Why does the subject of bike lanes create such emotional responses, particularly among men of a certain age? Does this have anything to do with assumptions about how we should design cities, our transportation priorities, appropriate behaviour and even assumptions about the future? Let's explore.

Gordon Price 

Gordon Price is the director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. In 2002, he finished his sixth term as a city councillor in Vancouver. He also served on the board of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (Metro Vancouver) and was appointed to the first board of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (TransLink) in 1999.

 

Price is a regular lecturer on transportation and land use for the City of Portland and Portland State University. He writes a monthly column for Business in Vancouver on civic issues, and he conducts tours and seminars on the development of Vancouver.

He also publishes an electronic magazine on urban issues called Price Tags, and he has been published in several journals, including Inroads, the Canadian journal of opinion. He blogs atpricetags.wordpress.com.

In 2003, he received the Plan Canada Award for Article of the Year for Land Use and Transportation: The View from '56 from the Canadian Institute of Planners. In 2007, he was the winner of the “Smartie” People Award from Smart Growth B.C. In 2009, he was made an honourary member of the Planning Institute of BC.

Price sits on the boards of the Sightline Institute and the International Centre for Sustainable Cities. He is also a member of local districts for the Urban Land Institute and Lambda Alpha International.

About the Philosophers' Café

Philosophers’ Café is a series of informal public discussions in libraries, cafés and restaurants throughout Metro Vancouver. The cafés, which are open to everyone, have brought dialogue and discussion to thousands of people who are interested in exploring issues from the absurd to the sublime. To learn more about the Philosophers’ Café, please visit their website.