Recap: 2016 Ontario Bike Summit
Want to know more about what was discussed at OBS 2016?
Click here to view our "OBS16 At A Glance" document.
The 8th Annual Ontario Bike Summit (#OBS16) took place April 19th and 20th, 2016 at the Eaton Chelsea Hotel in downtown Toronto. The theme was "What's Next for Cycling" and included:
- Keynote addresses from Nicole Freedman (Chief of Active Transportation & Partnerships, City of Seattle); Kathryn McGarry (Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation); Peter de Jager (writer and expert on issues of municipal change) and the Honourable Glen Murray, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
- Welcoming remarks from members of the Queen's Park All-Party Cycling Caucus
- Presentations and workshops addressing our summit theme focusing on innovative engagement, data collection, leveraging open data and network maintenance
- An Open Space session on "Growing Cycling in Rural & Northern Ontario"
- The 2016 Bicycle Friendly Communities Awards Reception
- Pre-summit sessions including a Toronto Bike Ride and Tour and the ever popular Bicycle Friendly Communities seminar
Thank you to everyone who attended - we look forward to seeing you again in 2017!
Our 2016 summit agenda can be viewed here
Wheels of Change Advocacy Award
Each year, Share the Road recognizes the impactful work of advocates across Ontario with our Wheels of Change Advocacy Award. This award recognizes leadership, innovation and relationship building in cycling advocacy. Award recipients are nominated by their peers and selected by the Share the Road Board of Directors. This year, the recipients were recognized at the Ontario Bike Summit.
Winners
Organization - Culturelink
Individual Advocate - Bob Bell (Guelph)
Individual Proffesional - Adam Krupper (Thunder Bay)
About the Ontario Bike Summit
The Ontario Bike Summit provides a forum for decision-makers to be inspired by best practices from around Ontario and beyond, to gain the practical skills necessary to act on that inspiration and to build new connections to learn from the growing network of people interested in making Ontario the best place in Canada to ride a bike. For a summary of past summits:
Since its inception, the Ontario Bike Summit has been the premier event where decision-makers, practitioners and advocates come together to learn and discuss strategy for making Ontario's roads safer for all road users. The collaborative, results-focused nature of the Ontario Bike Summit has led to some incredible results, and has put cycling firmly on the radar of decision-makers at all levels of government. Successes include:
- In 2013, then Transportation Minister Glen Murray announced that a new Cycling Strategy for Ontario would be created by the fall of 2013. The resulting document, #CycleON, lays ambitious targets for Ontario for the next 20 years, with the overall goal of making Ontario the most bicycle friendly province in Canada and one of the best jurisdictions in the world in which to ride a bike.
- In 2014, Minister Murray announced the First #CycleON Action Plan, which included a host of legislative changes and the long-awaited Cycling Infrastructure Funding for municipalities in Ontario. This $25 Million fund is available to improve cycling facilities on various pieces of infrastructure under the jurisdiction of both municipalities and the provincial government, an important step in making Ontario more Bicycle Friendly.
- New investments in vital pieces of Ontario's Waterfront Trail made because of connections built at the Ontario Bike Summit.
Each year the Summit delivers inspiring keynote addresses, hands-on workshops and valuable networking opportunities with cycling stakeholders and members of the Queen's Park All Party Cycling Caucus.
2017 Sponsorship and Exhibitor Opportunities Available - Contact [email protected] for more information
We thank our 2016 Sponsors for their assistance in making this event possible:
With support from:
Thanks to our Media Sponsor:
