Susan Stokhof

As the Bicycle Mayor of Victoria and the first in Canada. My focus is on the normalization of cycling in a region where sport and recreational cycling is the norm. Cities around the world are implementing purpose-built infrastructure to promote cycling. Victoria has the mildest climate in Canada and moderate topography, it’s the perfect location to experiment and design a city for people. To elevate cycling as a normal everyday activity that millions partake in every single day will form the cornerstone of the work I want to accomplish.

It’s time for our citizens to think beyond the automobile and join the cycling revolution. Building a multi-modal city that enhances the places we live, work, and play that deeply impacts our health and wellbeing and shapes our experience of a neighbourhood is a vision that I think everyone can see themselves in.

I believe that cycling can touch people's lives in the most profound ways by the way we interact with each other and our environment. Taking ourselves out of the car bubble and onto the streets as cyclists and pedestrians allow for a stronger connection between citizens.

Using Amsterdam as the role model for this approach, it took a number of decisive events for Amsterdam to succeed in becoming the bicycle capital of the world. It was fierce activism (public outcry), social change (1970’s oil crisis & stop de Kindermoord), & strong political will to take the first steps in becoming a truly cycling city. It didn’t happen overnight in Amsterdam & it won’t in our cities either. I'm in this for the long haul.

One of the most important lessons I brought home with me from my studies abroad at the University of Amsterdam is that it’s the people moving through the streets that matter most, not moving automobiles. Safety of the streets in the Netherlands is set up for people. The social consequences of a normalized cycling culture are far-reaching and I think it builds trust and confidence and permeates every aspect of social life.