Commuter cyel Michael Becker News Editor mibeckerOusncws.com PEACEFUL Stanley Park has become the larest B.C. battle ground for environmentalists, natives and foe of the infernal combustion engine in recent weeks. A Vancouver Parks Board decision to support a wider causeway brought out the usual suspects. An e-mail ‘luesday from the Bicyele People called for direct action: “They may begin the destruction tonight, it may be tomorrow... We will be there until this has been won tor the pedestrians, cyclists and other citizens of Vancouver. Bring cameras, video-cameras, noisemakers and musical instruments, tree climbing equipment, paint, lights, signs, friends, bicycles, more and more peuple! There will be some food, tarps for the rain and sign making material.” Cool temperatures and rain put a damper on the stunts, but media-triendly hijinks — camps and inen hanging from trees — olten detract’ from the serious issues we all have a real stake in. The public sees the circus and dri- ves on by, The status quo is this: cars are king of the road; transit options remain woefully imadequate; safe commuting routes for cyclists are slim to non-existent. It’s a deadly scenario. Congestion within the Greater Vancouver area is causing, various levels of government to review strategies and planning to encour- age alternate travel. Cycling will continue to increase. Also on the rise: the potential for more injuries and faralities as bieycles and vehi- cles inevitably collide. A report prepared by the office of the chief coroner reviews coro- ners’? reports on cycling deaths between 1986 and 1995. Deaths of Cyclists in’ British Columbia summarizes the recommenda: tions. The report notes that accord- ing to the B.C. Motor Vehicle Branch there were some 2,039 reportable bicycle accidents in 1993; 2,068 in 1994, 29 more than in 1993. A bicycle accident is reportable in B.C. ifit results in injury or death or aggregate property damage of $25 or more. At least one motor vehicle must be involved. In 1993 there were 1,916 cyclists injured and 10 fatalities; in 1994 there were 1,926 injured with nine fatalities. Males represented 74% (1993) and 76% (1994) of those injured. Maies represented 90% (1993) and 80% (1994) of cyclist fatalities. Serious discussion and subsequent progressive action tends to get lost in the heat of public relations play for the hearts and minds of a helplessly mobile society. And yet the clues are out there, pointing to possible outcomes that might better serve the needs ofall. One of them is posted at the Bicycle People Web site . Visitors will see a crude but provocative image of what the cycling advocates are calling The Lions Gate Windway. The accompanying story begins like this: “It's winter solstice 2000 in Vancouver. Although it’s raining in torrents, you have gifts co gather. Rush hour cars and trucks are noisily wadging along, pumping out their brew of noxious chemical vapours, splashing water everywhere. “Bur you're not getting wer. Warm, dry, comfortable air sur- rounds you and your cycling buddy as you enjoy a quiet conversa- tion about what gift to get next. Oblivious to the traffic chaos hap- pening on the car congested streets, there’s no rush but the rush of wind at your back, helping you gently on your way...” Guy Wera, 48, is a bicycle person. When he’s not organizing protest action at the side of the Stanley Park causeway, he splits his time benween Gibsons and Vancouver. Some day he would like to ride inside an enclosed, fan-assisted windway in Vancouver. It might even be attached to the venerable Lions Gate Bridge. Wera joined Bicycle People in 1989, when the cycling advoca- cy group was founded. He moved to Vancouver from Amsterdam in 1980. “Pd been riding a bicycle, but it was a toy and it was great. [ never thought abour it much and then I got into Vancouver and the water tasted good and within 10 years the water didn’t taste good any more. And then the pollution started getting heavy on me,” he said. Last year he took in a Suzuki Foundation presentation. Wera heard Guy Dauncey, a Fellow of the Findhorn Foundation (Scotland) and a consultant who specializes in “devel- oping a positive vision of'a post-industrial, environmentally sustainable future” speak about the wind- way concept. Dauncey says it’s something worth taking a closer look at. “Whether it would work specifically for Vancouver is more ofa detailed engineering costing matter. My first move would be to gather more detailed information, before making any decisions. “We urgently need more ‘clean energy’ transport systems, for local and for global reasons. The world climate change crisis is very real (witness Mozambique’s floods this week), and it urgently needs solutions such as this,” Dauncey said. Wera would like to see windways on the Lions Gate Bridge and on Burrard Suet Bridge. “The full length, I realize this needs to be tested. We need to do a one kilometre stretch with a fan and blow people through a kilometre,” he said. He believes 80% of the commuting population would use bicycles if given the facilities, “That’s RAIL- and cycling-ways work togeth- er, according to bicycle advocates. AN elevated “windway” could keep cars and bicycles separate. THE Bicycle People envision a windway for cyciists attached to the Lions Gate Bridge some day. SUNDAY Focus == ff EWS photo Julie iverson BICYCLE person Guy Wera wants vehicles to slow down th-ough the Stanley Park causeway. He would also like to see better cycling tacitities in place tnroughout the region. the key. In the rain, under the weather nobody wants to cycle,” said Wera. Milnor H. Senior, Uf, is president of Bicycle Transportation Systems, Inc., based in-Denver, Colorado. Senior is the person who came up with the idea for the TransGlide 2000 Bicycle Transit System, the windway championed by Wera and the Bicycle People. Senior holds the patents. He says his company is looking for a location where the first project will be built. “The important point is to buiid a demonstration project which has transportation utilitarian value so that it demonstrates that people will enjoy using the system and that it can be operated on a profit-making basis,” he said. He says there are plans under consideration to build a system from Helmond to Eindhoven in the southeast part of the Netherlands. The system would be cight miles (12.9 kilometres) long and cost an estimated 15 million to 20 million U.S. dollars. Said Senior, “Keep in mind that this is for a transit system which has more carrying capacity than a highway lane and most light rail systems which are much more expensive.” He notes however that the “real” savings from building TransGlide Systems will come from an improvement in public health. As far as the notion of attaching the TransGlide System to an exist- ing structure such as the Lions Gate Bridge, Senior rates such a scheme as “very possible due to the light weight of the structure and the vehicles that use it.” Meanwhile Senior has submitted an abstract on cycling intrastruc- ture ideas to Vlo Mondial 2000, a global cycling forum set for June 18 to 22 in Amsterdam. The sessions there are meant to challenge planners and policy makers with an integrated vision of the role of bicycling in the promotion of sustainable development. Back on the causeway Wera will continue to talk up the windway. “At this point ’'m getting peo- ple to talk about it. Wind tunnels are not the end-all to everything. We sill need to reduce the auto- mobile’s speed in general. That’s the issue we're looking at on the Lions Gate Bridge,” said Wera. From Wera’s perspective, widening, the causeway will simply speed up craffic. “The people who are in cars are realizing that they'd fove to be on their bikes and in a wind tun- nel and get there, When people get to understand this, they will see that this is cheaper than the auto- mobile. The automobile is not king, it is a guest. It’s a very big privilege for somebody to be driving an automobile. Do we want everybody to drive into downtown or nov? Now chat we've got enough of a traffic jam, then the windway would be a beautiful addition to chat bridge. It’s nat too fate.” NEWS graphic Norisa Andavson