As much as the Trish Purdy’s of the world want to convince you that investing in micromobility is a waste of money, Halifax is starting from the front of the pack. Over 60% of peninsula residents and over 12% of total residents already commute actively even with our short, disconnected network. 4/8 - ThreadSky

terriclarke.bsky.social • 7 days ago

As much as the Trish Purdy’s of the world want to convince you that investing in micromobility is a waste of money, Halifax is starting from the front of the pack. Over 60% of peninsula residents and over 12% of total residents already commute actively even with our short, disconnected network. 4/8

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terriclarke.bsky.social•7 days ago

With that desire already in place, imagine how many people might commute to work actively if we had a connected network of over 100km of protected lanes? Imagine the positive effect that might have on traffic congestion. 5/8

terriclarke.bsky.social•7 days ago

It’s also misleading to only concentrate on commutes. What about a theoretical parent who drives to work because they require a vehicle for their job, but who uses a bicycle to drop their kid at daycare, run their errands, and travel to playgrounds, libraries and friend meet ups? 6/8

terriclarke.bsky.social•7 days ago

What about a retired person who no longer has a traditional commute, but uses micromobility everyday? What about kids? What about people who are unemployed or work from home? StatsCan very specifically only looks at travel to and from work, which will never tell the whole story. 7/8

terriclarke.bsky.social•7 days ago

If we build lanes solely for commuters there are a lot of people that get left out (including kids) who may never bike on infrastructure that isn’t built safe, isn’t built “high-comfort”. There’s overlap there with some of the same groups left out by car-centric design. We can do better. 8/8

rebelraising.bsky.social•6 days ago

And this is a really typical bit of patriarchy encoded in infrastructure: "real" travellers are adult men commuting to their office and back again, and when you build systems around them, you miss women dropping the kids at school before work, carers, kids, retired people...

carfreeroutes.bsky.social•6 days ago

Absolutely

laskinator.bsky.social•6 days ago

I wish all those commenting negatively on the FB post would read and absorb this thread. One person telling me the ROI on Halifax's cycling infra isn't worth the cost.
So basically telling me people's safety isn't worth spending tax dollars on.
Car Brain is a horrible disease.

terriclarke.bsky.social•6 days ago

What is the ROI on the billions we’ve spent on roads? Or sewers? Infrastructure is an inevitable cost of living in society.

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