Bike To Work Day: May 6th

Submitted by ride on

The fifth annual, 2011 Bike To Work Day takes place Friday May 6th. This is the day to get your fair-weather, summer-only cycling friends to get on their bikes and ride in to work. There will be seven energy stations at key points around the downtown core where cyclists will be handed goodies, and there is a pancake breakfast taking place at Eau Claire for all riders.

Join in the fun! Full details at the Bike-To-Work Day website.

Will you be participating as a rider, or perhaps as a volunteer? I'll be at the Centre St. & 2 Ave station, so stop on by and say hello!

The seven Pedal Energy Pit Stop Stations enroute to your destination are listed below, and shown in the map further below.

  1. Bow River LRT Bridge – on south side of Bow River near 10 St. SW
  2. Prince’s Island Bridge
  3. Fort Calgary on 9th Ave. SE (at Elbow River Bridge)
  4. 8th Ave. & 8th St. SW (north of railway underpass)
  5. 10th Ave. & 4th St. SW (across from Mansion Nightclub)
  6. Pathway on the north side of the river east of Edmonton Trail
  7. Centre Street and 2nd Ave S.W.

Forums: 

Volunteering

Submitted by InglewoodGuy on

I am off on Friday, so no work to bike to. I'll be an event photographer, so I'll be roaming around the pit stops & Eau Claire snapping pictures. Everyone say cheese!

Not to be a party pooper

Submitted by trickywoo on

but I find the staff of some of the LBS' nearly stepping in the way of cyclists to give them free stuff annoying and dangerous.

That being said, folks should support their LBS when buying bikes and parts, and for maintenance.

Commuting is great exercise and it gets me to work -- all in one fell swoop.

Pooper

Submitted by ride on

Yes, that would make you a party pooper. Or just cranky.

Having worked at one of the stations this morning, what I found surprising is the glazed look in the eyes of some of the cyclists who are so totally focused on rushing to work as fast as possible that they can't even take a moment to wave back at the volunteers who are there to celebrate Bike To Work Day with them. Might as well be in a car if you're going to be that unaware of your surroundings.

Then too, one guy didn't stop or wave or even look... maybe it's because he was on a longboard doing 30 km/h in the left lane coming down the Centre St. hill!

And one guy who did stop to chat had just bought a new bike from an on-line vendor out of the States.

Still, it was great to talk to all the cyclists that did take a moment to pause and chat, and pick up the kit containing info on upcoming bike-related events like Mia Birk's talk next Thursday May 12th, or the Cycle Swap May 28th, or the MEC Bike Fest June 11th.

I missed all the free stuff!!

Submitted by furey on

I was planning on hitting up the Fort Calgary station this morning, but by the time I got there, there was nobody there (unless I'm totally blind and didn't see them)! I want free stuff! Granted it was close to 9:00 when I got there, I guess I need to head out a bit earlier next time.

Was there a good turn out? Was there lots of new riders riding just for Bike to Work Day?

Just curious

Submitted by gyrospanner on

How many of your thirteen are commuters on a regular basis? And how many people in your office?

Did you have to coerce, bribe, or guilt any of those people to ride today?

Cheers

There is me..

Submitted by Scott on

There is me and 1 other guy gauranteed all year round. 2 more are fair weather riders and the rest were coerced. Our total staff I think is around 40+

We ran a fun scam... the big boss who got the handlebar sign on his bike there... his son is doing a fund raiser right now so we came up with the idea to each chip in $5 if the boss rode with us. He got nothing if he didnt. It was also done covertly. His wife was notified to wake him this morning and tell him he is riding to work and some guys were coming to get him. 2 of us met him at his door. We had his bike as we stole it days earlier and tuned it up for him. He was surprised this morning to say the least. It was kept secret in the office for days with a threat that if anyone spilled the beans, they had to donate $50 to the charity. It worked. 11 of us showed up and escorted him to work and staff were waiting with a pancake breakfast ready for us all. Good fun. The other 2 guys rolled in on their own. Some guys rode big distances on really crap bikes. Proud of them.

All day these guys who never ride or rarely do have been talking bike talk. lol. Hope it carries forward and we see more of them out.

That's awesome Scott! I

Submitted by furey on

That's awesome Scott! I tried and failed to get anyone from my office to bike to work today. I think next year I'll plan it a bit earlier and try to make it a big event like you guys did. Great idea.

X2

Submitted by Jaykay65 on

I mentioned earlier that, I am in a new office. A lot of young folks, 25-35ish and when they found out I rode today, several were like "oh man, if this old f**t can do it, I will as well." Everyone wants me to notify them next year and the challenge will be on. Discussing a competition against our corporate office at the Old Brewery.

So..

Submitted by Scott on

So our calculations are in. Based on distance into work we can figure out distance home. Our 13 riders will have roughly covered 296km today. Not bad.

Gravel Trucks, AaaRRggGGHHH!!!

Submitted by gyrospanner on

I've taken some bad-choice routes north of the city (kinda' around Symons Valley Ranch) and I know what you're talking about!

You're riding on roads with no shoulder (well maybe 4.5") and they come up behind you barrella$$ing away, hit you with a Bow-Wave that just about forces you into the ditch and then they blow by you, leaving you to deal with a big Maelstrom Dust-Storm that again, threatens to force you into the ditch.

And sometimes, because of traffic coming the other way, the squeeze is pretty scary!

Ride Safe!

Thanks for posting all that.!

Submitted by gyrospanner on

I watched the video where Mr. Balbi noted that gas is $1.23 a liter. That's a great reason to commute!

For the second time in my life today, I put over $100 worth of gas in my truck - YIKES!! I wish I was twentysomething again and it cost less than $20 to fill my car (and you could buy draft beer for 25 cents during Happy Hour), which is a really dumb argument because I never had $20 in my pocket anyways.....

hahaha

Submitted by Scott on

Oh those were the days. I recall in the mid- 80's a gas war that put it at 17 cents a litre for a few days. It was great. Mmmmmm... cheap beer. Miss that too.

Update...

Submitted by Scott on

Looks like some residual excitement for cycling from our successful Bike to work day is still in effect. Today we had 6 bikes in the shack so I built a bike rack on our wall to accomodate the growth. Normally there might be 3 bikes on any given day, maybe 4, never 6. Hope it continues.

Photobucket

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