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Tell city to put intrastructure funds into cycling

* Correction: The following action alert, which was emailed to Ecology Ottawa Updates subscribers in February 2009, contained a potentially misleading statement about city funding for cycling lanes. Please see the following excerpt from a letter of clarification sent to city council:

"In arguing that the cycling lanes included in the Ottawa Cycling Plan should be added to the list of priority projects for federal funding, our email stated that there were cuts to funding for cycling in the 2009 budget. In retrospect, we can see how many would interpret this to mean that there would be less spent in 2009 than the year before. Of course the opposite is true; the $700,000 included in the 2009 budget for cycling infrastructure was higher than the amount dedicated to cycling in 2008. This increase over last year's funding is certainly something that we applaud.

Our reference to cuts was based on the gap between this $700,000 and the approximately $5 million that we expected to see in the 2009 budget for implementation of the Ottawa Cycling Plan. (On July 9 city council voted to "Approve the implementation of the Ottawa Cycling Plan over an accelerated 5-year period ($26 million over 5 years)".) Although the Plan does not appear to state exactly what amount will be spent each year, the provision of only $700,000 in the first year seems like an incredibly slow start. Even if the additional $800,000 in cycling facilities being built through capital road projects in 2009 is taken into account, the total still falls well short of $5 million.

Please understand that we did not intend to mislead anyone on this issue. Our sole purpose was to encourage those who value increased investments in sustainable transportation to speak up and ask that the full implementation of the Ottawa Cycling Plan be made a top priority. We know that annual budgeting and other significant funding decisions are always challenging given the city's multiple priorities and limited funds, which is why we think it's so important for Ottawa residents concerned about sustainability to continually remind council of their values and expectations."

Tell city to put infrastructure money back into sustainable transportation!

February 2009

The social and economic upheaval experienced during the recent transit strike serves to underscore the importance of a strong public transit system to our city's ability to function. Ottawa is a growing city. What today is sufficient (or barely sufficient) transit service could tomorrow be totally inadequate. If we want a greener, healthier future, we'll need to invest much more aggressively in both transit and other sustainable alternatives like cycling and walking.

Instead, the city has decided to slash funding for cycling in 2009, delaying the planned addition of cycling lanes to our road network. And, in its draft list of priority projects that it wants funded by new federal infrastructure money, road expansions in the suburbs are at the top of the list. This is not the direction we want to be moving in.

Before council approves the final list next Wednesday, February 11, please call or write to Mayor O'Brien (613-580-2496, Larry.OBrien@ottawa.ca) and ask that new cycling lanes and transit improvements be put at the top of the priority list of ready-to-go infrastructure projects. Be sure to forward the message to your councillor as well (contact info can be found here).

Together, let's make sure that 2009 isn't the year that short-term thinking about economic woes pushes a sustainable transportation future off of our city's agenda once again.