I’ve worked in financial reporting and data analytics most of my life. As we all know, to gain or keep a competitive edge, businesses measure practically everything. From worker productivity to past performance of goods and services, most items that have a meaningful impact are analyzed. In order to maximize profits, businesses use data and turn this into information because – as someone famous once said, “Knowledge is Power”. Resources available to a business are scarce and they need to utilize them efficiently and effectively. Why am I mentioning something so obvious? Because the scarcity of resources is the main difference between businesses and governments. It appears that the main driver of efficiently, the scarcity of resources, is not a constraint for governments since they can simply raise resources by raising taxes. Therefore the need to analyze past programs isn’t needed. If fact, looking at programs is actually detrimental for current government leaders and managers. If a current or past program was ineffective in producing the desired or stated goals, then future pet projects might not be funded. And we can’t have that, can we? That’s why a Letter to the Editor in today’s paper is very interesting. It seems that Bruce Glebe, the author of this letter spent 7.5 hours of his time recording bicycle traffic “in front of Forest Hill Public School on Westmount Road on six different occasions. These included weekdays and weekends, at various times during the day and for 75 minutes for each session. Observations occurred in August, September and October, all with favourable weather conditions.” And his results: “During that time, I observed just 35 cyclists using the lanes. That works out to about one cyclist for every 13 minutes!” This outcome more or less mirrors my observations as I’ve travelled on Bridgeport and Erb Streets in Waterloo. Almost no bike traffic – but lots of cars squeezed into fewer lanes. Now Mr. Glebe’s study is in no way scientific or statically accurate. But has anyone else heard of a traffic sample or study that refutes Mr. Glebe’s analysis? Is there one brave member of Regional Council going to ask the Planning or Traffic Committees for any data regarding bike lane usage? I predict a solid “Nope”.
