Take the Lane

Car-free Sunday will be a hot ticket

It really will be Square2Square on Sunday when Car-Free Sunday #2 kicks off, linking City Hall in Kitchener to the Public Square in Waterloo.

There isn't much new info at the Square2Square website, but there has been some chatter on the Car Free Sundays Waterloo Region Facebook page: sounds like Bike Polo will be back and there will be a KDUB Water Gun Bubble Battle (possibly at Ethel's in Waterloo). Expect music, vendors and lots of people cycling, walking, skateboarding and inline skating.

The fun begins at 11 a.m., with a 3 p.m. wrap. With the Kitchener Ribfest and Craft Beer Show at Victoria Park anchoring one end of the route, and the Uptown Waterloo Jazz Fest anchoring the other end, King Street will be a hot ticket this Sunday.

For some, cycling is all about the chic

Want to cycle chicly? You can't go far wrong if you follow the example of Lorena Beightler, the style guru for the Sacramento (Calif.) Cycle Chic.

This article, from the Merced (Calif.) Sun-Star online, is a republished version of a Sacramento Bee story by Sam McManis. It's an interview with Beightler, a 40-something landscape designer and bicycle fashionista who is an unacknowledged disciple of Copenhagen's Mikael Colville-Anderson, the godfather of Cycle Chic.

Beightler has taken to heart Colville-Anderson's 10-point manifesto for chic cycling (choose style over speed, contribute to a pleasing urban landscape, inspire others through example, and so on). I especially liked Beightler's comment that on a bicycle, she does not sweat, she "sparkles."

Would have been useful guidelines to have had before Sunday's Car-Free Sunday event, but there's another one coming up on Sunday, July 17, so if you're planning to be stylish, the "manifesto" would be worth a view.

We stagger toward bicycle friendliness

Is a bicycle-friendly future for Waterloo Region a reality within our reach, or is it just a mirage?

I read with interest this interview in Richmond.com with cycling infrastructure planner Mia Birk, who will become bicycle and pedestrian planning co-ordinator for Richmond, Va. next year.

One of the questions had to do with key steps to a successful non-motorized urban renovation. She highlighted a number of points including: personal travel planning programs (similar to the transportation demand managers that the Region of Waterloo has and the City of Kitchener has approved for 2012); car-free events (which Waterloo just held and Kitchener is being dragged kicking and screaming into); and safe routes to school (which the public school board just adopted).

There were a whole lot of other things we fall short of: understanding and seeking a Bicycle Friendly Community designation; creating an integrated bikeway network; and taking bold and visionary steps. This is Waterloo Region. We prefer baby steps.

Nonetheless, I can see progress. This is not just some mirage shimmering on the horizon. It is real. It is happening. It's just happening slowly.

 

We had a good time on King Street

I had a fantastic Father's Day, cruising Waterloo's Car-Free Sunday with my son.

Nate provided tech support for live Tweeting from the first such event in Waterloo Region, where King Street from Union Street to Erb Street was closed to traffic. That section of street was taken over by walkers, joggers, skateboarders, inline skaters, cyclists, bike polo players, street hockey players and others.

There was a whole lot of street chalk being used, as by this family (with their Runners push bike in the foreground and their Xtracycle in the background).

I believe Waterloo Coun. Melissa Durrell, who posed for the obligatory "thumbs up" photo just as things got going at 11 a.m., originally hoped for 10,000 people to come out.

That was when it was to be two cities. With one city participating, you could hope for 5,000.

I don't know how many were there. Pretty hard to do a head count when people are ebbing and flowing through the day.

I will say that some people will take a "glass half full" rather than "glass half empty" approach to this first Car-Free Sunday.

One person I chatted with said he felt a bit embarrassed for the organizers because the turnout seemed so light. Another said that he was amazed that so many came out simply because there were no cars on the street. "There's no buskers, no jazz festival and look at all the people."

Looking up and down the street, there seemed to be quite a crowd.

Good turnout for the KW Bike Polo at King and Allen, with the occasional request by passersby to have a go. Nate also posted some video from the Bike Polo location via my Twitter feed.

Not quite as many as one might have hoped at the Cycle-Chic-like "style ride," where cyclists were encouraged to wear clothes usually considered more suitable for a night out than for cycling. They, and the large group of Waterloo County Wanderers, made the trip all the way through to Kitchener's downtown, partly to make the point that although King Street was closed south of Union to the pedestrian portion of the Car-Free Sunday participants, it couldn't be closed to the cycling portion, because bicycles are legal road users.

The Norman Street Moms bicycle decorating tent was busy, as was the road hockey game in front of it. Families with kids were crowded around the tent front to get coloured pipe cleaners and crepe paper streamers to bedeck their bikes.

Speaking of bedecked bikes, who was that family who decided to clip cardboard squares to their chain stays and rattle them in their spokes? I was transported back in time as they brrrrrr-ed up and down King Street.

The scene at Sabletine Fine Pastries, transported me in place, with bikes parked out front, and relaxed riders enjoying a pastry before continuing on their way. A bit of European relaxation in our midst. I heard that Sabletine's doubled their expectations of business today.

Certainly, the Dairy Queen was doing big business. I couldn't get through the door. I was luckier at Whole Lot-A Gelata, where the crowd spilled onto the sidewalk and the street. I heard in the gelato shop that this was the busiest Sunday ever. I wandered over to PDR Picture Framing, expecting to hear a less enthusiastic response, but he was as happy as the gelato place. Busiest crowd he'd seen in a long time. "We never get this many people down here." Having said that, no one bought anything (no one wants to take a picture home on a bicycle, I guess), but he was confident he would see some of the curious shoppers again.

Some entrepreneurs, such as Street Strider Ontario, took their sales pitch straight to the street. Others, such as The Toy Cupboard and the Crystal Palace Chinese food place, treated the event like a sidewalk sale and did a brisk business. That King Street Cycles was not open seemed like an opportunity missed. And Brick Brewing! No tastings with a warm day and all those people passing by?

Of course, the Car-Free Sunday event is not about business. It's about community. Cyclovia events worldwide are intended to get people out of cars and onto the streets, using their feet -- cycling or walking -- to get around, look around and learn more about their community.

It was a chance, too, to see some of the ways people get around: Xtracycles, old Peugots, low-rider trikes, scooter-bikes, and this Segway, used for errands by Fred Ullman. He paused for a photo, but then had to get his eggs and meat home to the fridge.

I understand a "tweed ride" is in the works for a future Car-Free Sunday. I'm hoping to see some home-built and one-off bicycles at the next event, Sunday, July 17.

I'm looking forward to this next Car-Free Sunday, aka Square2Square, and hope you'll be able to join me.

 

Really excited about Car-Free Sunday

I've been watching The Weather Network like one obsessed for the past few days, hoping for good weather for Sunday's first attempt at a Car-Free Sunday in Waterloo Region.

There hasn't been much action on the Square2Square website, where even the home page photo is night photo of downtown Waterloo (it's during the day, people!).

Much of the chatter has been on the Car Free Sundays Waterloo Region Facebook page, where various individuals have posted about participating, or at least participating in one of the future Car-Free Sundays.

My plan is to be riding the route on Sunday, chatting with people and taking photos that I will post here, and on Twitter. Follow me here on Sunday.

Ever tried polo, old chap?

The KW Bike Polo group is planning a demonstration event on Sunday, June 19 as a part of Car-Free Sunday in Waterloo.

They'll be setting up in front of the Bauer Lofts at King and Allen, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nets, cones and mallets will be provided. John Hymmen describes the setup as "pretty ghetto, but cool nonetheless." All you have to do is bring your bike, helmet and willing spirit, to take part in a most unusual bicycle sport.

If you don't want to try it yourself, come and spectate.

Chic cyclists invited to Car-Free Sunday

If you like to cycle and like to turn heads, you'll have your chance on Sunday, June 19 with a "cycle chic" event during the region's first Car-Free Sunday.

Cycle Chic is the brain child of ex-Calgaryian now living in Copenhagen, Mikael Colville-Anderson. Cycle Chic is about style, not spandex (unless the spandex is shiny, dance-club grade).

Colville-Anderson's cheeky website is subtitled, "Hold my bicycle while I kiss your girlfriend." It features largely pictures of stylish women, sexy women, sleek women, flirty women, oh, and the occasional well-turned-out gent, riding bicycles in Copenhagen, Paris, London, New York, Dublin, Montreal, and well, you name it.

Waterloo Region has not yet made the list, but there's no reason not to. The slick chap with white trousers and a black shirt, toting his computer bag on a Dutch-style bike on King Street recently could have come directly from the photo archive of Cycle Chic.

So, our friends at the Tri-Cities Transport Action Group are sponsoring a cycle chic-like event on the first of the Car-Free Sundays, on Sunday, June 19. You are cordially invited to leave your Lycra at home, and wear a skirt, slacks, wing-tips or heels, a vest perhaps or that Euro-striped pullover. A baguette and a bunch of flowers in your front carrier would complete the picture. As much as helmets might be encouraged for cycling generally, those participating in a chic ride might prefer a fedora or cloche. If you have a "fascinator," this would be the opportunity to cycle with it.

Details of the Car-Free Sunday chic ride are here.

Go chic and turn some heads.

Square2Square website is working

With a little more than a week to go until Waterloo Region's first Car-free Sunday, the Square2Square website is finally up and running.

The website is mostly empty at this time -- the events list, for instance, doesn't actually list any of the events, and the rest of the categories are simply "Coming soon," but I still give Melissa Durrell and Daniel Glenn-Graham points for their enthusiastic embrace of the concept.

I plan to be there and hope to see you there, Sunday, June 19.