CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Josh Underhay’s wife and brother are attempting to keep his legacy alive as a vocal advocate for cycling in Charlottetown.
Karri Shea and Mitch Underhay will launch an initiative called Bike Friendly Charlottetown on Monday, Oct. 28 with a meet-and-greet at the Haviland Club on Haviland Street at 7 p.m.
Josh Underhay and the couple's young son, Oliver, died in April after their canoe capsized on the Hillsborough River. Josh, a teacher at Birchwood Intermediate School, was running for the Green party in the provincial election at the time but was also well-known as a passionate advocate for cycling in the city.
“Now that he is not able to continue that (advocacy role) . . . Mitch and I have been working to start to get organized with a few other community members,’’ Shea said in an interview with The Guardian on Wednesday.
“We want to see more bike lanes in Charlottetown and there is no nexus point for that very specific kind of advocacy,’’ Mitch added. “We want to make that community.’’
Mitch said Bike Friendly Charlottetown is an independent, non-partisan group with an objective towards getting more people cycling and create interconnected cycling lanes. This group, he said, is meant to be a voice for people who aren’t avid cyclists, people who don’t feel comfortable riding next to traffic. Josh, on the other hand, not only cycled everywhere, he did it year-round.
“To have projects like this to work on and to find ways to continue (Josh and Oliver’s) legacy has helped me have purpose and something to do.’’
- Karri Shea, wife of Josh Underhay and mother of Oliver
“This is for people who aren’t quite so bold,’’ Mitch said. “This is for people who don’t want to go biking because there’s no place to do it.’’
Shea said she’s an example of who the group will advocate for, “one of the less avid cyclists who’s interested in cycling but I have a young child (three-year-old Linden) and I don’t feel comfortable taking him into busy streets with traffic so that stops me from cycling completely. We believe, and Josh believed, that if you could connect these places, more people would start cycling.’’
Josh did speak out in favour of the proposed Fitzroy Street bike project, which would have split the street in half with bikes on one side and vehicles on the other, but council ultimately dropped the idea following opposition from residents and businesses.
The city’s environment and sustainability department does have a map of what it calls quieter streets that cyclists can use, for example, to connect to Victoria Park and the downtown from the Confederation Trail. Cycling P.E.I. recommends people who cycle with children use sidewalks and has asked the province to change legislation that prohibits it.
Cycling P.E.I. also credits the work of Coun. Terry Bernard for spearheading a lot of the work that went into cycling routes in the city.
And, council recently gave the green light to creating a dedicated pathway for cyclists and pedestrians between the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and St. Peters Road with the ultimate goal of stretching it down to connect with the Confederation Trail at Mount Edward Road.
Shea said creating the advocacy group and working with like-minded people has helped her healing process.
“To have projects like this to work on and to find ways to continue (Josh and Oliver’s) legacy has helped me have purpose and something to do,’’ she said.
“It’s been a struggle,’’ Mitch added. “There’s no making sense of it. Trying to find purpose in the project to help remember them and see the vision that Josh had come to reality kind of brings purpose and feels good to do.’’
