Login / RegisterVACC pumps purchase power of cyclists with Businesses for Bikes program
If you ask Erin O’Melinn, cyclists don’t only have pedal power; they also have purchase power. And they know how to use it.
“Cyclists spend more than people think and their average income is way higher than people think,” O’Melinn, the program manager responsible for the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition’s Businesses for Bikes initiative, which launched today (September 28), told the Straight by phone.
According to O’Melinn, Businesses for Bikes is a membership-driven program which already has 62 founding members on day one.
One member, Ron van der Eerden of downtown-based Pacific Image Home Designs, is an outspoken cyclist who has long touted the benefits of increased cycling in the region, and particularly in the city centre.
“As cycling downtown becomes safer and more people take advantage of that choice, the liveability of the public realm improves,” Van der Eerden states in today’s VACC press release on Businesses for Bikes. “This draws more people to the core and invites them to stay longer. It’s good for business.”
O’Melinn said VACC surveyed more than 1,400 cyclists in Metro Vancouver who participated in Bike to Work Week and found around 50 percent of them earn $50,000 or more per year. Of those surveyed, about a quarter make $75,000 or over.
She said the program is not about being antagonistic toward the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, whose executive director, Charles Gauthier, was one of the main opponents of the Burrard Bridge lane-reallocation trial.
“I know that both the DVBIA and the Board of Trade have had their opinions voiced quite loudly, and we wanted to provide a balanced view and show that there are a number of businesses that are very supportive of cycling improvements and cycling in general,” O’Melinn added.
Later O’Melinn said, “The DVBIA are not the enemy by any means.”
In the coming months, Businesses for Bikes will distribute a Guide for Marketing to Cyclists and kick off a Discover by Bike project, according to the VACC release.
For the past two months, the city has been accepting public input on a proposed separated bike lane on Hornby Street.
Thanks to the City for sticking to its promises on cycling infrastructure.
Bicycle programming?
What are these bicycles programmed to do?
Should I fear self-aware robot bicycles?
Do robobikes feel love?
After all the crap "Be Part of the Plan" scam which really was a ruse for us to give TransLink $150 million/yr to pay for the RAV Line so that the TransLink elite could keep their jobs and avoid jail time for lying to build the RAV Line with false rider ship figures, we are entering a new propaganda campaign for TransLink elite and their drug dealer condo developer friends to make a killing on the EGL. Meanwhile the people on the B-Line route as well as users are getting stung long with the UBC $10 million dollar transit study wasting our time and money for the next 10 years.
Stay tuned and read the Vancouver Sun. Plenty of BS on the why we need the EGL to follow soon.
Exactly...well said. The Mayor and Vision ignored advice from their own engineers on side routes and bike lane alternatives that wouldn't cause congestion downtown.
Now the bike lanes are horrifically over budget because the city didn't take into consideration even common sense things like loading zones and right turns.
No one opposes bikes downtown. As long as they follow the rules of the road and don't cause accidents and congestion.
Cycled to meetings with MLA's and somehow managed to show up in a suit. I have cycled to a few Canucks games, but don't do it more often, as the bicycle parking is extremely limited and atrocious. Arenas and stadiums such as SF's AT&T Park have well used valet bicycle parking. Nat Bailey often does that and many more cyclists cycle there as a result. If you build it, they will come and they will shop there.
The tight wads who take transit or drive, eat at their desks to save money, presumably because they don’t have any money left over after paying for parking or welfare transit. They also don’t get much exercise either, lament about being fat and tell you how they plan to join a gym some day when they have more time. They live in Coquitlam, Richmond, Burnaby or Surrey and never have the time after commuting two to three hours daily. Obviously, these commuters commuting 2 to 3 hours every day on soot blowing diesel buses are much more sustainable than someone who lives in Vancouver and either cycles, drives or walks about 30 minutes to 60 minutes daily in Vancouver.
Today was a beautiful day. I was waiting at the curb of a parking lane on my bike for the light to change on Hornby near the building that fell down. Another cyclist was on my left in the bike lane. Some idiot driver in a cheap compact car started honking at us for being on his road. He was upset because we were in his way as he attempted to illegally squeeze in between the bike lane and the parking space (we both were in shock at what this moron was attempting). I called him stupid and the other cyclist who was much younger and well over 6’ in height told him to calm down for raving like lunatic at us. It seems that you are just as stupid, out of shape and ignorant as your friend in the car this morning.
When you restrict downtown cycling to only those young, confident male cyclists who are unafraid to risk their lives mingling with inattentive drivers, many of whom are ignoring important laws such as the new cellphone rules (I see it every time I leave the house) then you are discriminating against people. This country doesn't work that way. Would we allow the Seawall to only be restricted to the fastest joggers or rollerbladers? Of course not. Our public space should be open to everyone, of all ages, and if there are safety issues they should be addressed rather than access restricted.
As to side streets... that's not where the businesses and places of employment are. Put yourself in the shows of a young woman trying to get to her job or school, or a parent who needs to drop off their child at a downtown school or daycare. They shouldn't be handcuffed to the steering wheel of a car, or contributing to bus overcrowding when there is a simple, safe, and affordable solution -- repurposing a single lane here and there among the hundreds that crisscross the downtown core. As for shopping, adding bike lanes will add potential customers to any street. A forward-thinking business would be embracing this idea, and many are.
And people go out of their way to use Dunsmuir. Me included. It is just so safe and convenient.
Good-bye smelly person who hasn't taken a bath in months, good-bye obnoxious self-absorbed teenage girl shouting to her friend on the cell phone, good-bye pan-handlers harassing you for coins, good-bye stuffy stale transit air, good-bye sucky TransLink!
I’m not going to take it anymore. I’m not going to become a fat lazy transit user. I’m not going to tolerate the weirdoes and creeps on transit anymore!