The promotion of cycling is essential to building, growing, and sustaining the future culture of cycling.
The City of Toronto does its part to promote cycling within the city. Toronto's bike plan includes the promotion of cycling. Bike Month, the Bicycle Friendly Business Awards, and the Ambassador program are but only a few ways that city itself promotes cycling.
Promotion doesn't end with the (would be) cyclists themselves. Promotion can take many forms, and some is aimed to attract and build ridership. But other promotion is meant to encourage investment in cycling infrastructure, including end services (bike parking, etc) at various destinations by businesses and attractions. Governments and businesses also need to know about some of the benefits that cyclists provide to our communities.
Cycling tourism is another example of how we can be promoting the many benefits of cycling to our communities. Back in January, the Ontario Cycle Tourism Forum hosted an event to discuss cycle tourism, and to share this message with Ontarians. We heard about the economic benefits of cycling tourism, and also found out that costs to build bike friendly places and destinations was minimal, and are paid back quickly. We also learned that there are spin-off benefits for local cyclists: we can also enjoy the same destinations by bike that we are trying to attract cycle tourists with, and thereby build healthier communities for us all.
The Clean Air Partnership's own report "Bike Lanes, On-Street Parking and Business" also highlights some of the benefits of cycling infrastructure to our local communities, such as the fact that cyclists tend to buy more over a period of time, and that we buy more frequently. From a business perspective, cyclists are good for local businesses because they provide businesses with faster cash flows, and larger cash flows. What's not to like?
CultureLink and the Toronto Cyclists Union are doing their part to promote cycling to new immigrants. They launched a new cycling promotions program. More info
What else can we do to promote cycling and grow our culture?
What else can we be doing to convince our governments, and business owners, of the economic benefits of investing in cycling?
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