The Beginning
In 2014, Anna Ho and Conrad Nobert along with a handful of friends in their south central neighbourhood started a grassroots group called Edmonton Bike Coalition.
The collection of people was a loosely formed social-media-driven group who lobbied the city for more major investment in bike lanes.
This group got a lot of media attention and pulled off a remarkably successful mosaic campaign. An image made up of more than 1000 photos of people with their bicycles was unveiled at city hall.
Across the North Saskatchewan River
In Spring 2014, there was growing debate and disappointment with the lack of cycling infrastructure in west central Edmonton.
During a monthly Oliver Community League meeting, the idea of establishing a working group to push for a bike lane from downtown through Oliver continuing west was tabled. The president of the league, Jarrett Campbell added that it was important to find support and volunteers from Glenora, North Glenora and Downtown.
Michael Phair volunteered to organize an initial meeting which took place in late Spring 2014.
Launch of West Downtown Complete Street Group
Volunteers from Oliver with some assistance from the other community leagues formed a working group known as the West Downtown Complete Street Group.
Over the next couple of months this working group met with Councillor McKeen as a representative of the area, the mayor and other councillors for advice and to garner support. They also mobilized community members with the help of David Shepherd and Robin Mazumder to create a pop-up bike route along 108 Street on September 20, 2014.
Finding the Path Forward
In 2015, Conrad and Anna decided to formalize their group and become a registered non-profit with a board of directors. This would make the group eligible for grants. Many of the West Downtown Complete Street Group members decided to join up with this formalized group which resulted in the wrapping of the Oliver-based team.
Together, they decided to change the name to signify the focus on the multi-modal, including but not limited to bikes. Paths for People would cover all forms of active transportation.
In 2016, Paths for People received its first grants and held its first big event, A City for Life, featuring world-renowned active transportation guru Gil Penalosa.
The success of this event attracted a new wave of members and lead to an intense lobbying effort to get a Downtown Bike Network built in Edmonton. Working with Stantec and the City of Edmonton, Paths for People played a key role in making the network a reality in 2017.
In 2017, with more success winning grants, Paths for People decided to shift from a working board to a governance board and hire its first paid staff, an administrator, Stacey Cann, and its first Executive Director–Co-Executive Directors, in fact. Conrad and Anna stepped off the board and took over those co-ED roles.
The next year, in 2018, we held our second City for Life event featuring a sold-out crowd and special guest Janette Sadik-Khan, from New York City. The local media ran a series of pieces about Sadik-Khan’s visit, including a front-page story in The Journal. We focused our advocacy efforts on 30 kph Residential Speed Limits and Vision Zero initiatives, Traffic Safety Act regulations and legislation, and expanding safe infrastructure into Strathcona and Garneau. Conrad, Anna, and Stacey decided to move on from the organization, which led to Sarah Hoyles stepping into the Executive Director role in September 2018.
2019 had big public engagement successes, with our first-ever Contraflow Series, Missing Links campaign and Open Streets event on Jasper Avenue, alongside our advocacy work focused on the capital budget, missing sidewalks, speed limits and other renewal projects.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the organization had a challenging year with COVID-19 completely altering our programming plans and revenue sources becoming hard to secure. As a result, we returned to our roots as a purely volunteer-run organization. However, despite these significant obstacles, Paths for People continued its advocacy work and offered some successful, yet scaled-back, programming. Some highlights include: E-Scooter to the Past, Car-Free Candy Cane Lane, Solstice Coffee Outside, Creatively Reframing & Reclaiming Public Space workshop with David Engwicht, Winter Cycling Mentorship Program, Active Places Series, GPS Draw YEG Challenge, How To Webinar Series, and our first online auction raising $5500.
The next year had similar advocacy and programming priorities, with some highlights being the #15MinCity Challenge, Old Strathcona Mural Scooter Tour, advocacy on the Gateway/Whyte Intersection, an awareness campaign on Snow Clearing and Winter Maintenance and work for the 2021 Municipal Election. Grant funding continued to be scarce, due to COVID-related financial pressures and reduced provincial funding, and Board Members continued to take on more of a working, rather than purely governance, role.
In 2022 and 2023, the board was primarily focused on advocacy efforts, like renewal projects, bike plan implementation and our Whereto Next Initiative, and strategic planning in order to keep our volunteer-run board sustainable.
We were able to run several impactful advocacy campaigns, achieve major active transportation wins, and increase our board training, which all contributed to the sustainability of our organization in 2024. Our biggest initiative was the relaunch of our Missing Links campaign, along with advocating to City Council on multiple high profile decisions including Zoning Bylaw Renewal, Public Spaces Bylaw, District Plans, Downtown Pedestrianization, Old Strathcona Public Realm Strategy and the $100 Million investment in the Active Transportation Network Expansion.
To the Future
As we hit our 10th year anniversary in 2025, Paths for People continues to flourish and champion active transportation for all Edmontonians, and can’t wait for many more great years ahead!
Board Members Who Served
Paths for People has done incredible work over the years and we couldn’t have done it without the hard work and expertise from our former board members and volunteers! We wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to these folks.