Unusual Video Promotes Bike Box

Bike riding through a city may be for "commie pinkos," according to Don Cherry, but Guelph is making it easier for them to share the road with automobile drivers with something called a bike box, which the city is hoping to set-up at the corner of Stone Road and Chancellor’s Way in time for the National Commuter Challenge from June 6-10. Check out the neat How-To video by clicking the link that came with the accompanying city press release.

GUELPH, ON, May 27—The City will unveil an all-together different kind of educational tool during today’s Active Communities Summit at the University of Guelph Arboretum Centre as part of its Bicycle-Friendly Guelph Initiative. 

A new public education video is part of the City’s latest efforts to help drivers and cyclists share the road, and comes days before Ontario’s second bike box—a road marking that identifies where cyclists are to wait in front of cars at a red light—comes into effect at the corner of Stone Road and Chancellor’s Way. 

Designed to reduce conflicts between drivers and cyclists, the bike box is scheduled to be installed in time for the National Commuter Challenge held June 6 - 10. 

The City is also completing a cycle track—a paved, segregated bike lane along Stone Road between Gordon Street and Edinburgh Road which will be supported by special markings (sharrows) that alert drivers and cyclists to changes in road-sharing conditions. The cycle track is also intended to reduce conflicts between vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. 

The bike box and the cycle track are the latest developments in the Bicycle-Friendly Guelph Initiative which aims to triple daily cycling trips by 2018. Only about 1 per cent of all daily trips in Guelph are taken by bicycle, even though most of those trips are less than five kilometres. As Guelph learns to go by bike, everyone will benefit from reduced greenhouse gas emissions caused by driving, and enhanced community well-being through healthy, active living.

As for the video, Corporate Communications Manager Tara Sprigg says it’s a fun, compelling and different way for the City to reach audiences with important instructional information about the new feature. “Cities, like any business, have to find compelling ways to convey what is often complex information. The bike box video was conceived as a fun, inexpensive way to create a useful instructional tool… and make people smile at the same time.” 

The City of Guelph is one of several community partners supporting the Active Communities Summit’s shared vision to make Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph bicycle and pedestrian friendly.