The town where I live hired consultants to solicit the opinions of the community on improving the town's bicycle infrastructure. A variety of interests were represented from those wanting better recreational trails to those wanting accessibility for older people to those, like myself, who are more interested in improving the infrastructure for communting from suburban areas to the downtown core. Quite a few people raised the issue of the increasing necessity of developing such infrastructure in light of increasing gas prices. A good chunk of the time was spent simply bitching about drivers and their lack of respect for cyclists. A number of parents voiced their concerns about it not being safe to let their kids bike along major routes. A few people talked about how backward we are compared to the Europeans in our infrastructure and mentality towards biking.

In the end I was glad I attended because even though we represent many different interests we are all promoters of cycling and want to see better cycling infrastructure. Also to have gotten to the stage were consultants have been hired and are soliciting opinions means we are beyond square one.

One of the objectives of the consultants was to solidify the vision statement for the "Active Transport Initiative". They promoted the concept of a "connected network of trails"; I registered my objection that I was less interested in achieving some grand unification than engaging in a series of "guerilla projects" designed to more efficiently connect existing pieces of transport infrastructure so that suburban users can get to the downtown core more efficiently. I had a few people who supported this more pragmatic vision.

I was happy I attended the meeting as it helped me better understand the diversity of interests among cyclists and it also gives me a bit of optimism that the bicycling infrastructure for my town might be improved. In a couple of weeks there is to be a full-day workshop where more detailed work will be done. In the meantime, I need to send an email to the county giving them my 2 cents about where some efficiency improvements might be made in getting from point A to point B in my town.