The third annual Ontario Bike Summit — Moving Ontario Forward – Building Bicycle Friendly Communities — has been taking place the past two days in Ottawa. The theme is right-on too. Ontario’s Share the Road organization has been working to incorporate the Bicycle Friendly Community program into their region, and the summit is a means to get more cities and advocates in Ontario involved. Because the Bicycle Friendly Community program is new to Canada, the summit’s purpose was to teach advocates how to:

• Develop a community cycling master plan
• Work more effectively with local governments to advance cycling
• Use data and research that will help “make the case” for enhanced cycling investments and programs
• Learn about the infrastructure, education and awareness and legislative policies in Ontario to encourage cycling
• Learn from example what other communities are doing in the areas of law enforcement initiatives – education and awareness – public health ideas, bicycle tourism?

Also in theme with the Summit, several Ontario Bicycle Friendly Communities were announced: Ottawa – Silver; Waterloo – Silver; Ajax – Bronze; Windsor – Bronze.

Find out more by following the live content from Ontario’s Cycle Citizen.

Meghan Cahill
League Director of Communications

Cahill joined the League in December 2008 and has a BA in Media Communications with a concentration in Italian Studies from the College of Charleston.