Over 70 people attended the AGM this year, with guest speaker Jamie Stuckless, Executive Director of Share the Road Cycling Coalition. Lots of great information was shared!

The evening began with the usual AGM stuff…call to order, financial statements, etc. It was followed by a brief presentation by Yvette Tendick, GCAT president, presenting some of the highlights of 2018, such as the Ride the Ward Rides with your Municipal candidate, and partnering with the Guelphpolice to encourage people to register their bikes with project 529.

Our big projects in 2019 will be encouraging the city to install a minimum grid of protected bike lanes (as was recently approved in the Kitchener capital budget), as well as beginning a pilot program for Bikes for Refugees, including a mentoring program.

Jamie Stuckless from Share the Road spoke next. The focus of her talk was the Share the Road’s new campaign, entitled #BikesCanDoThat.

On a local level, she let us know that Guelph will maintain it’s Silver Status with Bike Friendly Communities, which is a Share the Road program that monitors cycling progress in cities across Ontario.

According to Share the Road, our strong points are:

• Achieved 3% target for cycling modal share
• Growing network of cycling infrastructure, including focus onaddressing “pinch points” and trail crossings
• Strong partnerships with stakeholders like GCAT and police services to support programs

What we need to work on:

• Identify and work towards a higher modal share target
• Conduct a gap analysis to build a minimum grid
• Investigate bike share
• Adopt a Vision Zero Policy
• Encourage businesses to become Ontario by Bike certified

On the subject of #BikesCanDoThat, many graphics were offered to make the point that:

1. 2 way protected bike lanes have a capacity of 2,000-3,000 persons per hour per direction, while cars only have 700-1,100
2. 32 % of Ontarions want to cycle to work
3. Separated bike lanes make roads safer for cyclists, pedestrians and motorists.

As well, the new board of directors for GCAT is now formed.  The members are:

Ted Bangay, Laura Brown, Mike Darmon, Suzanne Gates, Jordan Richard, Yvette Tendick and Luke Weiler. Congratulations to all!