July / Aug 2020: ACTIVE MODES
One of the silver linings of the dark cloud of COVID-19 is the way it’s driving a Great Neighbourhoods-affirming localization of the experiences we value…
Two undeniable metrics of this phenomenon is the international media coverage of how cities are responding to the lockdown by making room for active modes as well as the corresponding explosion in bike sales throughout the western world.
The City of Calgary was an early adopter of the COVID-19 space-making trend, and here in Ward 9, from B&P Cycle in Forest Lawn, to Bike, Bike in Inglewood, to Bike and Brew in Bridgeland, you only need to look at the daily line-ups out the doors of these neighbourhood establishments to know that Calgarians are no exception to the bicycle-buying and using frenzy taking place. For both long-time as well as newly converted advocates of increasing active mobility options in our City, this is a good news story amidst the dystopian backdrop of 2020.
GALLERY: CANADA DAY FOREST LAWN BIKE GIVEAWAY
But that good news story is tempered by the ongoing political struggle we face in shifting Calgary’s priorities from our historic, unsustainable, and overwhelming focus on moving cars, to our Great Neighbourhood’s mission of refocusing on sustainably moving people throughout our neighbourhoods, city and region through a rich variety of integrated modes. Much more significantly, it’s also tempered by the price in human life and limb that we continue pay by failing to sufficiently prioritize the safety and convenience of active mobility in Calgary.
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Our latest victim of the slowness of this shift was Cory Meza, an avid cyclist who was hit on his bike by a driver at the intersection of 50 AV SE and Macleod Trail on May 29 and who passed away from his injuries on June 1.
Only those who have had to deal with the loss of a loved one snatched away by a “traffic accident” can imagine what Chelsea Meza and her family and their friends are going through at the loss of Cory in their lives. But as the parent of an 8 year old who has been cycling since he was 4, I know well the anxiety associated with the mere potential of unspeakable loss as my child learns to navigate his city by bike.
In fact, while I was always an active modes advocate, it was only when framing the question, “how can my child cycle there safely?” that I’ve become the fervent champion I am today.
What I can’t stop thinking about is that a block from where Cory was hit, there’s a city-owned gravel road that runs along the Red Line tracks from 42 AV SE to Chinook Station that I’ve been working towards getting converted into an active modes pathway.
If that pathway was already in existence on May 29, 2020, would Cory have been on it instead? While the 42 AV SE river-to-river multi-use-path will be built this summer and is a necessary step towards the delivery of the Red Line Path, we definitely have a moment of historic momentum to deliver more and faster on our mission of mobility shift.
And so, with this newsletter, your Team Ward 9 and I are kicking off July and August as the months we focus on active mobility in Ward 9! We’ll be biking around our Great Neighbourhoods with you and your neighbours and sharing videos and articles. And we want to hear from you!
At the end of the summer we’ll deliver a map of Ward 9 from the perspective of Active Mobility that will celebrate the incredible system we currently enjoy as Calgarians, the work that is underway in better connecting that system to all the destinations we want to go to, and all the additional things we need to establish as priorities to ensure that any one of us asking the question of how can my loved ones get there safely has a clear understanding of how we’ll get there.
Thank you and please share your ideas with us by emailing ward09@calgary.ca
Happy Summer!
Gian-Carlo Carra