wyliepoon
Senior Member
Spacing
http://spacing.ca/wire/2009/06/18/newcomers-have-much-to-offer-toronto-cycling-culture/
June 18th, 2009
Newcomers Have Much to Offer Toronto Cycling Culture
Posted by Emma Feltes
“The story about newcomers coming to Canada is all about their skills not being recognized,†said Peter Dorfman of Toronto Public Health yesterday. â€In a small way, what this campaign does is it recognizes that one of the strengths that newcomers bring is their cycling skills and their transit-friendly skills.â€
The campaign Dorfman is referring to, From Back Home to Our New Home, a collaboration between CultureLink Settlement Services and the Toronto Cyclists Union, celebrated it’s launch yesterday at CultureLink’s brand new facility at Dundas and Bloor. The project aims to promote cycling among newcomers through participatory workshops, inter-cultural events, and educational materials translated into the top 15 languages spoken in Toronto. While cycling has the potential to help newcomers deal with economic challenges and engage in their new communities, a benefit for Toronto is what we can learn from the cycling cultures newcomers bring with them.
“New Canadians often bring a lot of really great skills to our country and one of the skills that many of the newcomers to Canada are bringing is a lifetime of cycling; they come from cultures where cycling is part of their mainstream transportation and it would be a real shame for us to loose that,†said Chris Cavacuiti, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, co-chair of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee, and board member of Share the Road Coalition. The keynote speaker at yesterday’s launch, Cavacuiti’s presentation focused on how cycling addresses some of the biggest challenges currently facing our planet. Unfortunately the “North American dream†doesn’t necessarily include a bicycle. â€Currently part of the stereotype about having become integrated as a Canadian is you get your house in the suburbs and you get a car.â€
This stereotype is further facilitated by our lacking cycling infrastructure. Yu Li, originally from Beijing, where he depended on his bicycle as a primary mode of transportation, noted, “Toronto cycling infrastructure lags far behind many many cities around the world. This gap is especially challenging for newcomers, coming from the places with strong cycling culture. It’s very difficult to adjust to Toronto’s autocentric street.â€
While the campaign is a step in the right direction - introducing newcomers to transit alternatives and spreading awareness about safe cycling in Toronto - progress will also have to be made in terms of better and more geographically diverse cycling infrastructure that services the neighbourhoods most populated by newcomer groups.
*****
It's great to see that some awareness has finally been raised about cycling culture among immigrant groups in Toronto. However, for certain ethnic groups in Toronto, cycling is already a way of life even in the suburbs, bucking the suburban "stereotype" described above.
Take North Scarborough, where I live, for example. The large Chinese population, many of which came from mainland China, means that many were acquainted with biking even before they came to Canada. Many have kept the practice of biking to get around, for example, to go grocery shopping, as it is the cheapest transportation option compared to transit or the car. As a result, bikes are everywhere in North Scarborough. Go to a neighbourhood shopping plaza and you will see bikes locked to everything- not only bike parking facilities, but also trees, signposts, and fences.
There is really little need to promote biking to the population in this area, but cycling infrastructure is badly needed. Part of the problem is that as a suburban area, the only biking that urban planners for this area planned for is recreation biking (North Scarborough's Milliken Trail system links parks and green spaces, not community centres or retail). The planners probably didn't envision that now this area is home to a large number of non-recreational cyclists who came from one of the world's top cycling nations. As a result, North Scarborough's bike trails are useless, much-needed street bike lanes are non-existent, and cyclists afraid of sharing the road with cars are fighting for sidewalk space with pedestrians (many of whom are also TTC riders getting to and from the bus stop). Usually the only cyclists you would see on the road instead of the sidewalk are white, not Chinese.
One difference between suburban Chinese cyclists and downtown cyclists is that there is no cycling "culture" to speak of, and little in the way of cycling advocacy. I haven't heard of any movement within the Chinese community calling for bike lanes, because most cyclists seem rather comfortable with using the sidewalk (at the inconvenience of pedestrians). Chinese cyclists see biking as a necessity, or the most economical choice, but they are not 'proud' of biking like inner city cyclists. There's no Critical Mass here, probably no biking advocacy groups, and most cyclists don't know where the nearest bike repair shop is.
The "Back Home to Our New Home" campaign should not just focus on the inner city, but also on suburban areas. In areas where cycling doesn't need any more promotion, like North Scarborough, the campaign should really focus on getting more cycling infrastructure from the City for ethnic cyclists who don't speak out very often.
http://spacing.ca/wire/2009/06/18/newcomers-have-much-to-offer-toronto-cycling-culture/
June 18th, 2009
Newcomers Have Much to Offer Toronto Cycling Culture
Posted by Emma Feltes
“The story about newcomers coming to Canada is all about their skills not being recognized,†said Peter Dorfman of Toronto Public Health yesterday. â€In a small way, what this campaign does is it recognizes that one of the strengths that newcomers bring is their cycling skills and their transit-friendly skills.â€
The campaign Dorfman is referring to, From Back Home to Our New Home, a collaboration between CultureLink Settlement Services and the Toronto Cyclists Union, celebrated it’s launch yesterday at CultureLink’s brand new facility at Dundas and Bloor. The project aims to promote cycling among newcomers through participatory workshops, inter-cultural events, and educational materials translated into the top 15 languages spoken in Toronto. While cycling has the potential to help newcomers deal with economic challenges and engage in their new communities, a benefit for Toronto is what we can learn from the cycling cultures newcomers bring with them.
“New Canadians often bring a lot of really great skills to our country and one of the skills that many of the newcomers to Canada are bringing is a lifetime of cycling; they come from cultures where cycling is part of their mainstream transportation and it would be a real shame for us to loose that,†said Chris Cavacuiti, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, co-chair of the Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee, and board member of Share the Road Coalition. The keynote speaker at yesterday’s launch, Cavacuiti’s presentation focused on how cycling addresses some of the biggest challenges currently facing our planet. Unfortunately the “North American dream†doesn’t necessarily include a bicycle. â€Currently part of the stereotype about having become integrated as a Canadian is you get your house in the suburbs and you get a car.â€
This stereotype is further facilitated by our lacking cycling infrastructure. Yu Li, originally from Beijing, where he depended on his bicycle as a primary mode of transportation, noted, “Toronto cycling infrastructure lags far behind many many cities around the world. This gap is especially challenging for newcomers, coming from the places with strong cycling culture. It’s very difficult to adjust to Toronto’s autocentric street.â€
While the campaign is a step in the right direction - introducing newcomers to transit alternatives and spreading awareness about safe cycling in Toronto - progress will also have to be made in terms of better and more geographically diverse cycling infrastructure that services the neighbourhoods most populated by newcomer groups.
*****
It's great to see that some awareness has finally been raised about cycling culture among immigrant groups in Toronto. However, for certain ethnic groups in Toronto, cycling is already a way of life even in the suburbs, bucking the suburban "stereotype" described above.
Take North Scarborough, where I live, for example. The large Chinese population, many of which came from mainland China, means that many were acquainted with biking even before they came to Canada. Many have kept the practice of biking to get around, for example, to go grocery shopping, as it is the cheapest transportation option compared to transit or the car. As a result, bikes are everywhere in North Scarborough. Go to a neighbourhood shopping plaza and you will see bikes locked to everything- not only bike parking facilities, but also trees, signposts, and fences.
There is really little need to promote biking to the population in this area, but cycling infrastructure is badly needed. Part of the problem is that as a suburban area, the only biking that urban planners for this area planned for is recreation biking (North Scarborough's Milliken Trail system links parks and green spaces, not community centres or retail). The planners probably didn't envision that now this area is home to a large number of non-recreational cyclists who came from one of the world's top cycling nations. As a result, North Scarborough's bike trails are useless, much-needed street bike lanes are non-existent, and cyclists afraid of sharing the road with cars are fighting for sidewalk space with pedestrians (many of whom are also TTC riders getting to and from the bus stop). Usually the only cyclists you would see on the road instead of the sidewalk are white, not Chinese.
One difference between suburban Chinese cyclists and downtown cyclists is that there is no cycling "culture" to speak of, and little in the way of cycling advocacy. I haven't heard of any movement within the Chinese community calling for bike lanes, because most cyclists seem rather comfortable with using the sidewalk (at the inconvenience of pedestrians). Chinese cyclists see biking as a necessity, or the most economical choice, but they are not 'proud' of biking like inner city cyclists. There's no Critical Mass here, probably no biking advocacy groups, and most cyclists don't know where the nearest bike repair shop is.
The "Back Home to Our New Home" campaign should not just focus on the inner city, but also on suburban areas. In areas where cycling doesn't need any more promotion, like North Scarborough, the campaign should really focus on getting more cycling infrastructure from the City for ethnic cyclists who don't speak out very often.