The 'Ride the Road' tour on Sunday June 5th is an on-street, closed-road bicycle tour that highlights the need for dedicated bicycle infrastructure to encourage 'more people cycling more often'. The tour starts in Tuxedo or Millrise and Stanley Park. More info from Tour de Nuit Society:
This year we kick off Alberta’s Environment Week as we usher in a new season. Experience Calgary like you never have before. Traverse the city cycling on roads in complete safety on your bike! It only happens once a year. The 'Ride the Road' tour is a hub and spoke ride modelled on London, England's Skyride. This is billed as a commuter event and is not a race - no one is left behind.
Calgary Police Services provide a rolling closure to give participants the experience of cycling in complete safety on major roads. You can ride all 25 km or customize the length. The proceeds are used by the Calgary tour de nuit Society to offset the substantial costs of mounting an event of this size.
Come out and promote the substantial benefits of cycling to: public health, the environment, traffic congestion and the social fabric of our neighbourhoods.
Check out the event poster (PDF).
Sunday
Submitted by Cword on
It's currently forecast to be a lovely day. Anyone giving "Ride the Road" a try out?
Someday I'll have free Sundays (I currently give them to my grandmother)
Gary not sure many agree with your comment
Submitted by umgray on
“The Ride to Road Tour is the reason why all this cycling activity is happening in this city,” says Gary Beaton. “It’s the seed that everything is derived from.” Quoted from the Calgary Fast Forwad artice this week.
Garry, this is a pretty bold statement and quite the FU to the hundreds of other bike enthusiasts who are working towards bicycle safety and recreation.
Good luck in going at it alone.
Fact checkers.
Submitted by chrisguy on
FFW don't need no stinkin' fact checkers. After reading that I stayed home and tuned up my bike.
Agreed
Submitted by critninja on
Dillusions of grandeur.
I'm pretty sure we get more people on bikes on our night rides throughout the year - sans po po.
Turned off
Submitted by DD on
I saw the article and that quote completely turned me off from the event (this year and probably beyond). Before that, I was interested in the ride, particularly the newly added north 'spoke' leg component.
How'd I miss this?
Submitted by BCDon on
Well here I am sitting with my iPad checking out some websites while procrastinating cutting the lawn for the first time and I see this thread. As a cycling advocate, I'm miffed that I didn't see this post earlier so I could have gone for a ride on a great day.
I'm not sure why but for some reason this thread didn't make it through to me in time and I'm on this site a few times a day. Oh well, the grass is slowly drying out so I'll be out there in a bit for a few hours.
Hope folks have a good time on the ride.
I rode the roads without police escort
Submitted by ride on
Hoping to catch the tour, I rode through downtown and down McLeod Trail with nary a scare nor a police escort, and turned onto 42 Ave just in time to see a cyclist coming from Stanley Park, riding the wrong way on the road and then turning into a parking lot to put his fancy bike on a car. Is this the type of cyclist that the Ride The Road tour attracts? I sure hope not.
I arrived at the park about 10 minutes after the group, so I was told by a volunteer, who said that there had been about 200 people on this year's ride - which sounds about the same as last year. A nice touch, there was a live band playing in the park. There were tents set up by some local bike shops - MEC, Tuxedo Sports, Calgary Cycle among them - and a few people standing around talking, but fewer than 50 I'd say. Where did everyone go?
Big bully! ;)
Submitted by Scott on
I was loading my bike into my car to leave when Stewart rode by and told me to ride home! Big bully. lol.
No worries buddy. I had put on about 100k over the previous days and was spent. Plus, I live wayyyyy the hell down south, another hour roughly I just didnt want to ride. Plus... bike is a mid 80's trek I bought for $150 at the bike swap. Not that great. Car is a piece of crap too. Nothing fancy about this guy. I represent the riders who ride year round but not every day. I ride about 3-5 days a week. Other days I drive depending on if I need to run around, get my daughter, or things like that. I would love to be car free but its truly not feasable. As for my parking spot being so close... when I arrived... I actually had no idea where the park was. I had never been there. I was so surprised when I rode around the corner (literally) and seen it was right there. Had to laugh though. You missed the ride dude! I totally expected to see you there. Oh... and for riding the wrong way... only that last small block to get into that parking lot. I didnt feel like hopping that lane divider in the way. Easier to hop on the sidewalk for 50 yards.
For those who want to see some of it, I made a vid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1O9tqZeG0g It doesnt show any of the stuff at the grounds. You can see pics here http://mybohemia.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/sunny-sunday-bike-ride-with-strangers/
It sure was smaller than I expected. Lots of interesting bikes to look at. I love seeing what others choose to get them around. Everyone took off once the ride was done. It would be great to get all these people out on the night rides. They want to ride and create exposure? Night rides do it. I see more peole looking at us ride by on any given night ride than I did the whole tour of this Road Ride. A lot (a third) of the Sunday ride was on back roads where there were no people.
ha!
Submitted by ride on
Cool, another BikeCalgary supporter on the Tour. When I called to you, I was just taking a wild guess that a cyclist near Stanley Park would have been on the tour.
Don't feel badly about the wrong-way riding... I just had a motorist try to come at me the wrong way on 4 St SW at lunch-hour today.
In your video, I count about 85 riders. Good to see a few youngsters along. And a couple of interesting bikes - I spotted a 'bent and a tandem.
4th Street underpass
Submitted by fastlayne on
Had to avoid a car doing the same at 5:45 today on my way in. Don't under estimate the speed of stupid.
Sunday sometimes
Submitted by gyrospanner on
can be "Fix the Bike Day!" I had to go buty a new seat, the old one fell off on the comute home on Friday (PITA X2!).
I had visions of going for a quick blast on my bike after I fixed it, but decided to cut the away the jungle that my lawn was hiding under and made a chain whip, as I need to change my cassette soon. Not to mention finding my rain gear for next week (I think I left it under the Ark in my back yard? HAH!
If you were able to get out for a ride, I hope you had a good one!