April 29/15 13:31 pm - Share the Road Ontario Bike Summit Report

Posted by Editoress on 04/29/15
 

The 7th Annual Ontario Bike Summit was held at the Eaton Chelsea Hotel in downtown Toronto on Tuesday, March 31st, and Wednesday, April 1st.

With 215 delegates in attendance, this was our largest summit ever. Fifty-nine (59) communities were represented at the summit from each of Ontario's 4 geographic regions (North, East, West and Central).

A variety of stakeholders took part in lively discussions about moving cycling forward in Ontario. It was motivating to see the continued momentum around cycling and the ways that the #CycleON Strategy is being implemented in communities across the province.

Highlights include:

• Presentations from 21 speakers examining the 5 key themes of #CycleON
• Keynote addresses from Howard Chang (President, Top Drawer Creative, Inc.) and Kathryn McGarry (Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation)
• 8 members of the Provincial All-Party Cycling Caucus in attendance for the keynote dinner
• Distribution of the Bicycle Friendly Community Awards to Thunder Bay (Bronze & the first community from Northern Ontario to receive a designation), Newmarket (Bronze), Blue Mountains (Silver), Peterborough (Silver) and Toronto (Gold)
• Consultation on Ontario's speed limit hosted at lunch
• Closing workshop facilitated by the Ministry of Transportation seeking feedback on local barriers to active transportation
• Provincial announcement on early proposals for spending $15 Million on cycling routes that provide key linkages and connections on highways.

Click here to view "OBS 2015 Bike Summit at a Glance" report (note: large file).