Repainted Bike Lane Symbols

Public Support for OURS in Victoria

http://mondaymag.com/articles/entry/letters-july-8/

http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/Unofficial+sharrows+make+roads+safer/3245114/story.html

Awesome O.U.R.S. (Victoria) Strikes Again (Press Release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
‘Other Urban Repair Squad’ (O.U.R.S.) Hits Victoria Again:
Cycling Activists Paint “Guerrilla Sharrows” in Response to Slow Expansion of Bike Lanes
(Lansdowne Road between Richmond Road and Foul Bay roads)

June 24, 2010 - Coast Salish Territories, Victoria –Victoria’s Other Urban Repair Squad (O.U.R.S) has painted more “sharrows” along a busy commuter route in Victoria. The markings run along a street linking downtown and Camosun and University of Victoria campuses.

"It's been nearly a year since we painted the sharrows on Hillside and there's been no action at all from the CRD in terms of providing more bike lanes," says Yukon Duit, spokesperson for the group. The Hillside sharrows were subsequently painted over by City workers last July.

Sharrows – short for “Shared Use Arrow” – are bicycle-and-chevron markings indicating a shared use lane. The markings are used in cities across North America and Europe on roadways that are too narrow to incorporate a full bike lane.

Sharrows were adopted last year by the Transportation Association of Canada, which approves standards and guidelines for road design and markings across Canada. The markings have not been officially adopted by any of the municipalities in the CRD, although they are used to designate major bike routes in many other cities in Canada - most notably in Montreal and Vancouver.

"It’s clear that despite touting Victoria as the cycling capital of Canada, the CRD and the City do not see cycling infrastructure as a priority,” states Duit. “None of the City of Victoria’s $189-million 2010 budget has been allocated to the Sustainability Department, yet nearly $69-million will be spent repairing major vehicular roadways into the city and $3-million will be spent on automobile parkades.”

The City of Victoria 2009-2028 Capital Plan Project Budget allocates $2-million for a bike lane along Yates from Government to Wharf. Duit, however, says that the funds are misdirected.

“That’s a lot of money to spend on one block – and a lane on a downtown commercial block does not do much to support commuter cycling,” notes Duit. Alternatively, bike lanes along the Hillside-Lansdowne corridor would encourage cycling among the University of Victoria and Camosun College communities which see over 34,000 students and 5,000 faculty and staff accessing the campuses during the school year. Studies have shown that the biggest barrier to getting more people on bicycles is the perception of danger on the road due to inadequate cycling infrastructure.

The sharrows were painted 2 weeks ago. “I feel much safer having [the sharrows] there,“ says commuter cyclist Idid Itoo. “Cars and trucks are definitely responding differently, and giving me more space on the road.”

"We know from our experience that painting bike lanes is cheap. You can buy a lot of paint with $2-million, so we thought we'd show the CRD how it's done. Again," says Duit. “For its part, the City is making decisions in the dark, without the input of the cycling community, and at a snail’s pace” claims Duit, pointing to the shutting down of the City of Victoria Cycling Advisory Committee nearly two years ago.

O.U.R.S Victoria is part of a larger international network of Urban Repair Squads across North America, Europe and South America that encourages people to reclaim ownership and stewardship of urban spaces by constructing urban infrastructure through direct action.
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For more information:
To receive more info on the whereabouts of the new sharrows or to see photos email: oursvictoria@graffiti.net

O.U.R.S. Victoria media (2010)
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/97162834.html

O.U.R.S Victoria media (2009):
http://www.mondaymag.com/articles/entry/to-diy-or-not-to-diy/food-and-life/ http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/Sharrows+need+official http://www.timescolonist.com/news/City+crews+obliterate+guerrilla+road+marks http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/City+erases+more+bike+sharrows+Hillside http://www.timescolonist.com/travel/Cycling+activists+leading

An earlier report by City of Victoria Councillor John Luton on the success of sharrows in Montreal:
http://cyclfac_toolbox-3wc.thecyclistwebhouse.com/sharrows/Index.htm

Zebra

Brazil 2 X 1 North Korea - Cidade Universitária bridge, Sao Paulo

With Love From Lyon, France

Lots of people gathered on that peculiar Saturday afternoon (may 29) with the motto « draw yourself the bike lane you always asked for ». Indeed, bikers associations have been asking for real bike-lane planning in Lyon for years without being even heard. The existing bike lanes are ageing (pictograms disappearing...), mysteriously stop at dangerous crossroads, do not cross over bridges (there are many in Lyon), are not connected etc.

Despite, the major is boasting about “Lyon being a great biking city”.
Obviously, he has never tried biking around... This symbolic action was an attempt to draw everybody's attention and to show it is possible (and quite easy !) to create bike lanes. If we can do it, the city can surely do so...

The action was repeated the following Saturday to create bike lanes against the traffic in one-way streets in Lyon city centre. The city centre is a 30 km/h speed limit zone and all one-way streets should be opened to two-way traffic for bikes (as allowed by regulation). But once again, the municipality does not seem ready to move on. The action demonstrated the feasibility of such an urban
development... Let's hope it will inspire our city council !
Links: http://velorutionlyon.free.fr/article.php3?id_article=292
http://velorutionlyon.free.fr/article.php3?id_article=294

URS In The Toronto Star

As the Star’s Robyn Doolittle reported in June, 2007, a group of activists calling themselves the Other Urban Repair Squad began putting unofficial — and illegal; they could have been arrested — bicycle lanes on city streets, using hot pink paint.
It was a protest against the city’s years-behind-schedule program to expand bike lanes. The painting had to be done during the rush hour, the only time cars wouldn’t be parked where the bike lane would be.
Doolittle accompanied the squad on one foray along Bloor St. She wrote, "Commuters instinctively take their positions, and bikes head right for the new lane as drivers dutifully merge left."
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/816124--how-one-french-town-deals-with-the-inevitable-car-bicycle-rivalry

ATSA - Change (Toronto Free Gallery)

ATSA is Proud to present CHANGE at the TORONTO FREE GALLERY! Closing Saturday, July 24, 2010.

CHANGE, is ATSA’s complete body of work together in one location, enabling the visitor to discover or rediscover this socially engaged collective through an appreciation of its overall output.

EXHIBITION, ART, DERIVED PRODUCTS FOR SALE!
EVERYTHING MUST GO!
FROM $2 TO $2,000!
www.atsa.qc.ca
CHANGE, a retrospective of ATSA’s work coupled with an intervention on marketing, all at a “store” near you!
CHANGE, a platform for reexamining the major societal issues covered by ATSA: wealth and resource distribution; rampant consumerism; stewardship of our natural, built and intangible heritage; addiction to fossil fuels; violence toward children; globalization; and more.

Crossing the bridge

One of the main challenges faced by daily bicyclist's in Sao Paulo is crossing the bridges over Pinheiros and Tiete rivers.


Last sunday, Urban Repair folks painted more than 40 sharrows in Cidade Universitária bridge, warning drivers about the existence of bikes on the road that connects Pinheiros neighborhood and Sao Paulo University (USP).


The painting happend just after a solidarity gathering for a young bicyclist hit by a car in a street close to the bridge. Relatives of the young Tomas said the accident was not driver's fault.


The repair men and women painted "Devagar Vidas" on the ground, highlighting the importance of lower speeds in the city. Photos: aline / macacoveio

Le Ruban Verte Marseille TV Report

With Love From L.A.'s Dept of D.I.Y.

Operation Caelia Shortface from The Dept of D.I.Y. on Vimeo.
Close to 1000 signs were posted ... totally amazing!

A Different Path - HotDocs May 7 at the Royal | International Premiere

"Have you noticed that communities have been replaced by commutes, and pedestrians by parking lots? A handful of activists, sick of living in a car culture, decide to mobilize against automobiles. Seniors on scooters in Seattle, clown cyclists in Toronto, kayak commuters in New York and Portugal unite! Demanding sidewalks, curbs, and car-free days, protesters plan parties and absurdist actions to persuade others to join the revolution. They amuse in an effort to raise awareness about mobility issues. Richard and Cleta create a DIY scooter lane, while Michael dresses up the Klownen Führer. A lack of access to safe walkways and bike lanes has trapped large portions of the population, but since when does not being a driver equate to not being a citizen? Streets may have become the domain of cars, but they were originally intended for people. The time has come to take them back." - Angie Driscoll

Fri, May 07 7:15 pm | The Royal
Sun, May 09 6:30 pm | The Cumberland 3 http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/a_different_path

Official website: thirtymilesfromanywhere.com
Official trailer: Trailer | Director(s) : Monteith McCollum

City of Toronto Announces Bike Boxes Pilot Project (Maybe)

Too bad they had to take this one out.
Toronto's First Bike Box was installed by URS in 2008.
Let's see if they actually paint them.

In any case, why wait?

News story

Ghost Bike & Traffic Calming Action in Sao Paulo (Devagar Vidas)

http://www.apocalipsemotorizado.net/2010/03/29/noticias-de-uma-guerra-publica/
Ghost bike installation for Manoel Perreira Torres. Photo by Va de bike

With Love From Bratislava

Cykloguerilla Manifesto - Bratislava, Slovakia

We have had enough! To hell with the Mayor, who doesn't treat cyclists as full-fledged citizens. To hell with the City's and the city districts' administration who have been inactive in marking new biking lanes in the city. Initiative is in our hands now. The City hasn't been able to provide us with the working system of bike lanes in the past 20 years, so we are going to mark them ourselves. End to the ignorance of bike traffic, we want to travel safely in the city.

Who are we?

We are the people, who want to disburden the jammed roads and therefore we use mostly a bicycle to travel. We are not against the car traffic, but alone we don't find it sustainable - drivers see that everyday stuck in the traffic jams. We think bicycle is an ideal vehicle for a city - it's fast (door-to-door speed), amphibious (it can use roads and paths where roads are dangerous) and ecological.

What do we want?

We want bike lanes in the city that will serve for the safe bike traffic. The city bike lanes are not those recreational (e.g. embankment by the Danube river) - those serve for sports and to the tourists over the weekends, definitely not to day-to-day traffic to work or just to a café. Neither those amputated stumps leading from nowhere to nowhere (e.g. Trencianska street) are bike lanes - those are just the lame attempts of City administration to check off some activity.

What we do?

We show the City administration that marking the bike lanes is easy - a can of spray, a template and a little bit of common sense is enough (they haven't found it at Mayor's office in 20 years).

Contact?

cykloguerilla@gmail.com

More photos here
Cykloguerrilla Blog
(translated from Slovak via Google Translate)

New Bike Signage in L.A.

Photos by GB Chan
Full Story GOOD and Ecovillage

Intervention by L.A's Dept of D.I.Y.
(a.k.a. URS Los Angeles)

Heath Warning Stencil

    
Fine work from Ireland.  "Traffic Fumes Are Seriously Damaging Your Health"
Heath Warning Stencil by King Dumb

WHUMP! BAM! POW! BONK!

NEW WORK
PHOTOS 
ADDED
MARCH 22

Holy Cr*p!

New Work by URS. Harbord Street.
Saddletramp wrote: "The action-hero drama of dodging obstacles and potholes, escaping devil-may-care drivers in super-fast cars, and braving the fierce, temperamental elements, may seem, and feel, quite comic. Unless you're face-down on the pavement. With some wit, we endeavour to provide warning with humour; suggest danger with comedy; invite caution without frightening... and most importantly, we appeal to our fine city to remember that potholes aren't just uncomfortable, they really, really hurt."
More photos here
Fonts: Hobo & Badaboom

Articles & Kudos:
Torontoist March 25
Torontoist March 10
GOOD Magazine
Wooster Collective
Treehugger
CBC Radio 3
The L Magazine (Brooklyn)
Label Networks (Youth Culture Magazine)
SanArt Contemporary Art & Culture News
ArtSlant (Contemporary Art News)
Tako, propagande culturelle (Suisse)
ArtsBlog (Italy)
Australian Cycling Council
Car Free France
Brooklyn By Bike

Roadsworth Quoted

"The road is therefore, representative of many things on a symbolic, psychological, and practical level. It exists in a symbiotic relationship to the automobile for example, which is in turn related to the oil industry, which has a relationship to the military industrial complex and so on. The more roads there are, the more cars there are. The more cars there are, the more need for oil there is. The more need there is for oil, the more weapons are needed. The more weapons there are... This chain could equally be read in reverse, each link the catalyst for another chain reaction, and it is hard to say, at least for someone like myself who is not well versed in history, which came first: the chicken or the egg? The car or the cruise missile? This is inevitably a simplistic assessment of the situation but the point is, the road and its particular language (i.e. street markings) is for me, loaded with significance and therefore, ripe for re-interpretation. And because the road seems to take itself so seriously it is also a tempting target for satire. Road markings are for me, a metaphor for a certain state of mind and relationship to the outside world that is endemic of our time, and is engendered by driving."
Via NY Arts Magazine

University of Toronto LED Billboard Hacking

Photos by Kevin Bracken via Spacing a few years ago.


An action by U of T student group called 'Cars Off Campus".


How-To Link