Take the Lane

C'mon commuters, take the challenge

It was gratifying to look up the national Commuter Challenge website and see that there are 55 businesses and agencies from Waterloo Region that have registered for the 2009 challenge (even if three of them appear to have no employees). As a comparative, there are 19 registered from Guelph. The number who could take part in W'loo Region range from four people at Anton Consultants to the 7,000 staff at Research In Motion (that'll never happen -- how can they text and cycle?).

If you haven't already registered, you can do so anytime by going to the Commuter Challenge website and following the links. If you are in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge or any of the four townships in Waterloo Region, please-please-please register under Waterloo Region. It just drives the regional co-ordinators crazy when people try to register as though they lived in Galt or Ebytown.

If you want to track daily commuter results or highlights from this area or other areas, check out the results page. As the week goes on, the stats will be crunched to show, for instance, how much each community is saving in greenhouse gases.

And if the thought of leaving your car at home is still a tough sell, there are prizes for participants. Some lucky participant will win a balloon trip for two with Sundance Balloons. There is also a night out in St.Jacobs, with tickets to the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse and a $100 dinner gift certificate for Benjamin's. There are also prize packs of canoeing on the Grand, movies, and the like. Ah yes, self-interest as a motivator. Get more info at the Waterloo Region Commuter Challenge website.

Anyone want to host a bike polo demo?

If you know of anyone interested in hosting/sponsoring a bike polo exhibition match, Christina Mills would in interested in talking with you.

Her son is a bike messenger and bike polo fan who would jump at the chance to bring his bike polo friends to this area for an event. Here's chance for a local service club or bike shop to host something that might appeal to a large audience, or perhaps could be a fundraising event.

Email me  (bbean@therecord.com) and I'll pass along your responses.

Never heard of bike polo? Try this link for a peek.

Do signs reduce cycle-motorist conflicts?

One of the things I came back from Vancouver with was a respect for the bicycle signage provided by the city transportation department.

There were many dedicated bike lanes, with white painted diamonds and bike silhouettes; pole-mounted signs indicating bike lanes and reminding users to share the road; several overhead signs indicating which streets had bike lanes and naming the streets (depiction of a bike and the word "Cardero," for instance); standard traffic signs that indicated perhaps, "Left turn only, except bicycles;" and plenty of areas where bicyclists were advised to use the sidewalks and where the necessity of peds being on one side and bikes on the other was clearly spelled out. My only criticism might be the inconsistency of the signage: standard black on white traffic signs in one area, white on green in another, and some orange (rusty?).

I wondered if increased signage reduces bicycle conflicts with other users? Notwithstanding the inclination of many road users to roll through the average Stop sign, most of us -- cyclists and motorists -- obey Yield signs, Merge notifications, traffic signals and the like. If the expectations are there, in the apparel of officially sanctioned signage, will the herd simply do as it is told? If the sign says, "Left turn only, except cyclists," will all the motorists turn left, or will some of them follow the cyclist straight across the street? Will the restriction on motorists simply tick them off?

Your thoughts are welcomed.

Watch your bike when it's in a bus rack

A story that's been causing some buzz in the print and electronic media here in Vancouver is that of Chris Allcock, who put his $1,000 Devinci mountain bike in the front bike rack of a TransLink bus here on Sunday after a ride, and then when he came to his stop, found his bike was gone.

Allcock has contacted the transit authority, the police and the media, and is pretty upset (gee, why?). It appears from the Vancouver Sun report that the driver actually watched the bike being lifted out of the rack, but it is apparently not a driver responsibility to ensure that the bike is removed by the person who put it in the rack.

Allcock was not able to keep an eye on his bike because of bus crowding -- the driver told everyone to move to the back of the bus, and the cyclist did, thinking that his bike would be fine. In any event, the cyclist notes that he doesn't know what he was supposed to do about the bike thief. Step out and confront him on his own? Apparently, the driver would not have come to his rescue, and there is no provision (as yet) for locking a bike into the bike rack.

This is a new one for me, although I have wondered, watching my own bike bouncing in a Grand River Transit bus bike rack, what I would do if a) it bounced out of the rack or b) it was being lifted out by someone other than me. An object lesson to anyone using bus bike racks. Make sure that the driver knows you are staying close to the front of the bus, and be prepared to stop anyone from taking your bike.

Tour de Grand looking for riders

The urgent email from the Tour de Grand people has me wondering if all is well for the 12th iteration of this fun community ride.

The missive was a reminder that the Sunday, June 14th ride offers a reduced registration of $15 per person and $35 per family of four for pre-registered riders, and promotes itself this year as "the cycling deal of the year,"  offering a wicking T-shirt, refreshments, lunch and ride support valued at $40. Plus, since there is no fundraising requirement, "your family and friends still take your phone calls."

Hard to imagine that the ride will be undersubscribed: they usually run out of the 600 T-shirts for riders pretty early. If you want in, you can register online at the tour website.

B.C.'s helmet law and happy cyclists

I thought it was a jetlag-induced hallucination on Monday night when the cabbie took us in from the airport to Vancouver's West End and I saw two cyclists doing the unexpected.

First, they were young men wearing helmets. Yeah, it's the law in B.C. but it was dark, off the main roads and there are still plenty of riders who ignore any law that might interfere with their freedom.

Second, they had lights on the front and rear of their bikes. Maybe it was just a reflection. Two guys with lights on their bikes?

Third, they were wearing light-coloured clothing. Hmm, no funereal colours? I mean, you could see them in the dark. What's with that? Very strange.

And finally, they were smiling and laughing. Nah, couldn't be. Helmet, lights, bright colours? No one could be riding in those circumstances and having fun.

Hey, a little courtesy, please

Now that the cycling season is in full bloom, it is worth while to revisit a post from last year to remind ourselves, and so you can remind your cycling friends, to have some care when mixing with pedestrians.

And you can't get off the hook by saying, oh, I never ride on sidewalks. There are lots of shared use pathways out there, and you are going to find yourself sharing one of them with a ped, a stroller-pusher or a scooter user. So SAY SOMETHING. Say :"Excuse me." Say, "On your left." Say, "Look out." Anything.

There are a lot of peds who could be the allies of cyclists in our ongoing battle for road respect. But we drive them into the anti-cyclist camp by ignorant behaviour. I had another email from a ped who was knocked down by a cyclist this week (her second time. The first time, she lost some teeth).

How much does it hurt us to slow down, call out our presence, and even (horrors!) smile and wave as we go past?

Cycling in Copenhagen

If you have some spare time at work today, you might enjoy it cruising the Copenhagenize blog, where the blog author writes about cargo bicycles, free air-pumping stations and how it's not about being No. 1 but being No. 500,000 (the 500,000 cyclist).

You will especially like the videos about police stopping helmetless cyclists to convince them to use helmets, and the spoof of that video, where the helpful Dane stops cyclists to show them how to carry beer in their helmets.

Kitchener talks cycling

Want free refreshments? Want to talk about cycling? Come to Kitchener city hall on Thursday, June 4 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to meet members of Kitchener's cycling advisory committee and talk about the future of cycling in the city.

The committee is looking for input on what the city's cycling priorities should be, and is offering to show you, the cyclist, how to effectively lobby politicians to make your voice heard.

And, assuming that like-minded cyclists attend, you'll be able to meet and network with like-minded cyclists. You never know about these open meetings. Will anybody show? If no one else comes, that means all the more coffee, pop or juice for me, I suppose. 

And if you are the only other cyclist to attend, we can split the refreshments.

Toronto's glorious Bike Month

I realize every good Canadian should hate Toronto, but I have no trouble acknowledging my Toronto-envy as we roll into Toronto's Bike Month events, which kick off next Monday.

Just go to the City of Toronto cycling webpage and click on the Cycling Events Calendar on the upper right, and be amazed at the page after page of bicycle-friendly events -- rides, concerts, shows, races, seminars -- that run through to June 25.

Every year, I think about taking some time off just to go to T.O. to revel in cycle-dom. One of these years  . . .