Hamilton Cycling Committee

 

Monthly Meeting

 

Time:  5:00 P.M.

 Date:  March 1, 2006

 Place:  Hamilton City Hall, Room 264

 

Attendance:

Daryl Bender (Chair)                    Al Horzelenberg                      Chris Gainham

Brad Tyleman                               Cheri Weaver (regrets)            Rob Wazny

Matt Chamberlain-Thompson       Thom Oommen                       Greg Ellis

Bob Brown                                   Sarah Veale (regrets)               Michael Donaldson

Tarquin Adams                             Udo Ehrenberg (regrets)

 

Brian Applebee – Staff                 Brian Hollingworth (IBI)        Joshua Engel-Yan (IBI)

 

Daryl Bender agreed to take minutes.

 

1.  Minutes of Previous Meeting of Feb 1, 2006.  Approval of the minutes.  Moved/ Seconded/ CARRIED

 

2.  Business Arising from the Minutes: Thom Oommen will email anti-idling materials to ctte members.  Brian Applebee will request that the future paved trail along the former Mt Albion Road (east side of the RHV expressway) will be cleared of snow after snowfalls.  Bob Brown will contact Gerry Davis regarding cycling pedestrian access in the vicinity of Pritchard Road & Arbour Road (crossing the expressway – apparently foundation already exists for this crossing).  Daryl to communicate with the HSR & Parks Section regarding the creation of a parking area on Mount Albion Road at the base of the escarpment (future bus turn around location).  Tarquin to contact Mike Marini regarding two issues – the “Y” network of trail access immediately south of Melvin and trail routing over the QEW.

Brian provided an update on cycling facility projects. 1) Public Works, Infrastructure & Environment Committee & Council approved the $500,000 project to improve cycling network along Lake Ontario from Confederation Park to the Niagara border.  2) The York Blvd EA will be filed as “public record” a bit later than was initially planned (later than March 6).

 

3.  Guest Speakers from IBI were deferred to later in the meeting to allow a longer session of discussion on this topic.

 

4.  Clean Air Hamilton & Anti-Idling:  Research from the Upwinds-Downwinds Conference was discussed that strongly supported locating bike routes away from major intersections due to bad air quality.  Rob Wazny cited research of New York bike couriers that showed their lungs were remarkably clean – suggesting that the high level of activity may mitigate air quality concerns.

 

5.  Toronto Bike Show:  All our preparations seem to be in order.  Al reviewed the schedule of volunteers.  Everyone was reminded to save their parking and transit receipts in order to get refunds from our own Des Jardin account.

 

6.  Bike to Work Week:  This event is scheduled for June 4 to 10.  It will be discussed in detail at our next meeting. Al said his councillor (Whitehead) would speak to it at a future council meeting.

 

7.  Earth Day – April 22:  There does not appear to be much opportunity for the HCC to get involved in this event at the RBG.

 

8.  Paris to Ancaster Race:  The committee members were instructed to email Udo if they were interested in volunteering to support the event.  The date of the Race is April 9.

 

9.  Tourism Representation on the Ctte:  Daryl reported that he spoke with a staff person at Tourism Hamilton to encourage her to become a member of the HCC, or attend meetings occasionally.  Since Maria Fortunato of Tourism has a history of working with us, it was suggested Daryl explore such a scenario with her.  As well, time constraints are a concern for this staff person.  The conversation also raised a few other items:

- Tourism needs more of the 8 Route pamphlets

- There was a suggestion to organize a few family focused events such as a ride called the “Bakery Ride”, biking between various bakeries in the city.  Similarly, members were reminded that the HCC used to staff a bike check at city festivals so people could leave bicycles at an attended location – encouraging people to bike to these events.  To be discussed at a future meeting.

 

10.  Transportation Master Plan (TMP):  Brian Hollingworth of IBI provided background information regarding the stages in the TMP.  The City is currently in the third and final stage and it was stated that now is an excellent time for the HCC to submit comment to the process.  The HCC has prepared an ultimate cycling network and a preliminary version of this network had been provided to IBI.  This network was discussed at length (about 45 minutes).  It was identified that the network submitted would be a combination of route designs – including on-street lanes, shared curb lanes (possibly using bike chevrons) and multi-use trails.  A draft letter of text has been drafted as well.  The HCC will discuss this letter at its April meeting and then submit to the TMP process.

 

11.  Next Meeting:  Wednesday April 5, 2005  @ 5:00 PM  City Hall