Since 2020, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has teamed with City of Brampton, the Federal Government’s Healthy Communities Initiative, and United Way, to fund projects in Bramalea’s K, E, and F sections as part of the Bramalea Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan (SNAP). More background about the Bramalea SNAP project can be found in a previous post.
The BEA has been fortunate to receive funding from the TRCA each year, since 2022, for delivery of projects within the Bramalea SNAP area. Cindy Evans has been the BEA lead for for the past 2 years. This year, however, the project was split in two with half the deliverables in 2025 and the rest to be delivered in 2026.
Cindy Evans is a tireless advocate for safer streets. When she isn’t practicing her art or music, Cindy loves riding her bicycle, not just in her Bramalea neighbourhood, but throughout the city. She has also cycled throughout Ontario and in Europe. She loves sharing her experience and expertise while giving back to her community. Cindy is a member of the Active Transportation Advisory Committee which provides advice and guidance to Brampton Council on issues related to human powered travel, primarily walking and cycling. She is also a member of BikeBrampton and the Brampton Environmental Alliance (BEA).
A focus area of Cindy’s project this year and next is to build on one of the SNAP goals -to encourage active transportation in the E, F and K sections of Bramalea while fostering a safe, connected community of students who ride their bikes to school.
Spring audits of Bramalea Secondary School and Earnscliffe Senior Public School demonstrated that, despite lack of on street cycling infrastructure, 28-32 secondary students and 17-19 middle school students were riding to school on a regular basis. Cindy’s project aimed at improving the safety of student and community bicycle riders.
She did this by first recruiting four youth leaders who were taught bike safety basics over 5 sessions in July and August with the help of experienced adult trainers. Next she organized a free bike repair pop-up at Bramalea Secondary School with the help of the Brampton Bike Hub operated by Punjabi Community Health Services (PCHS). There participants were shown how to do basic bike repair and maintenance.
Finally, with permission from the administration, she helped students at Earnscliffe start a Bike Club, . Helmets were distributed to those students without, (including customized helmets for Sikh boys donated by Bold Helmets a Brampton based manufacture of specialized helmets). Bells were installed, tires were inflated, and brakes checked on all student bikes at each of 4 Bike Club Meetings. Middle school bike club members were mentored, by the youth leaders, on bike skills and safety techniques. Each session ended with a short neighbourhood ride on trails and roads.
Bike Club 2025 ended in November with a route planning workshop using paper and Google maps. Students who attended 3 or more Bike Club sessions were given rechargeable rear lights upon completing a short paper questionnaire.
A benefit of this grant being split into two years is that the Bike Club will restart at the end of April 2026. Cindy plans to create bike repair and cycling events to encourage more students to safely experience the joys of riding to school and having fun with their neighbourhood friends.
