so if you're an urban cycling nerd
guilty and I was to ask you what the
most exciting city in North America is
right now what would you say New York
Minneapolis
Montreal how about Edmonton Edmund what
yes Edmonton so go north yeah keep going
no that's me and Calgary keep going
north yes that's Edmonton there you go
Edmonton a city in the heart of the oil
sands of Alberta a city famous for well
a couple of hockey players and a giant
mall but not much other than that but
even if you've heard of Edmonton I'm bet
you didn't know that they are embarking
on what maybe the most ambitious Urban
cycling plan in North America right now
here in this northern town that has
winter they are embarking on a plan to
spend $100 million improving cycling in
the city over the next four years I mean
if you live anywhere in North America I
can pretty much guarantee your city is
not investing that much in urban cycling
I mean I live in Calgary and we're still
patting ourselves on the back for
building a downtown bike lane Network 8
years ago that cost5 million
evon's putting a 100 million in and
that's only half of what the strategy
calls for this investment has the
potential to truly improve the lives of
the people who live here laying the
groundwork for a city that offers more
Transportation options particularly for
those who don't want or can't afford a
car better neighborhoods quieter more
welcoming streets more livable spaces
and resilience in the face of climate
change in other words it's got a lot of
potential and so when I got a call from
an Edmonton city counselor recently
inviting me to come and check out what's
happening I was quick to hop on the bus
and go investigate I want to know how
this city became the most exciting
cycling city in North America hey
everyone I'm Tom and this is shifter a
Channel about Urban cycling bike
commuting and the ways we get around our
city if you like this video please
consider hitting that subscribe button
so I visited Edmonton a couple of weeks
ago on the invitation of City councelor
Michael Jans now he's one of the
champions of this Urban cycling strategy
and he was Keen to show me around and
talk about how he thinks Edmonton might
change and so he was basically my tour
guide for a couple of days but the first
question of course is why why did he
believe in this thing over the uh past
20 years I think we've seen a growth in
a cycling movement around the world uh
but particularly in the last five years
with the Advent of ebikes and in the
post-pandemic time we've seen a cycling
boom and an active Transportation boom
more and more people are out walking are
taking uh scooters are taking electric
bikes we're really seeing a
micromobility Evolution and uh uh we're
one of the cities in Canada our our
median age I think is 38 so half of the
city is younger than 38 you know people
are looking for choices and they're
calling on us the elected leaders at
City Hall to make a city that makes
choices more safe more accessible more
welcoming more affordable and uh we're
answering the call let's back up here's
what you need to know about Edmonton
it's a city of about a million people
it's the provincial capital of Alberta
here in Canada and it's pretty suburban
and a pretty car-centric place a few
years ago they put in a pretty solid
network of downtown separated bike Lanes
but there's still a lot of gaps in the
network and you still need a car to get
around in most places because it's not
that safe in most places to ride your
bike so in other words it's just like
most North American post-war cities it
has a beautiful River Valley and some
amazing festivals and everyone I met was
really nice and so it's a pretty good
city that way but there's nothing
special about it that would lend it
towards cycling that's that different I
think than most other cities of its size
here in North America and so while I was
getting through around by councelor Jans
I had this thought in my mind is like
What's Happening Here what makes Evon so
different than so many other cities
where they've tried and failed to have
an ambitious cycling plan like this and
so that was the thought I had in mind on
this journey that we're going through
today we started by talking to Nathan
Smith a city planner with the city of
Edmonton and here's what he had to say
so the bike plan has an aspiration that
Edmonton is a city where people are
invited to cycle in all seasons and for
all reasons so in invited is a big
important part of that aspiration so the
goal is not necessarily to tell people
what they need to do how they want
should get around um but make sure that
option is there and that it's inviting
and feels safe and comfortable so the
bike plan looks to look at the Active
Transportation Network in a way that is
safe and feels comfortable for people no
matter who they're biking with why
they're biking where they're biking and
when they're biking so Nathan was great
and helpful but he also said said a lot
of things that city planners everywhere
say but he did say one thing that caught
my attention and that was about how much
engagement the city had with its bike
plan and this idea emerged again when I
met Jason from the Urban Development
Institute now this is an organization
that represents like land developers and
homebuilders and is maybe not the first
organization you'd think of when you're
talking about Urban Transportation I
mean The Stereotype is that they are
always advocating for more Suburban land
so they can put up cheap and profitable
Suburban housing but that's not I heard
from Jason so there's no one siiz
fits-all approach you know the
interventions that we do for the
downtown in terms of a bicycle grade are
not going to be the same for the a
Suburban context but I think that in
general there is sort of an Embrace of
creating and and shifting towards a more
walkable connected um connected way of
building the city the development
industry and those who shape um our
communities are building places for
people the people that live in Edmonton
are not a monolith they all have a
variety of expectations of what they'd
like to see in their community so I was
a bit surprised to hear someone
representing the development industry
talking about these Urban issues in that
kind of way but then it reminded me that
Edmonton has actually been at the
Forefront of some pretty significant
planning changes in recent years
Edmonton got rid of parking minimums a
few years ago which is a pretty big deal
a lot of cities have been talking about
this for years but have never actually
managed to make it happen parking
minimum require Builders to put in a
certain number of parking place per
dwelling unit we're hearing all over the
place these days that parking minimums
can have a real negative impact on
density and affordability but Emon got
rid of them completely a couple of years
ago it's also already doing interesting
projects like taking this overbuilt
collector Road and turning it into a
more complete street with you know
better pedestrian and cycling facilities
more trees better landscaping and just a
improved Vibe and environment for
everybody so this got me thinking that
maybe this uh cycling investment isn't
such a big deal for Edmonton maybe it's
not a huge leap because they've been
having these tough cover ation for a
while on this Jason sort of agreed with
that there is a strong engaged uh
ecosystem of different stakeholders
whether it's developers whether it's the
industry whether it's planners
Architects Engineers even Community
leagues Community organizations I find
it really fascinating everybody seems to
know what the city plan is something as
simple as combining your land use plan
with your transportation plan is
something that Evon did uh when adopting
the city plan in 2020 so now we're
thinking about how um the buildings the
the places that we shape are also
influenced by how people move around and
I think a strong indicator of support
for active Transportation not only from
the development industry but multiple
stakeholders in the city um is that all
of them know what the city plan is next
I hit up the bike Advocates these are my
people and I met with Steven rits of the
group paths for people which advocates
for active transportation and he had a
similar take and that there are a whole
bunch of people in Edmonton aligned with
the idea that cycling should be safer
and easier for all kinds of people
there's a ton of different Community
oriented groups in Edmonton that have
been pushing towards that common goal of
Let's Make a large investment and
cycling and let's actually implement the
infrastructure and those groups like
their role has been to rep the
communities that they come from so
whether it's like individual Community
leagues or like the Edmonton Federation
of community leagues everybody's coming
from a different part of the city or a
different kind of community or
stakeholder and pushing for that common
vision like selling it to their
community and then also selling it to to
council every city has bike advocacy
groups who argue for the need for better
safe bike infrastructure right but they
often run into this brick wall known as
the business community and these are
business owners who think that cars are
essential to their business and if we
give any space away from Motor Vehicles
towards cycling that people are going to
suddenly stop coming to their store and
business will die and Edmonton certainly
has its business owners who fall into
this category as well but it's also got
people like Jeff not just who owns a
bakery called sugared and spiced now his
Bakery operates out of this unique back
alley laneway thing and he told me that
one of the reasons he liked this quirky
location was actually because there was
a bike lane nearby and because a surface
parking lot recently was converted away
from parking and into like a little
parklet I can see that being an
important piece of traffic that's kind
of under the radar everyone sees the big
arterial in front of us and on the side
and uh I read books I know people on
bikes
uh patronized businesses that they go
past people in cars uh some of them
going past here live uh 10 km that way
and they work 5 km that way we hear them
go by and they don't notice sometimes uh
people on bikes know we're here so
that's one of the reasons we picked the
spot isn't that great that he said he
reads books therefore this is he
believes in this okay so there's lots of
people who like this idea but you can't
get bike Lanes built in a democracy
without politicians and one of those
politicians here in Edmonton is Ashley
Salvatore and she joined us for a ride
to talk about this in an interesting
spot it was an older less affluent more
diverse neighborhood that actually has
some pretty good separated bike Lanes
right now which kind of bide the notion
that bike lanes are only for you know
middle class white guys with
beards anyway I asked coun Salvatore why
she put some of her political Capital
into this bike plan it's not just about
creating this you know beautiful
urbanist Utopia it's about options it's
about Choice uh it's about showing this
is going to help us create a more
affordable City a more sustainable City
a more fiscally responsible city um and
one that takes climate change seriously
so ensuring it's not just an isolated
conversation about bike infrastructure
uh versus other modes it's about um
having a holistic conversation about why
this is an important part of of building
a city that works for everyone I also
wanted to ask councelor Salvatore about
the cost of this bike strategy because
there is some sticker shock with a
number like a hundred million dollars
and I'm sure people are saying I've got
a pothole on my street that hasn't been
fixed yet you're spending $100 million
on those damn
cyclists well here's what she had to say
about that I have many thoughts on that
one um one interchange you know one
overpass is 150 $180 million uh
for a fraction of that we're going to
get the foundations of a Citywide bike
Network um you know it is incredibly
valuable uh to to be able to provide
those comparators because when you say
the number 100 million yeah that seems
like a really large number and yes it's
a significant investment um but in
comparison to other Investments that we
make as a city in comparison to our you
know 8 to 10 billion do Road Network
this is a small investment that's going
to have huge returns for edmontonians I
think we worked it out it's in terms of
uh an actual tax increase on um you know
an average home here in Edmonton it's
about 33 cents um so the return on
investment is is fantastic so finally I
got a chance to sit down with my tour
guide counselor Michael Jans and ask him
why he's putting so much of his
political Capital into the cycling plan
here in this Northern Suburban City
there's more young people there's more
people starting their careers here it's
a very affordable City relatives to
relative to others in Canada and more
and more of the people coming here are
saying we want more transportation
choices so I think uh all of us as
parents want to know that our kids will
be safe our loved ones will be safe and
that's ultimately what this is about and
when you think about how much it costs
it's really immaterial compared to the
cost of of disease of of asthma of
pollution of of car crashes of of all of
the the the uh just the the harms that
that uh um autoc Centric development has
caused on on North America it's not
saying that you go carfree but maybe you
can go car less maybe your friends can
go car less maybe you have more choices
in our city and that's really exciting I
also wanted to know what he thought that
$100 million will mean how will the city
be different in four or five years so
this is going to allow a a series of
connections throughout our city that
wherever you are you should be able to
go A to B in a safe connected separated
accessible way and that's really
exciting especially for the most
marginalized groups who want to get out
and move what we've seen over the last
uh decades is is some leadership but
some Patchwork leadership that's allowed
you know a good chunk here a good chunk
there but they haven't necessarily been
needed together okay so all this was
really interesting and after spending a
couple of days with councelor Jans I
left feeling pretty excited about the
future for Edmonton and that's great for
edmontonians I think this is really
going to benefit everybody in the city
but I also was looking for something
that might help all of you in other
cities and your quests to make your
cities more bike friendly because there
are city planners and bike Advocates and
even politicians in cities all over the
place who are trying to do the same
thing but can't seem to get any Headway
I mean the original question of this
video was what makes Edmonton unique
that this could happen here and it took
me a while to sort of think on this
question but after a while I started to
realize that maybe the answer wasn't in
the politicians and The Advocates maybe
the answer came from this Gathering of
people we met on a Brisk Friday morning
right at sunrise this is coffee outside
an informal Gathering of people that's
been happening on the street here for
years every Friday morning for years
here in Edmonton this is Darren he's an
ER doctor who shows up every Friday
morning with this portable coffee brewer
and makes coffee for people and people
on bikes just stop by and they chat it
was here that I met Carly who's doing
her PhD research on cycling and I met
Greg who runs a local bike Community
organization and recently sold his car
and is not going to replace it because
he can get around without one and
Heather who was organizing a women's
ride to get more women out on bikes and
show people that it's important to think
about women in building bike cities and
most of the people I met here seemed
pretty knowledgeable about the
intricacies of the city's bike strategy
now Darren and his friend Glenn were
identified as sort of the leaders or the
founders or some of the Originals of
coffee outside and so they were
reluctant to take credit for anything
but I pinned them down and asked them
some questions about how they may have
influenced this Citywide bike strategy
are bikes essential to this to this mix
no Community is essential to this mix
and bikes tend to allow Community to
happen by taking that taking away the
boundaries that exist between people in
cities it's it's what we have in common
um we're not all the same
people but we share being out in the
city on bicycles for the most part so
bik have brought us together bikes kind
of keep us together they're the vehicle
of of the event in a way we had
counselors come out we've had we've
we've started a counselor on his on his
on his bicycling uh yeah Andrew Knack we
decided to take him for a ride and he
turned into a
commuter uh when there was the uh moral
race every single candidate except for
one came
to came to uh coffee outside cour our
favor yeah yeah so I think we have some
influence uh I think we're more just an
example of the good aspects of cycling
culture so cycling cycling is a very
bodily thing you you show up with your
body in this in a in a way
that is that you're very aware of um
you're very aware of your safety and and
and your body when you're out in the
city on on a bikee and I think to show
up here bodily you know to be here
physically not just tweeting at each
other or talking online shows a
commitment uh that is hard to ignore uh
and I think people notice that uh and I
think I like to think that that that
witness uh has had some effect on on on
making cycling um just a way to get
around did you catch what he said there
bikes take away the boundaries that
exist between people isn't that just
like the best image and that's what got
me thinking that maybe this is what's
key to what's happening at Edmonton here
what I mean is if you have a community
full of people who care about these
issues and understand that cycling can
make our lives and our cities and our
world better and they come together and
they talk and they work really hard and
they get the plans in place and they
align goals and they get the political
will and they convince people and they
advocate maybe when the time comes and
the moment arrives the city will be
ready here's something else that that
bike Advocate Steven rites told me
there's certain Windows of time where
things are quite opportune and so when
things might not be as opportune as it
would have been with prior councils we
were not focused on that Big Money piece
and we're more focused about okay let's
set a good framework in place so that if
there is a future Council that is ready
to make the investment in infrastructure
so back to the original question of this
video is was there something special
about Edmonton that it could make this
investment and I think the answer is no
there's nothing special about the city
particularly but maybe there is
something special about the community
what happened was a bunch of people came
together they got aligned on a great
idea they did all the hard work and when
the moment came they were ready so if
you're looking for a takeaway from your
city maybe what you should be trying to
do is something as simple as getting
some bike friends together in the
morning for coffee someday and just
start talking thanks for watching I'll
see you next time