If anyone was there and feels inclined to reflect on it for the rest of us, send me something and I'll post it. If not, at least the Free Press has an article here.
Ian has responded in the comments. But it deserves a more prominent place, so I've taken the liberty to bump it up to the main page. Thanks Ian.
A few observations from a forum attendee:
1. Consider the progress bike to the future has made in 3 years - the first year's forum was small and speakers were all volunteers (Kevin Miller, I think, was one). The next year was a little more substantial with a presentation by City of Winnipeg planner Kevin Nixon (before he was the active transportation planner, I recall), talking about parkways (not really a broad approach to AT infrastructure. This year - heavy hitters/decision makers speaking, very well organized, event broadcast live on the radio... wow.
2. Although questions were pre-screened, the panelists were blindsided by the questions (including the first one: do you ride your bike to work? Why not?)
Despite this, they all seemed really open to new ideas (like... giving cyclists the opportunity to participate in road safety education instead of being ticketed for Highway Traffic Act violations). The police representative struggled a bit with the quesitons, preferring to quote from the HTA, and Marilyn McLaren (CEO of MPI) was really impressive. The politicians were okay, but (not surprisingly, I suppose) non-committal.
3. I participated in a discussion group about bikes and buses, a topic I knew little about. The facilitator was a straight-shooting Wpg Transit guy (turns out he rides/novice races, and he let slip he is the son of the director). Some interesting [dis]connections came out about bike parking at key transit hubs, ability to take bikes on transit buses (since only 35 of 530 city buses have racks), etc.
4. Perhaps a more diverse group of forum participants this year, in terms of age - more people in the 40-60 age group than last year, when seemed like everyone was 20-40.
5. Sometimes FGBC-er and all-times Home Street resident Colin B. won the big prize for taking out a new membership - a big package of schwag donated by MEC (thanks Donna).
Re-reading my post, I only talked about outputs - but outcomes should be what is talked about. Everyone from the mayor to the police said that BTTF is a great org to work with and has done much to advance the cause and get the ball rolling as far as building an AT network in Wpg.
If you're not a member, give it some consideration.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
A few observations from a forum attendee:
1. Consider the progress bike to the future has made in 3 years - the first year's forum was small and speakers were all volunteers (Kevin Miller, I think, was one). The next year was a little more substantial with a presentation by City of Winnipeg planner Kevin Nixon (before he was the active transportation planner, I recall), talking about parkways (not really a broad approach to AT infrastructure. This year - heavy hitters/decision makers speaking, very well organized, event broadcast live on the radio... wow.
2. Although questions were pre-screened, the panelists were blindsided by the questions (including the first one: do you ride your bike to work? Why not?)
Despite this, they all seemed really open to new ideas (like... giving cyclists the opportunity to participate in road safety education instead of being ticketed for Highway Traffic Act violations). The police representative struggled a bit with the quesitons, preferring to quote from the HTA, and Marilyn McLaren (CEO of MPI) was really impressive. The politicians were okay, but (not surprisingly, I suppose) non-committal.
3. I participated in a discussion group about bikes and buses, a topic I knew little about. The facilitator was a straight-shooting Wpg Transit guy (turns out he rides/novice races, and he let slip he is the son of the director). Some interesting [dis]connections came out about bike parking at key transit hubs, ability to take bikes on transit buses (since only 35 of 530 city buses have racks), etc.
4. Perhaps a more diverse group of forum participants this year, in terms of age - more people in the 40-60 age group than last year, when seemed like everyone was 20-40.
5. Sometimes FGBC-er and all-times Home Street resident Colin B. won the big prize for taking out a new membership - a big package of schwag donated by MEC (thanks Donna).
Re-reading my post, I only talked about outputs - but outcomes should be what is talked about. Everyone from the mayor to the police said that BTTF is a great org to work with and ha sdone much to advance the cause and get the ball rolling as far as building an AT network in Wpg.
If you're not a member, give it some consideration.
Post a Comment