by Kathy Sinclair
It’s 8:05 am. Year 2020. You whiz out the door of your condo (thank Goddess the real estate bubble burst in 2011!) to catch the SkyTrain. After a pit stop for an americano, you board the train, and make it downtown by 8:35.
You exit the SkyTrain station and approach the row of shiny, identical bikes just outside, sidling up to the one on the end. A hunky executive type donning Armani sunglasses just about beats you to the punch; you exchange awkward smiles. You slip a card into a slot, deposit your briefcase and laptop in the bike’s generous basket, and hop on the saddle of one of Vancouver’s 3,000 shared bikes.
The upright design makes biking in a business suit easy. Heck, you’re even wearing heels. You jockey for space among the other cyclists on the bike route, riding blithely past the a.m. gridlock. As you take a left up a hill and onto the seawall with the help of the bike’s electric assist, the noise of the city evaporates. With such a sweet commute, even the occasional raindrop is immaterial.
Ten minutes later, you park the bike at a station near your office; because your ride took less than half an hour, you weren’t even charged. With the money you’re saving on a car and gas, you decide to treat yourself to a fancy dinner and a glass of wine on a patio somewhere after work.
Welcome to the future of commuting. At least, this is the vision of a dedicated group of sustainable transportation gurus. And if the success of cities like Paris, Lyons, and Barcelona are any example, these folks might just be onto something.
Back in the present, I wander the sidewalk in front of Chai Gallery on West Broadway looking for a place to park my bike. I lock up to a parking meter with a fleeting worry about theft, and go in to meet with one such guru, Richard Campbell, who—no surprise—has also cycled here.
We find a table and then attack the buffet. Richard fills his plate with dessert—albeit healthy dessert—first. It somehow seems appropriate for a man who would rather jump on a road bike than into a Porsche.
To say that Richard has made sustainable transportation his life’s work would be like saying Steve Jobs dabbles in computers. Richard is one of Vancouver’s pioneer cycling advocates; if you’ve cycled across the Lions Gate Bridge in the last few years without fearing for your life, you can thank him (though he’s reluctant to take any credit).
“You used to have to cycle on the sidewalk,” Richard recalls. “It was in pretty poor shape. You could actually see the water through the cracks. Traffic lanes were narrow as well, so cyclists would get hit by mirrors on trucks or buses.”
So, on a rainy day in 1999, Richard and 350 other cyclists sought to “Tame the Lions Gate,” defiantly riding in the car lanes of the bridge to advocate for better bike facilities. Funding was allocated to new bike paths soon after; the career of a cycling advocate had officially begun.
Though he’s made a name for himself raging against the machine, in conversation, the most extraordinary gentleman cyclist in all Vancouver is positive and upbeat. Of course, I want the dirt on my seemingly squeaky-clean, charmingly ebullient interview subject—whose initials, appropriately enough, are “CAR” backwards. And indeed, one of the city’s best known bike champions has a couple of shocking secrets: he once dreamed of owning a shiny red convertible—and he didn’t learn how to ride a bike until he was 21.
“My father was concerned that we’d get injured,” he explains, smiling. “So, as an adult, I got myself a 10-speed and taught myself to ride out in the suburbs in Richmond.”
He hasn’t looked back. A software designer by trade, Richard joined a grassroots organization called The Bicycle People in 1990, which later spawned Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST); he then co-founded the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition, and spent several years as a sustainable transportation advocate for non-profits.
Environmental concern was his initial motivation. But what really drives—or shall we say, ahem, pedals—this man? “I enjoy getting around by bike,” he says. “People don’t seem very happy behind the wheel, and biking is really a much more civilized way to get around the city. It’s also cost-effective, and it’s an excellent way to get in shape.”
Now, along with B.C. Cycling Coalition president Jack Becker, and Paul Dragan, owner of Reckless Bike Shop, Richard is working on developing what he calls “the next generation of bike sharing.” “Bike sharing can help transform the entire city,” Richard explains. “We could get rid of a lot of asphalt and create some wonderful public outdoor squares. We live in a wonderful city; it would be marvellous to be able to go to a number of places and enjoy a coffee or a beer or a meal outside, and be surrounded by the happy hum of conversation rather than the constant drone of automobiles.”
The concept of bike sharing is nothing new; the first program was launched in Amsterdam in 1968 (albeit with abysmal results: many of the bikes were kept by users or tossed into canals). But nothing has prepared the world for third-generation systems such as Paris’s Vélib’ bike share and similar programs in Lyons and Barcelona.
Vélib’ debuted last year; in just 12 months, the number of cyclists in the city has doubled, and car traffic has dropped by five per cent. Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who initiated the system to cut down on smog and traffic in la belle Paris, now wants to take it to the ’burbs.
On our side of the pond, Washington, D.C., just launched the first high-tech bike sharing program in the U.S. (SmartBike). Denver and Minneapolis are following suit, and programs in Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Arlington, Va. are set to kick off within the next year. In Vancouver, TransLink is investigating what it would take to install a system here. (A board decision is expected to be made as this article hits the streets.) Mayoral candidates Peter Ladner and Gregor Robertson are both gung ho.
If TransLink gives the go-ahead, Richard’s Third Wave Cycling will be putting in a bid—though Richard speculates that nothing would be implemented until after 2010, with so much city money being earmarked for Olympic projects.
Our international man of cyclery recently returned from an R&D trip to Europe (nice work if you can get it), full of praise for the Continent’s cutting-edge transportation systems. “The automobile no longer dominates the public space,” he enthuses, adding that one of the best things about Europe are the car-free public squares—where restaurants and businesses thrive. “People still drive, but they’ve mastered the automobile; the automobile has not mastered them.”
To Richard, the perks of bike sharing far outweigh the benefits of owning a car—even of owning your own bike. “When you take [a shared bike] somewhere, you leave it there. You don’t have to go back to it. You also don’t have to worry about maintenance or theft. You don’t have to buy fuel or insurance, and the cost of entry is really low.”
Eric Britton, a Paris-based American who’s leading a worldwide bike share revolution, is even more emphatic. “This is not going to be ‘just one more nice bike project,’” Britton states in a report titled The World City Bike Implementation Strategies: 2008. “It is, in fact, a significant public transport project; a roads and infrastructure project of some dimensions; a public health project in a time of need; a city centre economic development project; a climate project that can really make a difference; and an exercise in deep democracy and active citizenry.”
Lofty goals, perhaps, but ones befitting such daring agents of eco-change. As Richard makes his way to the buffet for another helping of dessert, he sums it up succinctly: “The trend is using better forms of transportation to create a more beautiful world.”
Kathy Sinclair is a writer and editor who looks forward to the day when Vancouver has more than one separated bike lane. She cycles in heels regularly.
