At the end of June, Scarborough Cycles held its second annual Cycling Summit. With over 40 people in attendance, it was a chance for advocates, community members and others working in cycling to connect, share stories and strategize about opportunities to grow cycling in Scarborough neighbourhoods. City staff were on hand to take suggestions on how to improve the 10-Year Cycling Network Plan and two students from SATEC shared how their bike club was teaching newcomers how to bike.
The evening also saw the launch of TCAT’s Scarborough Cycles Snapshot, a short two-pager that explains our approach to incubating cycling in a nutshell. Trudy Ledsham, the Research Lead for Scarborough Cycles, provided an overview of the current state of cycling in Scarborough – both the barriers and the opportunities. She described the four-step model our team piloted in Scarborough, which aims to remove barriers and encourage cycling adoption in neighbourhoods with high potential, but where few people currently cycle.
In the fall, TCAT will be releasing a longer report, describing this process in more depth. We’ll also be hosting a couple of workshops across the city, targeted to health, settlement and community agencies, as well as bicycle advocates working in suburban neighbourhoods. Interested? More information to come!