General

Because It's 2022: My #vanpoli Election Guide

Advance voting started this past weekend. Despite having some candidate ideas, I was largely unprepared to vote. I realized that what I needed was a tool for organizing the most important factors for my picks for Vancouver mayor, council, park board and school board: values and affiliation.

Because It's 2022: My #vanpoli Election Guide

Publication Day

Three-plus years ago, I still didn’t quite know when (or if) I would ever attempt to write this book. To say that much has changed—in the world, let alone in my life—would be a serious understatement.

Publication Day

The Party for Your Right to Bike

When summarizing Gregor Robertson's ten years as mayor, any historical perspective on the City of Vancouver will undoubtedly refer, perhaps quite pointedly, to his responsibility for the growth in cycling — the activity, and more importantly the infrastructure that enabled its growth.

The Party for Your Right to Bike

On Bikes & Elections: A Conversation with Joel Solomon

"That Vancouver is now one of the top cities in North America for protected bike lanes is unbelievable; the substance of what’s happened is pretty dramatic. Public perceptions and attacks is a whole other part of the story."

On Bikes & Elections: A Conversation with Joel Solomon

Kicking ass and taking names (with map)

Who's made their mark and contributed to cycling improvements in the region over the past 30+ years? Thousands of people, too many to name and hunt down. Here are some of the people I've spoken to.

Kicking ass and taking names (with map)
GeneralColin SteinComment

Shift gears, find higher ground.

Today, a friend texted me a link to an op-ed in a major Canadian newspaper, headlined "Ban the Bike!" It was as much my friend's preamble to the piece, as the piece itself, which got my knickers in a twist. Something along the lines of, 'I thought this made some good points — what do you think?'

GeneralColin SteinComment
Shift gears, find higher ground.
GeneralColin SteinComment

This is not about cycling

The challenge is how to make this about more than ‘just cycling’. It's something many writers face — how to write something that is, ultimately, about something else. Deeper thoughts about freedom, community, and social equity. You know, hope-y, change-y kinda stuff. Or something like that.

GeneralColin SteinComment
This is not about cycling

It's like that

Their stories span the course of over 30 years — people pushing for safer, more accessible, and more equitable streets, communities and cities. But the most satisfying part of capturing these stories is everything else — the personal histories, some highly relatable, some vastly different from my own, and all of them fascinating. 

It's like that

Unsafe at 18 speeds

I had been looking for an excuse to rethink my career priorities, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. “Now’s the time,” I said to myself, and I wrote a rant on my blog, in the hopes that it might lead to some further inspiration on the subject of cycling in Vancouver.

Unsafe at 18 speeds