Halifax's new bicycle mayor 'on board with the idea of bold goals'

Although Halifax's municipal election isn't happening until next year, the city already has a new mayor — a bicycle mayor.

Haven't heard of a bicycle mayor? For 35-year-old Jillian Banfield, the job means a lot.

"It's kind of the intersection of everything I've been working toward for a long time," she said.

The Bicycle Mayor and Leaders Network is a global initiative by BYCS, a social enterprise based out of Amsterdam. The network's overall goal is to have 50 per cent of all trips in cities made by bicycle by 2030.

To work toward this goal, the enterprise is putting human faces to cycling through their bicycle mayor program. 

"The individuals in those cities can work on the issues that are local to the kind of cycling culture there, with the idea that everybody working on the particular issues of their city will contribute to this overall goal," said Banfield.

There are more than 70 bicycle mayors across the world. Banfield is one of four in Canada, with the others being in London and Waterloo, Ont., and Victoria, B.C.

She said she was nominated for bicycle mayor by the Halifax Cycling Coalition. She then collected six letters of endorsement and completed an application for BYCS before taking on the role.

'I've found a lot of freedom through cycling'

Banfield has been cycling for 10 years and has been advocating for cycling in Halifax for about five. She used to be on the city's active transportation advisory committee and was a board member for the Halifax Cycling Coalition.

She said her main goal as bicycle mayor is to raise more awareness about accessibility and the mobility that's enabled by cycling.

"As a disabled person, I've found a lot of freedom through cycling, and I don't think it's something we hear about a lot in Halifax or talk a lot about," she said. 

Banfield, who's had arthritis since she was a baby, said it's easier for her to use a bicycle than it is to walk.

She said cities need to have a better understanding of how cycling is used for accessibility purposes — and for other purposes, too.

"There's not a good understanding that there's a lot of parents or moms riding around, trying to get their kids to daycare, or there's underserved communities that don't have a focus on getting cycling infrastructure in their communities, but they still want to ride a bicycle," she said.

"I think opening up the representation of cycling in Halifax will really help in terms of people seeing themselves as belonging to a culture of cycling here."

Swaying the 99 per cent

Getting people in Halifax to give up their cars might be a tough sell. 

According to 2016 numbers from Statistics Canada, just over one per cent of people in Halifax commute to work by bike. That's compared to the 76.7 per cent of people who commute by car, van or truck. Eighty per cent of those are single-occupant vehicles.

Banfield said there are many people in Halifax who are interested in cycling, but won't do it because they don't think there's proper infrastructure in place.

"That's really the No. 1 barrier, is people don't feel safe," she said.

Banfield said building more protective cycling infrastructure would get more people out of their cars and onto bicycles.

She said attaining the organization's goal for 2030 might be challenging, but she's "on board with the idea of bold goals." She said Halifax is actually well-positioned to embrace this kind of goal, because its urban core is compact and easy to cycle.

"So, I think it could be done with the political will and the money behind it to get the infrastructure built in a reasonable timeframe," said Banfield.

"But, yeah, we'll see."

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