltasin Rd to Charters Rd

o 1.8 meter paved shoulder

At the approaches to Sooke River Bridge the following improvements are planned;

· Asphalt shoulder to be widened to 1.8 meters in width, the most noticeable improvement in this location will be seen east bound from the bridge to the bus pull out near the new park-n-ride where there currently there is little to no existing shoulder.

· Replacement of the existing low concrete roadside barrier at the approaches with a newer standard Concrete Roadside Barrier with proper approach flares/offsets approaching the bridge.

· The project has requested advice on and will implement additional signing which will alert both cyclist and drivers that the shoulders are narrowing at the bridge and to alert drivers to watch for cyclists.

I have also requested that the drainage grates on the bridge be fixed, since the way they are now, they can easily catch a cyclists tire. This will be looked after when the paving contract is complete.

Park N Ride Bike Boxes are Here!

We now have secure storage for up to 4 bikes at the Sooke Park N Ride. Rental is $10/Month, and you get your own key. Anyone interested contact JDF Cycle Coalition via email or phone.

New Sooke Park N' Ride

Check out the article from the Sooke Mirror. I also had a good meeting with Manuel Achadinha this past Friday. There seem to be some technical challenges for getting a 3-Bike rack on the buses, but they are open to ideas and looking for alternatives. We also hope to get approval to allow folding bikes onboard the buses. The other big plan is to start a pilot project of allowing regular bikes onboard buses on certain runs. It would start out to be weekend runs between Victoria and Sooke, and possibly Sidney and the Ferry Terminal, this summer. That would allow larger groups and families to come to Sooke with their bikes to pedal the Goos, explore the Potholes and town area as well as Mountain Bikers to come ride in the hills! It would also allow folks from Sooke to take their bikes downtown for a day in the big city!

Sooke Park N Ride

Mark Ziegler and I attended the official opening of the new Sooke Park and Ride. We will be getting 2 bike lockers with a total storage for 4 bikes, sometimes by the end of the month. The plan is to first have them painted by our local High School students.
There is also a small bike rack next to the shelter. The plans are for getting some covered bike racks as well in the near future.
I am very pleased with the enthusiasm and interest all the BC Transit staff are taking in encouraging the Cycle/Transit interface infrastructures.
I also hope to be meeting with the head of BC transit soon to discuss some other projects. He is also very keen on improving the ridership by encouraging people out of their cars. I believe he has a very good vision of how things will hopefully become; much more pedestrian and bike friendly in all our communities.

Sooke News Mirror Covers Cycle Safe for Youth

We got some coverage in the mirror this week. Here is the clipping

Meeting with MOT on Highway 14

On Monday the 21st of Sept, I met with Wayne Jentsch, the project manager for the paving project on Hwy 14, Dave Edgar, a Transportation Planning Engineer with MOT, and Al Fontes, Director of Engineering for Sooke. We looked at various parts of the highway and discussed different possibilities. It looks very good for getting good shoulders frome Charters Road to around Woodlands drive, just past Sassenos. Also the dangerous little asphalt berms on the side of the road will be removed! The budget is limited of course but Wayne intends to help make it stretch out as far as possible to help make the highway safer. We discussed ways of making the crossing by Coopers Coves/The Fuse, safer and easier to cross. I also discussed the possibility of putting up guard rails on the Sooke River bridge, which along with the re-paving and widening of shoulders would essentially give us a connection from the Galloping Goose Trail to Sooke in a relatively short time. Sooke has, from my understanding set aside funding, along with the CRD to assess the options for a second river crossing as a pedestrian, cyclist and emergency route. This in my mind is still the best way to go in the long term and crucial for many reasons. The route using the existing bridge can give us a safer crossing for pedestrians and cyclists very soon (hopefully within a year) for very little cost, and allows tourists easier access to the town from the Goose! I have not discussed this yet with the Mayor and council, but I trust they will be receptive to the idea.

Walk and Bike for Life; Gil Penalosa Talk

Lee and I attended the talk by Gil Penalosa that was put on by BC Transit. A very inspiring and informative presentation. Check out the website for some really good resources. I had hoped some of our council members would have made it there, but unfortunately none were able to make it. If we are serious about making this town pedestrian, cyclist and tourist friendly, we need to pay more attention to this sort of information. We have an excellent team of planners and some really good plans in the OCP, but we need to make sure the commitment and desire is there to follow through. I know that some of our councillors are fully behind this goal, and I believe our Mayor is as well from what I have heard her saying recently. It is very easy to get caught up in the day to day operation and politics of running a town, but we all need to remember to take time to step back and look at building our vision of a community that we want to be part of. We need to take the time to find inspiration!
I hope to be able to speak to the council soon at one of the meetings to share some of what I have learned and some ideas to keep us on track.

Rhodonite Bike Lanes

We have suffered a small set back in that there was a large number of residents from Rhodonite that spoke at the council meeting in opposition of the bike lanes. (See my comments on original post) The residents did not want to lose their ability to park on the road and felt that the road was not used much by cyclists. (Mmm..I wonder why?)
It is disappointing since the lanes would have been in by now, however, in the long run we might be better off with a multi-use path. It looks like this might be the next stage. It is more expensive and residents will lose some of their driveways and lawns, but it will allow for some on street parking.
We will be keeping on top of this issue.
See the letter to the editor in the Sooke News Mirror, from one of our members, Mark Ziegler.

Rhodonite Bike lanes

August 24th Council Meeting. This might be a good time for our members to show up at the Sooke Municipal hall to show a strong voice in support of cycle lanes. If these lanes get squashed, it could set a precedence that we don't want to see.
This is a letter from Neil Poirier;

Hi everyone,

I realize it is summer and people are not thinking about school issues however, an issue has come to my attention and I would like to have people giving it some thought. The District of Sooke is in the process of creating and adding sidewalks, walking trails and bike lanes in and around the town core. A bike lane has been proposed for Rhodonite, which has recently had it's speed limit reduced from 50 to 40 kmh, from Church to Otter Point rd. and is getting opposition from some of the residence on the road. The issue for them is that the bike lane will remove parking from the street, the issue for us is that the bike lane will add another safe option for our kids riding to and from school. I believe the issue will be brought to councils attention at a meeting on Aug 24th and would like to muster some support at the meeting. So if you can make it to the meeting and/or know someone who is interested in traffic safety and kids in Sooke let me know. I'll be out of town next week camping but will contact some of you the following week looking for support.

Hope you are all having a great summer.

Neil Poirier

Cycle Safe for Youth

2 weeks ago Constable Jordan Hamlyn picked up the donated items for the program. You might have seen the article in the Sooke mirror. The intent is for the RCMP to stop youth who are seen cycling around the area and give them little gifts for practising safe cycling. Simple things like wearing a helmet, signalling or making eye contact with drivers will get them gifts like a free ice cream, video rental, or bike inspection, and for those caught cycling at night witout lights we have some flashing lights. Hopefully I will hear from Jordan soon as to how the program is going.