Did you miss day 3 of the conference? No worries, Vancouverite Mark Mauchline fills us in with the highlights. 

One of the hot topics at this year’s Velo-city Global is Combined Mobility. Anywhere on the planet where transit is provided, there exists the need to address the additional methods necessary for getting people to, and from those means of moving greater distances.

Chairing the discussion on the challenges of the last, and first mile was TransLink’s Bob Paddon. Speakers from Canada, the United States and Denmark provided a context that spanned North American nations trying to increase cycling, as well as public transit mode share, to a country like Denmark, where the high cycling mode share still left it seeking better integration with existing transit.

Paddon summed up combined mobility as providing options. He noted TransLink has services that not only compete with, but also are proving a better option than the automobile. The challenge comes in keeping up with the demand when these routes contain a park-and-ride element.

Spurred on by what he saw in Seville Spain, where the city dramatically increased cycling mode share in a short period, Paddon explained why cycling is increasingly part of TransLink’s strategic planning. The high cost of adding even a single parking stall to existing park-and-ride facilities, compared to the relatively inexpensive price for cycling infrastructure, means plain economics point to cycling.

“At a time when public dollars are increasingly hard to find, we have to ask ourselves: where is the best place to use those funds?”

TransLink’s Senior Manager for Service Planning, Marisa Espinosa, spoke to the fact a sizeable number, 41% of survey respondents said they would bicycle more, but had safety concerns.

Canadian Urban Transit Association President and CEO Michael Roschleau stated transit must show a balance of options, with cycling also delivering the bonus of cost effectiveness.

Much like Vancouver’s successful efforts to promote closer cooperation between planners and engineers, Timothy Papandreou of San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency admitted that the same sort of teamwork was necessary in transit integration. According to Papandreou, his agency’s “holistic planning” approach represents a coming of age for city departments in the city by the bay.

Aske Wieth-Knudsen from Copenhagen’s commuter train network, and Michel Labrecque, Chair of Montreal’s STM, shared a similar perspective.  According to both, they were running a business. When it came to the “transit cocktail”, as Labrecque labeled integrated transit, the bottom line was he was in the business of selling tickets. For Knudsen, it just made sense to give their customers what they wanted in the way of services.

The Bicycle Parade. Credit: Kevin Mayne

A busy afternoon followed with a set of sub-plenary sessions focusing on public bike sharing (PBS), making cities more liveable and looking at cycle tourism as a business case for regional development.

With BIXI bicycles being prominently positioned in the hotel’s courtyard, BIXI President Alain Ayotte, Chung-Hua University’s Dr. Hsin-wen Chang and UBC’s Jinhua Zhao shared their views on the worldwide trend that is PBS.

Gordon Price, Dr. Jason Chang from National Taiwan University and Dr. Larry Frank joined the discussion on leadership in creating healthier, more liveable communities.

Tourism Vancouver’s President and CEO Rick Antonson brought together Vélo Québec’s Jean-François Pronovost, and the ECF’s Adam Bodor give their views on the role cycling can play in tourism, and regional development.

Then, despite the drizzle, some 350 delegates paraded around Vancouver as a group on their BIXI supplied bicycles. The Velocity Global 2012 delegates truly did represent the wave of the future – for perhaps Vancouver, and the world.

Live Coverage from Velo-city

ECF is reporting this story live from the world’s largest cycling policy in Vancouver, Canada where nearly 1,000 of the cycling world’s best and brightest have gathered for four days to talk cycling. You can read more stories from our Velo-city live page and tweet #velocity2012 to join in the conversation.

About the Author

Vancouver resident Mark Mauchline has worked as a producer and director on critically acclaimed, award-winning television series, and documentary films since 2003 and has bicycled, hiked and paddled in thirty countries on five continents. He is the current Communications Manager for the Velo-city Global conference in Vancouver.