Bikes versus cars: Who pays their fair share for Vancouver's roads?

If you are an avid cycle commuter this should make your choice a little sweeter.

Vancouver's roads?

City does have 'free riders' problem, but it's not what you think

By Don Cayo, Vancouver Sun September 25, 2010


Cyclists ride along the Burrard St. bike lane in Vancouver. Plans are now underway to complete separated bike lanes from the Burrard Bridge to the Dunsmuir Viaduct across the downtown core.

Cyclists ride along the Burrard St. bike lane in Vancouver. Plans are now underway to complete separated bike lanes from the Burrard Bridge to the Dunsmuir Viaduct across the downtown core.
Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann, PNG

VANCOUVER - Bike riders or car drivers? Who are the free riders who fail to pay their fair share of the cost of building and maintaining the city’s roadways?

In Vancouver’s raging bike-car debate, where most people stand tends to depend on where they sit — whether perched on a saddle or ensconced in a car.

But, while you can make a case that neither group pays its freight in a direct way, the facts are clear: People who don’t drive much — including most true bike zealots — significantly subsidize those who drive a lot. And in any kilometre-by-kilometre comparison of city residents who travel exclusively by one mode or the other, drivers tend to pay less than their real costs, while riders pay more.

Given how drivers are incessantly dinged for things like licences, parking and fuel tax — and how cyclists aren’t — you may wonder how can this be.

Well, the first point is that car-related government revenue in general doesn’t cover the costs car use imposes on the Canadian public. The second is that if you look at just municipal balance sheets — who is paying whose costs in Vancouver or other cities — the subsidy for cars is far, far higher than the Canada-wide average.

A fair analysis of car-related costs and revenues should not include general sales taxes. These apply to almost everything you spend money on, so there’s no reason for the revenue senior governments get when you buy a car to be treated differently than if you bought a boat, or granite counter tops, or a diamond tiara.

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Bikes versus cars: Who pays their fair share for Vancouver's roads?

Finally some tubulars for Cross

 

Unfortunately these wheels will have to wait a couple weeks for their debute.

Expo Cycle 2010

Two days of walking the showroom floor and checking out GP Montreal have left my feet tired and my brain over stimulated.

To startoff GP Montreal was great with an impressive spectator turn out. We only caught the last third of the race but enjoyed the little bit we saw. Ryder did Canada proud riding aggressively,in a fashion similar to his performance at le Tour. I think we should expect to see many more great performances from him in the future. Canada’s National team presented by Spidertech was very visible in the race and the guys all did a great job hanging in till the end. Looking forward to a bright future of Canadian road cycling and the prospects of a Canadian based Pro Tour Team in the near future.


The 2011 season feels like it will be upon us in no time and I always look forward to my first chance to see next years bikes complete and in person and this year was no exception. I was asked by a Rep what stood out the most for me this year and my first response was how good everything looked. The finish on the 2011 product was fantastic. The bikes looked very polished and there seemed to be a trend toward clean lines and accents of colour.


I spent quite some time chatting with the Ridley crew getting up to speed on their technology and new product they have coming down the line. They have a new Dean RS TT frame this year which should stack up well against the competition. It features the R-Flow fork and their ASA (Adjustable Seat Angle) system allowing the rider to choose either a 77, 78 or 79deg seat tube angle.

The bike that surprised me the most from Ridley was an incredible buy under $2000. The Icarus SLS with a SRAM Apex build kit is going to retail for $1450. This is going to be a best in class bike for sure.


Internal cable routing is now a standard with all the TT/Tri bikes and high end Road seems to be headed down the same path as well. My personal feelings are a little mixed on the subject with the mechanic in me dreading the time I will spend fishing cables on many of these bikes.

A few companies late to the TT bike market have finally come out with there own unique offerings. Both Garneau and Opus had new designs on display unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to get the details on each one.


I did find some time to make some new contacts and enjoyed my chat with the founder of Octo bikes and components and was impressed with his growing line of product.

There was definitely a continued focus on the growing urban and commuter markets with lots of new offerings in the accessories department. The list of locks, lights, fenders racks and panniers continues to grow. One of the urban bike trends to keep an eye on is the addition of bikes with internally geared hubs to a lot of companies lines. Dr Good from Kona is one great example of this and will be commuter for 2011.


I am looking forward to our first shipments of 2011 bikes and hope that we have another mild winter so we can slide from this year into next with little time off the bike.