But why-oh-why do municipal policies and practices perpetuate the myth that cycling is not an all-seasons transportation option? Research shows, over and over, that it’s not the cold, nor the precipitation, not even gender or age that stops people cycling in winter, it’s the infrastructure and shoddy maintenance.

January therefore, is the time we confront budget decisions our city councillors made a year, or many years, prior. In many cities, January is when planning for the next multi-year budgets begins. So this month, thinking about infrastructure that ensures women can comfortably cycle all year, and mindful of the near fiascos the cities of Edmonton and Guelph (and probably others) experienced, we compiled some requests for Canadian cities’ elected officials and administrators. Our overall point is to remind municipal councils that active transportation is an all-season activity, when the infrastructure and maintenance are planned and budgeted that way.

Most Canadian municipalities aspire to the AAA goals for cycling infrastrucucture (Laberee et al, 2024), but Calgary added two more and referred to it as the 5As: All ages and abilites, always accessible. That’s comparable to the normal expectations in places like Oulu, Finland or Copenhagen, Denmark, where the concept of ‘wintercycling’ is alien; there is only cycling, without a non-cycling season. That means winter maintenance of the bicycle infrastructure.

While snow clearing varies by city budget, which in Canada is generally a factor of urban density (urban sprawl means higher snow clearing costs per taxpayer), in most cities, the snow management policies are based on the notion of a road as a hosepipe, with cars as the flotsam that needs to be flushed into, down, and out of the pipe. The snow-clearing procedures resulting from these policies prioritise people who use heated, wheeled boxes with padded interiors and engines to power through the cold weather, snow, sleet, slush and ice. Such policies are neither adequate nor appropriate for people walking or cycling, but they’re often justified by the myth that ‘nobody bikes in winter’. In reality, they’re just entrenchment of inequity into budgets that privilege part of a city’s residents: the more able, more economically privileged and, where public transit is available, those who eschew it. Enrique Peñalosa, former Mayor of Bogotá, described this kind of municipal roads spending as non-democratic because it meant someone on a $30 bicycle received less of the city infrastructure budget than someone in a $30K car. The inequity is compounded when the people walking or cycling are women, children, seniors or using mobility devices. Why? Because in addition to being statistically more likely to be under-waged, women, seniors, the disabled and children are more likely to experience serious injury or death when trying to navigate their city without a car; they are more vulnerable. In other words, most municipalities’ snow and ice maintenance is ableist, classist, and definitely not gender-neutral (this is also true of transit apps).

Here are some points we suggest you ask your municipal councillor to know about, frame motions towards, and support budget allocations for:

1. Re-balancing of general snow and ice clearing budgets to prioritise the more vulnerable instead of the more abled and privileged.

We call for councillors to draft operating budget motions prioritizing snow clearing to firstly benefit:

• children walking, cycling or taking the bus to school, libraries, clinics, recreation facilities and parks

• adults escorting children to schools, daycares, clinics, libraries, recreation facilities and parks, by foot or bike

• seniors and people with mobilty challenges walking, cycling or using mobility devices in their residential neighbourhoods, including to access groceries, pharmacies, libraries, medical appointments, parks and recreation centres

• people with reduced incomes, including the unwaged, underpaid, students, and residents of neighbourhoods characterized by low-income thresholds, so they may move affordably throughout the city, in all seasons.

What this generally looks like is clearing snow from the sidewalks, bus lanes, bike lanes, curb cuts, and bus stops first. Clear the privileged lanes when the rest are safe and welcoming. Added bonus: when this is done dependably, transit ridership improves, walkability improves, residents are healthier, and there are added benefits to local retail shops. Winter air is clearer too.

2. Amend Public Spaces or Sidewalks Bylaws for safety and 5A accessibility.

We call for councillors to temporarily amend bylaws to:

• permit adults to cycle on sidewalks during such occasions where infrastructure or temporal cicumstances make it unsafe to do otherwise.

Your municipality probably prohibits people from riding bicycles on sidewalks. This is a generally thought to be a good thing, on the grounds that it’s safer to separate people strolling from people rolling (this is only a problem if the shared paths are too narrow). Most regulations make some sort of exception for children, while everyone else is presumed safe and comfortable to cycle admist drivers. This kind of thinking is a holdover from the days when vehicular cycling was promoted. However, these kind of blanket bylaws presume that there is safe, passable, cycling infrastructure that anyone over the regulation age can use, in all seasons. This, most Canadian cities have not yet achieved.

As mentioned above, in Edmonton during the months of December and January, numerous routes, even Edmonton’s Winter Bike Priority Loop, were too dangerous for cyclists to use, forcing adults to take car lanes or sidewalks to get to work, school, retail, clinics. etc. This was at the risk of a hefty $250 fine. Further, even in the best of weather, fines against cycling on sidewalks tend to more severely impact those in lower income neighbourhoods, where bike lanes have not been built. These bylaws also seem to assume that a mother riding to a dental appointment with a child big enough to peddle their own bike, but too young for mingling with cars, has a bicycle that can float over the sidewalk.

Added bonus: this gives municipalities incentive to get better bike infrastructure including wider shared paths, and budget for better maintenance, so that people walking don’t have to worry about people peddling.

3. Stable Active Transportation Network investments.

We call for councillors to budget:

• 2% of the Capital Budget and 2.5% of the Operating budget to an stable minimum baseline for active transportation.

Many municipalities juggle investing in infrastructure when some sort of federal or provincial incentive is offered, and lagging when not. Most thgerefore have infrastructure deficits. But until recently, most were not counting safe and women-welcoming cycling infrastructure as part of that capital budgeting. When they do start counting the bike lanes or shared use pathways as part of the city infrastructure, they may neglect to allocate adequate funds to ensure the network is maintained —leaves swept in fall, snow cleared and ice melted in winter, grit rinsed away in spring, potholes patched, signage replaced, etc. Or they cut that part of the budget in an election year, because they’re worried about re-election when people are complaining about taxes (Pro-tip: people always complain about taxes. They complain about lack of infrastructure and garbage collection too). You will likely need to remind your councillors that an all-season network of routes for all ages and all abilities means people will use it for more than recreation on the way to work. They’ll use it to get to school, shopping, clinics, the gym, retaurants and entertainment venues, too. There will be less congestion in the car lanes. This will mean reduced maintenance of car lanes.

Added bonus: when the budget percentages are stable, city managers and administrators can plan for and build more consistent, cohesive, connected routes. Consistency is important for safety —drivers learn what to expect— and it’s cheaper —equipment works anywhere in the city. It’s actually easier to build a 5A active transportation network that encourages the less-skilled, less-confident, more vulnerable residents to exchange half of their short car trips with cycling, walking (or public transit) when the budget is stable, rather than based on episodic windfalls like federal grants.

4. Provide detours and protect bicycle network routes during major construction projects.

We call on municipalities to

• apply a GBA+ lens in review of policies, procedures and guidelines regarding construction projects, street closures, or active transportation route disruption.

• amend said policies, procedures and guidelines to align with 5A principles, of accessibility always for all, but also that detours and traffic disruption mitigations are equitable.

Your city probably has a similar scenario to this next example: a key part of the active transportation infrastucture, that will become inaccessible, due to construction. It happens every spring, or what Canadians sometimes call ‘Construction Season’. In most cases, construction companies are used to providing detours that work for drivers. But less so for cyclists, and especially not for non-vehicular cyclists.

But then there are the big, multi-year projects that don’t just cause inconvenience, they shut your route down completely. Edmonton, for example, is planning a major project to rehabilitate their historic High Level Bridge —a city icon, that connects Edmonton’s downtown, City Hall, Provincial Legislature, two main universities and three hospitals to highly popular retail and residential areas on both sides of the North Saskatchewan, the river that runs through the centre of the city. The HLB is the equivalent to Toronto’s Bloor Viaduct (though it predates it by a couple of years), or Vancouver’s Granville Bridge. Other bridges cross the North Saskatchewan, but all require a steep climb: the HLB is the city’s only level crossing over a river that is about 48 metres below the city. It is consequently the most frequently used part of the city’s bicycle network. But with corrosion in the original support pillars, and truckers frequently bashing into one end, it needs work. The construction process is expected to take one to three years. City engineers have a plan to mitigate the inconvenience to drivers, by diverting motor vehicles to two nearby bridges, both near the river valley floor. But this is no solution for anyone using a mobility device or a bicycle.

In situations like this, it can be helpful to have already asked your muncipality to review the rules and guidelines regarding temporary traffic control and street closures.

In the example of Edmonton’s bridge, a detour that works for a driver —going to another bridge— is inequitable for cyclists, pedestrains, or wheelchair users. Another alternative exists: using the LRT to cross the river. There are stations within 1 KM of the north and south ends of the bridge, and it’s only one stop. But this will require going down and up two sets of elevators at each end, and paying the cost of the ride. Is that comparable to a driver’s inconvenience and extra fuel costs of driving to another bridge? Perhaps. But it may be that wheelchair user or cyclist would normally cross the High Level Bridge because they already can’t afford the LRT pass. However the project planners design equity into a project, it must be reflected in the budget, and it is up to municipal authorities to ensure that it is. Your task is to ask for that to happen.

5. Counter motonormativity in budgeting and personnel performance.

We call on municipalities to

• Provide unequivocal guidance to senior administration, in support of 5A and equitable active transportation infrastructure and maintenance

• Set administration’s personal performance, team impact indicators and deadlines to achieve modal shift

• Establish an Active Transportation Advisory Committee.

• Adapt application of ‘complete streets’ standards to include GBA+

• Revise operator perfomance standards from basic outputs (distances covered) to positive impact (quality of the work completed and the mobility ensured)

• Ensure professional development for administrators, operators and sub-contractors who are building and maintaining infrastructure

• Advise senior managers to put their best teams on the active transportation portfolios.

It is important for municipal administrators to know that their expertise is valued, but it is also important for them to recognize the pervasiveness of motonormativity bias can lead to budget decisions that lead to the snow and ice crews doing a good thing (eg: clearing a bike lane) badly (leaving water that becomes ice). Elected representatives can clarify to administration and the public that the purpose of a city’s infrastructure is not to emulate a pipeline, but to ensure comfortable use by anyone, whether a child on a bike, a blind person with a dog, or a senior using a walker. Municipal councillors can convey to administrators the message that bicycle infrastructure is a top priority as well as an equity issue. Placement and width of curb cuts, beg buttons vs bike identification lights, flexiposts vs concrete lane dividers, frequency of snow grooming in bikelanes (whether painted, separated or on street bikeways), night illumination, timing of snow removal, types of detours and mitigation of lane closures —all are equity issues. Any evaluation of impact of city operations should be whether the public infrastructure —such as a curb cut or winter bike lane or detour— can be used by a person in a hand-powered wheel chair. Community-based, neighbourhood level confirmation of impact, such that all ages, all seasons, all abilities have safe access to the public streetscape, should be included in performance reviews. An active transportation advisory committee of all season cyclists and disability activists can provide rapid consultation and advice to project leaders as well as councillors. A tool that municipalities may consider to monitor achievements in active transportation infrastructure and equitable modal shift is the Copenhagenize Index . There are ways to make municipal infrastructure more equitable.

For municipal authorities, rebalancing budget decisions to be equitable —what Peñalosa called democratic— rather than favouring those using cars, is a challenge in the same way that disrupting the status quo is always a challenge. It can be difficult to ask municipal councillors and administration to not default to the ableist, classist and sexist myths that ‘everyone uses a car’, or ‘nobody bikes in winter’ or that plowing streets before sidewalks is gender neutral. There will always be naysayers who claim (falsely) that bike lanes are vanity projects for a weird minority of the population. But overcoming motonormativity is a win-win for municipalities and their taxpayers: Cost-benefit analyses show it’s cheaper to maintain bike lanes than car lanes, and far better for community health, local retail and quality of life (ie: Dekker, 2016 see also Volker and Handy, 2021 and Del Rosario et al 2024). But if it’s not in the budget, it won’t happen.

Thanks for reading this far! If you decide to write your municipal council and raise concerns with respect to 5A and GBA+ principles for an active transportation network, feel free to borrow and adapt to whatever works for your community. Much of our inspiration and guidance comes from Columbia, Denmark, Finland and Netherlands. If you want to feast your eyes on an almost perfect winter cycling infrastructure, watch this comparison of Calgary, with Oulu, Finland.

Happy riding!
————-
Heather Young-Leslie
President, Bikeology Guild of Canada

My name is Nicole Roach, I am the Founder and Chair of Women in Urbanism Canada, which is a national non-profit organization focused on gender-equity in cities. This is my first-ever Ride of the Fancy Women, and I’m thrilled to have been invited!

Women in Urbanism Canada works to raise awareness and educate practitioners, elected officials, and the public on gender-based urban issues in Canada, such as housing, public spaces, transportation, and more. We do this through posting regular blogs, maintaining resource libraries, posting on social media, delivering presentations, and hosting events.

The transportation/mobility area of focus is particularly close to my heart, as I’ve been working in that sector for most of my career and have never owned my own vehicle. I have recently moved to Edmonton, here in Treaty Six territory, but I have navigated many other cities -including Hamilton, Toronto, Winnipeg, Maastricht, before Edmonton- by walking, cycling, and taking public transit. Through those experiences, I have been harassed, followed, and assaulted. Unfortunately, those experiences are not unique to me at all, and many women, girls, and gender-diverse people, especially those with intersecting and marginalized identities, have experienced much much worse.

These issues are serious, devastating, and urgently need to be addressed, but in our feminism and urbanism work, it’s also important that we create space for joy and connection with one another. So, I want to sincerely thank the organizers for bringing us together today, and to all of the incredible people here who are making a difference in their communities.

To conclude, I’d like to share a brief excerpt from a blog I wrote about women’s cycling titled “pedalling against the patriarchy”:

“A bicycle represents liberation and freedom of movement for so many people around the world. However, women haven’t always been able to enjoy this freedom in the same way as men.

In 1895, women riding bikes in Europe were given the following advice:

• Don’t boast of your long rides

• Don’t cultivate a “bicycle face“

• Don’t refuse assistance up a hill

• Don’t use bicycle slang. Leave that to the boys

• Don’t go out after dark without a male escort

• Don’t scratch a match on the seat of your bloomers

• Don’t appear in public until you have learned to ride well

• Don’t appear to be up on “records” and “record smashing.” That is sporty

We may look at that list now and think “my, oh my, how things have changed”... but have they really?

Canada’s first large-scale count of people cycling by gender, age, and race, led by Vélo Canada Bikes in 2021, found that there were twice as many men cycling than women. There’s clearly a problem, and I assure you, it’s not the fear of bicycle face.”

That’s all from me today. Thanks so much for listening! If you want to learn more about our work at Women in Urbanism Canada, please visit our website and follow us on social media.

Have a great ride, everyone!

Nicole Roach
Founder and Chair, Women in Urbanism Canada

It’s cooler these days and harder to get out of bed in the mornings. I can see the leaves of the oak tree in the window, and I’m reluctant to get out of bed and get on with my day. But I do. Once out and showered, I find that I’m not the only reluctant one. The butter in the cupboard rips up my bread in its chagrin at being disturbed. The coolness of the wood floor in the living room reminds me of the high school cliques I longed to be part of. The door pushes back at me when I take the dog for a walk. I have to drag the dog along the path. The leaves are sloughing down in hordes, leaving branches bare and streets full and slippery.

After we get home, I sit, nursing my coffee and thinking of how sad I will be to put my bike away for the winter. Because winter is when we hibernate, right? Winter is when we go inside, stuff ourselves with berries, cover ourselves over with blankets and wait out the cold times. And while we’re not there yet, I feel it in my bones. Winter is coming. Bring on the serials and the cereal.

I think of the fun rides I’ve been on all summer, and I grieve their demise. As the sun slowly warms my dining room table, it also dawns on me that I don’t have to give up the rides. It’s just the shoulder season. With a bit of planning, I can ride up until I’m knee deep in snow. If I want. IF I want.

What does riding in the shoulder season look like, I wonder. What does it entail? Maybe it’s just deciding to do it. Maybe it’s dressing in layers, as if I were taking the dog for a longer walk? Maybe it’s ensuring my lights are charged, as I might be riding in the gloaming, that magical time where it’s neither light nor dark. Maybe it’s taking layers with me, as it can be quite warm in the day. Maybe it’s avoiding wet mushy piles of leaves on the streets and paths as I won’t be able to see what’s underneath them.

Perhaps I need a strategy. Like I’ll only ride until November 1. Or if there’s snow on the ground when I get up, I’ll reassess, see how I’m feeling. Or if it’s below a certain degree, I won’t go. Maybe I’ll ask someone how long they ride into the fall and when they resume in the spring. I can also ask if they have any tips or tricks for riding. Maybe I’ll check to see if there’s any advice online. I’ve seen other people ride. That girl I met last week at Denise’s party clearly rode there. Maybe I’ll take her for coffee, pick her brain. I mean, if she can do it, so can I. And if there’s one thing I know, I know I love riding.

I gather up all my breakfast things, dump out my cold coffee, root around in my dresser for something to cover my knees, since it seems like they’d get cold first. Oh, that reminds me, my mitts might be useful too. And a scarf. But not too long of a scarf. Not going to end like Isadora Duncan. And then I’ll email that girl and see if she’s up for a ride to Iconoclast.

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What’s a ‘fietsster’?

Fietsster is a Dutch word, the feminine form of the noun for someone who is riding a bike*. Not doing sports or recreation. Just getting around, on a bike. The Bikeology Guild of Canada are a mob of women, some with kids, some with grandkids, some without kids; some at university, some mid-career, some retired, some with cats, some with dogs, some with no pets. We work in a variety of jobs and have diverse hobbies. Some of us are artists, others are birders, some like to camp, others ride horses, some are tech nerds and others are into cos-play. Some of us are neurodivergent, some are neurotypical. Some are born in Canada, and some are new Canadians. We come from diverse ancestries. What we have in common is that we are women, we use bicycles to move around our city, we have a lot of fun doing so, and we want to help other women to do the same.

For us, bicycles are freedom machines. The bicycle is such an accesible technology. There are bikes for those who can’t walk; bikes for those who have weak muscles; bikes for the long-legged, bikes for the short of stature; bikes for people with limited storage options; bikes for people with little kids, shopping, and sports gear; bikes for people with limited budgets, bikes for people wearing pants, bikes for people wearing skirts. Whoever you are, a bike makes it easier (and more fun) to get out and about, freely.

In fact, bicycles have been women’s freedom machines since the 1890s. Historians point out that the freedom of movement and joy provided by the bicycle empowered women to break out of Victorian-era sexist stereotypes and think about other forms of freedom, like being able to vote.

At this time of anti-freedom activities, where women, gender diverse, and/or racialized people —especially those stigmatized by ability, age, class, income, indigeneity, ethnicity, faith or origin— are experiencing restrictions on their everyday movements, their political choices, bodily decisions and human rights, we thought it’s a good time to expand our community, to broaden the fietssterdom (a neologism we invented for ‘community of women who ride bikes’).

What to expect?

This substack will not bombard you. We’ll write probably monthly, at most. Bikeology.ca is a not-for-profit, and we don’t expect monetization from this substack (we might occasionally fundraise for specific activities). We will learn more as we go along, and so this space will evolve. Along this journey, we will share ideas, frustrations, recommendations and inspirations; we’ll do this in diverse voices (because we are different people!) and we will invite guests to write here too. What you can expect is a focus on women, urbanism and fun on bikes in cities.

So, join us, follow us, if you like.

• You can find us on the web: www.bikeology.ca

• You can find us on Bluesky: bikeology.bsky.social

• You can find us on Instagram: bikeology_guild/

• And, if you really want, you can pay-subscribe to our substack (or just hit the no-pledge):

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Don’t you love our logo? It’s based on a design from Andrea Badena and re-imagined for accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion by the fabulous Serena Tang.

* Fietster is the male form of the noun. It’s come into English as if a neutral, demonstrating another example of what 1970’s feminists battled when working to change patriarchal language practices (mankind, chairman, craftsmanship, man and wife…). English prounounciation sounds like “feets-shter”. The proper, Dutch, pronounciation is here .

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