On November 7, 2018, Vélo Canada Bikes invited leaders in North America’s bicycle advocacy, planning, engineering, and bicycle manufacturing and distribution industry to a day-long series of presentations and workshops about the future of cycling in Canada.
The final workshop was a collaborative, rapid-fire planning session:
Feedback Frames were used to combine brainstorming with secret ballots to rate each idea following the presentation and group discussions. Ideas with more than one dissenting vote were disqualified. This left the group with 3 ideas that achieved 100% agreement and 4 ideas with near unanimous agreement.
The outcome was a road map to guide strategic actions in the near term that can be articulated as follows:
- Establish an Industry advisory board (also known as EPIC: Enterprises Promoting Investment in Cycling) and fund a 1-year pilot to grow joint VCB and Industry initiatives heading into next election.
- Undertake the following activities:
- Lobby government to incentivize cycling by providing rebates for purchasing bicycles + tax exemptions for consumers and industry.
- Gather industry and consumer data.
- Communications with industry to build relationships with industry EPIC partners to help disseminate information and act together.
- Seek government funding for schools for bikes and programs
- Explore the idea of creating Capacity Building grants administered by EPIC that connects and funds local advocacy groups, campaigns & projects.
- Explore the idea of “Give-Backs” on employee purchases as directed by bicycle manufacturers.
Thanks to Yvonne Bambrick for her leadership in this project and for the amazing photos.
