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Hornby bike lane: Year 12, the war continues

September 9th, 2010 · 68 Comments

Just kidding with that title, but that’s what it feels like already.

Anyway, I didn’t cover any of the brouhaha this week so far but here it is in summary: Cycling group announces survey saying lane will bring more cyclists and business into downtown; city holds technical briefing; business group announces survey saying every business on Hornby hates it and thinks council is out to get them (or words to that effect).

To kick off any more discussion anyone may wish to have here, I’m re-posting a comment deep in a thread on another post that provides a thoughtful, intelligent analysis of the city’s current consultant process.

From Morven:

I think it would be fair to say that among my concerns, the timing and the process are high on the list.

Anytime you turn a policy into reality, you have to start consultation early. And, more importantly, have the consultation , whether an abbreviated or a full process, run by an independent consultant.

Why?

For one, the credibility of the process and the information is vital if there is any hope of consensus.

If the consultation is run by the same people who developed the policy and provide advice to decision makers (as well as take political direction), there is, for many otherwise reasonable citizens a real or perceived conflict of interest. There is simply too great a risk of institutional bias skewing the results.

Note, I am not suggesting any malfeasance. But even in the best run organizations, there is a phenomenon known as optimism bias. Quite simply put, when the organization has a vested interest in a politically advantageous outcome, it is extremely difficult not to err on the side of optimism.

(optimism bias is not confined to engineers, I may add).

Now, Vancouver probably has one of the highest concentration of impact assessors, urban planners and transport planners anywhere in North America so outsourcing some consultation functions is not a resource problem (the financial aspect is another matter).

In case you asked, I am not involved in local consultation initiatives. But at one time I was involved in issues like radioactive oil field waste management and oil rig construction siting, – issues that generate strong reaction to put it mildly.

I recently read the Request for Proposal for the Toronto Bloor Street/Danforth Class Environmental Study of the Danforth Bikeway. I have to admit that Toronto is way ahead of us in Vancouver in independent and integrated bikeway assessment. They take this seriously in Toronto at both the political and administrative level and no reason why we could not adapt some of the Toronto bikeway lessons to our issues.

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