January 15th marks the start of a province-wide campaign by cycling safety advocates to make winter cycling safer by encouraging people to report potholes on their ride. 

The BC Cycling Coalition and BikeMaps.org have teamed up to mark National Pothole Day, an annual event that started in the UK, by encouraging British Columbians to report potholes and other road hazards online for a full month, starting this Friday.

“Potholes, and other hazards related to poor maintenance, cause many crashes each year that, if no motorized vehicles are involved, are not tracked in official databases,” said BikeMaps.org Executive Director Karen Laberee. “We’ve learned that less than 30% of crashes involving bicycles are reported, even though many involve serious injuries and costs.”

BikeMaps.org allows users to log bicycle crashes, near misses, hazards and thefts anywhere in the world on a map; the BikeMaps.org app and website were developed as a research project led by the University of Victoria starting in 2014. Today, municipalities around the world use BikeMaps.org data to fix problems they otherwise wouldn’t have known existed, which has been especially helpful for smaller municipalities without reporting systems for residents, like 311. 

Saanich is one B.C. municipality that has incorporated BikeMaps data into its transportation planning. “It does allow cities to be more proactive in how we look at problem areas,” Harley Machielse, Saanich’s director of engineering told The Victoria Times-Colonist. “Instead of being reactionary, which is a traditional method in looking at ICBC crash data, this type of information allows us to be on the proactive side.”

Starting on January 15th, National Pothole Day, the BC Cycling Coalition is asking winter cyclists to use BikeMaps.org to report hazards, and to take pictures and post them on social media using the #potholesbc tag.

BC Cycling Coalition Executive Director Colin Stein points out that winter cycling is common in many northern communities around the world despite snow and cold weather, especially as e-bikes have opened up the possibilities of year-round cycling to an even larger pool of users.

“Winter cycling is a real thing, and it’s not that hard to keep warm, dry and comfortable, but road hazards add risks and danger to people on bikes,” Stein said. “Pothole Day, as the kick-off to this month-long campaign, can build awareness about the value of BikeMaps.org for hazard reporting so winter cycling can be as safe and appealing as possible to everyone.”

“Plus, BikeMaps.org can help municipalities that lack resources, because it’s free. Getting detailed information to municipal engineers quickly is an invaluable part of maintaining safe bike routes, and that’s why we’re so supportive of BikeMaps.org.”

BCCC and BikeMaps.org will be hosting a free online workshop on Friday, February 12th at noon to demonstrate the app’s hazard reporting functionalities to transportation and public works professionals, such as planners and engineers. Registration for the BikeMaps.org workshop is open to the public, at bccc.bc.ca/bikemaps.org

For more information about National Pothole Day and the BikeMaps.org pothole logging campaign, contact:

Karen Laberee
Executive Director, BikeMaps.org
klaberee@uvic.ca
(250) 818-7803

Colin Stein
Executive Director, BC Cycling Coalition
colin.stein@bccycling.ca
(778) 908-0185