Radical cyclists peddle sharrow agenda in Victoria

Posted By: Simon Nattrass

04/13/2011 12:00 AM

In the middle of the night, with no warning at all, pedestrian infrastructure was savagely attacked by a gang of bike riding anarchists known to authorities only as the Other Urban Repair Squad (OURS). Shunning reason and civilization, these brutes painted another round in the series of sharrows marring our streets since 2009.

Or not.

Maybe a group of concerned citizens got together and decided to take up arms (read: paint) in the name of improving local cycling amenities. You figure it out.

Sharrows are road markings indicating a shared-use lane where roads are too narrow to incorporate a bike lane. OURS has been painting these markings around the capital since 2009, focusing on high-traffic areas with little existing bicycle infrastructure.

Yukon Duit, spokesperson for OURS says the group is painting sharrows to highlight the gap between car and bike infrastructure upgrading and maintenance in the capital.

“We’re talking about bike lanes that just disappear into the ether in the middle of a route. Imagine if these were vehicle routes — we would never do that to cars.”

According to councillor John Luton, due process — meaning engineers, studies, and consultation — is still what’s needed. OURS, in contrast, is undemocratic and unsafe. “I want this decision made by professionals, not by the self-appointed vanguard of cyclist’s interests,” Luton says.

Or maybe not.

“This is exactly what democracy looks like. It’s engaged citizens helping to shape the public sphere,” says Duit. “The City of Victoria collapsed its one formal group for cyclists to have their voice, so there’s no longer a direct route for cyclists to communicate our needs to the city.” As far as Duit is concerned, OURS is filling that void.

While the group doesn’t necessarily adhere to Transportation Authority guidelines when applying sharrows, Duit says that’s not the idea.

“Our point is not that we’re using the exact materials and spacing,” Duit says. “Our point is that the city should be doing it. This is the next best thing while we wait for the city and the region to take action. Of course the city is going to do a better job — that’s the whole point.”

In the end, while the goals of activists, radicals and officials (in this case, anyway) appear to coincide, debate over method may still doom future sharrows to less-than-legal status. M

Urban Repair Squad In Good Magazine

http://www.good.is/post/diy-urban-design-from-guerrilla-gardening-to-yarn-bombing/

Yarn Bombing Toronto

Urban Repair Squad at CCA Actions Exhibtion in 2010

Archive Page From The Canadian Centre For Architecture

MaSAT - Madrid Street Advertising Takeover

This original action was later expanded to liberate 106 billboards in Madrid on March 30th, 2011. http://www.publicadcampaign.com/masat/

With Love From Hannover (Germany)

Urban Repair Squad, Hannover on Facebook

Share The Road

COMPARTILHE A RUA from andre farkas on Vimeo.

O.U.R.S. Victoria Opens Urban Repair Season With Style

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VICTORIA’S ‘Other Urban Repair Squad’ (O.U.R.S.) STRIKES Again:
Cycling Activists Paint “Guerrilla Sharrows” to launch spring cycling season

March 22, 2011 - Coast Salish Territories, Victoria –
Victoria’s celebrated Other Urban Repair Squad (O.U.R.S) has painted more
“sharrows” along a busy commuter route in Victoria. The markings run
along Lansdowne Road, which links downtown with the Camosun and
University of Victoria campuses.

"Now that it's spring more folks will be riding their bikes to work
and school,” says Yukon Duit, spokesperson for the group. “We do our
nighttime urban repair work because of a simple wish to get more
people out of their cars and onto their bikes. We’d like to kick off
the cycling season on a safe note, and let cyclists know that even
though the City has forgotten about their infrastructure needs, we
haven’t.”

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.

It's been nearly a year since guerrilla sharrows were painted on
different sections of Hillside and Lansdowne - an area of town which
many cyclists agree should have more bike lanes connecting to the
downtown core. Yet, neither the CRD nor the Cities of Saanich and
Victoria have responded with any further developments.

Another set of guerrilla sharrows running along Lansdowne in front of
Camosun College were left untouched by the City of the Saanich – a
progressive move that was applauded by the cycling community.

"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
Region and City 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 three years ago.

Each year there are 1,300 crashes involving cyclists in British
Columbia, and on average, 10 people are killed. When car and bicycle
collide, the cyclist invariably loses.

“I was always afraid to bike to school before, but seeing the sharrows
on the road has helped me know that cars pay attention to me on my
bike” said Eva Moores-Afely when OURS interviewed random cyclists that
used the sharrows on their commute to Camosun College last year.

"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 was allocated to the Sustainability Department, yet nearly
$69-million was spent repairing major vehicular roadways into the city
and $3-million was spent on automobile parkades.”

“The City and the Region needs to put their money where their mouth
is, and do more to support commuter cycling,” notes Duit. 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.

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.

To receive more info or to see high resolution photos email:
oursvictoria@graffiti.net

Macdonell Sharrows Redux

P1030476, originally uploaded by Martinho.

The URS sharrows painted over by city workers last fall have resurfaced on Macdonell. Here is what they like before: http://urbanrepairs.blogspot.com/2010/10/mcdonell-sharrows.html
http://urbanrepairs.blogspot.com/2010/10/another-toronto-first-two-way-sharrows.html

An Answer To Rob Ford's 'War On Graffiti'

Urban Repair Squad in April 2009 took a different approach at the same location.

DIY Bike Lane Stencil Exhibition (Sao Paulo)

The Harbord Stencils Revisited

Originally installed Fall 2010

'Questions On Harbord Linger'

Harbord Street with parking on the right side instead of a continuous bike lane into the University of Toronto. The bright yellow stencil by the Urban Repair Squad resurfaces after being painted over with tar by city workers last fall.

URBANITÉS INATTENDUES - Opening Today

More info: CMAV

Centre Méridional de l'Architecture et de la Ville
Toulouse

http://www.cmaville.org/article-urbanites-inattendues-67154831.html

Shop with Self-managed Architecture, Noise Fridge, Coloco, Ctrl + Z, The Shed Vertical, Didattica, Encore Heureux Exyzt, Muf, Raumlabor, Recetas Urbanas, SYN-atelier urban exploration, Urban Repair Squad, J. Graham and T. Jusczyk, JP Ganem, Mossop + Michaels architects, G. Lang, AC Work, Office for Unsolicited Architecture (OAU), Mr. Rakowitz, playspace Foundation

Exhibition developed and presented by the Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Architecture de Toulouse in partnership with AERA, with the kind cooperation of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montreal Scientific commissioner Enrico Chapel, architect, teacher.

The exhibition presents a selection of urban situations which are defined at the crossroads architecture, art and politics: reversible and temporary buildings, plant, scenes, art, participative, gardens, play areas, informal settlements which are built ... or "self-build 'next steps of DIY', low-tech and ready-mades. The aim is to question their use value and symbolic value. To what extent these various situations they promote constructive appropriation of urban space and participation unscheduled fate of contemporary cities?

Sao Paulo: Cyclists Square Fifth Anniversary

Five years ago, cycling activists claimed a small square in central Sao Paulo for all cyclists.
The rest is history.

Billboard Hack

 http://wins.failblog.org/2010/04/12/culture-jamming-win-go-by-bike/

URS Goes To France (Toulouse)

Photographs and video of the work by URS will be on display in the upcoming exhibition at the Centre Méridional de l’Architecture et de la Ville, Toulouse, France.


The exhibition will open on February 26 and will run until 28 May, 2011. The exhibition deals with unexpected urban inter-ventions and urban actions, and 
is titled: Urbanités inattendues. Actions architecturales en ville.


Info: http://www.cmaville.org/

Common Sense by Yehuda Moon

Via http://www.yehudamoon.com

With Love From Guadalajara (Mexico)

Via Treehugger