Hamilton, Ont. will play host to a summit this weekend mobilizing advocates seeking a more friendly cycling road map for Ontario.
Former parliamentarian Eleanor McMahon, now the founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, says Hamilton is host of the 2023 Ontario Bike Summit (OBS) due to achieving “silver” status with her organization.
The honour signifies a municipality has met standards for path infrastructure, signage, promotions and maps, youth and adult education, traffic safety and overall community planning.
“It’s won awards for complete streets design, meaning a street that is designed around everybody and making it as safe as possible for all ages to navigate,” McMahon explained.
“Since more people want to cycle now than ever, Hamilton is really embracing that global trend.”
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McMahon has been behind a push for societal and legislative change since 2009 and the tragic death of husband Greg Stobbart, an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) sergeant.
Stobbart, an avid cyclist from Burlington, was just 45 when he collided with a truck in Milton in June 2006.
Halton police say he and his bike were struck by a passing five-ton truck on Tremaine Road.
The 30-year-old truck driver would eventually be charged with careless operation, and later found guilty in 2010.
Following Stobbart’s death, McMahon says trips to Europe, South America and the U.S. opened her eyes to how bicycles could be utilized in everyday life, even for workers moving goods and services.
“(They) have vibrant economies and people that are healthy that cycle more often to the benefit of themselves and to the society around them,” McMahon told Global News.
The first summit, 14 years ago in Waterloo, is where the coalition began looking to the Ontario government for a dialogue to develop a public policy for cycling the province could embrace.
Around that time, Ontario under Kathleen Wynne committed to a 20-year cycling strategy with the goal of increasing cycling opportunities in municipalities by improving infrastructure, road safety and promoting cycling awareness.
Originally, the Ontario Municipal Commuter Cycling Program (OMCCP) was earmarked to provide some $93 million to 120 municipalities by 2018.
However, the Ford government coming into power a few years later eliminated the program.
Ontario MPP and Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Neil Lumsden will be among the many politicians speaking at the Hamilton summit, along with mayor Andrea Horwath and Guelph mayor Cam Guthrie who are closing the event.
McMahon says a highlight of the conference will be the participation of the Dutch Cycling Embassy, a brain trust and successful European intermediary that’s been offering strategies over the last decade to make bicycles useful options in constrained urban environments.
“It is a mechanism by which the government of the Netherlands has funded … and the staff to work with Dutch companies to take everything they know about their expertise in cycling … and how to bring that to countries around the world,” McMahon said.
The OBS runs for three days at the Sheraton hotel on King Street West beginning on Sunday with a design workshop before moving into two days of speaker sessions.