Why the Ontario Bike Summit is the place to be
By Marisa Talarico, Active Transportation Coordinator, City of Greater Sudbury
If you’re like me and work at a small or mid-sized municipality in Ontario, you’re likely the sole staffer entirely dedicated to cycling, which can feel a little isolating at times. Don’t get me wrong, I do work on a great team with other transportation professionals, but it just isn’t quite the same as working directly with others who are focused on cycling. Attending the Ontario Bike Summit (OBS) has provided me with the opportunity to build my network by connecting directly with other professionals and cycling enthusiasts who are just as excited to talk about life on two wheels as I am.
Attending last year’s OBS led me to learning about, and joining, the Ontario Chapter of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals (APBP). This is an invaluable network of active transportation professionals who share information with each other on everything from current research to draft RFPs. Joining this group has also led to more informal friendships and working relationships with my peers in other municipalities and with consultants working in the field. Being able to reach out to this network when working on a new project to bounce around some ideas or receive some feedback is invaluable and many of these relationships that I now draw upon started at OBS.
The OBS has also given me some much-needed perspective on the progress we are making to improve cycling safety and convenience for people who bike in our Northern community of Greater Sudbury. In 2018 I showed up with a mission to connect with staff from other cities that I felt were making huge strides for cycling to ask them questions about how I could apply their approaches and concepts successfully at home. Little did I know that I myself would also be pursued by staffers from municipalities far smaller than ours who were looking to Greater Sudbury as an attainable example of what a Bicycle Friendly Community could look like.
Share the Road plays a critical role in supporting municipal staff in understanding the collecting impact we can have on the direction of cycling in Ontario when we work together. Through the OBS, Share the Road has facilitated opportunities for attendees to be at the leading edge of the development of Provincial level strategies, legislation and guidelines through presentations by Ministry staff and hands on workshops, such as last year’s workshop about the update to Ontario Traffic Manual Book 18 – Cycling Facilities. Being able to participate in these workshops while at the OBS is so important as it is not always possible to engage in these activities in the same way when residing outside of the Greater Hamilton Toronto Area.
Join me this spring in Toronto to learn more about how #BikesCanDoThat and leave OBS with new connections and feeling inspired to try new ways of making your own community more bicycle friendly. See you at the OBS!
The draft summit agenda and registration information is available online at: www.sharetheroad.ca/OBS
