Editor’s note: this is part one of a five-part series from Coast Reporter and Transportation Choices (TraC ) concerning commuter cycling on the Sunshine Coast during the annual Bike to Work and School Week of May 25 to 31.
With the Sunshine Coast’s fifth annual Bike to Work and School Week now less than one month away, now is the time to dust off your steed and get set to ride.
Judging by the volume of folks out at last weekend’s Earth Day celebration in Roberts Creek, Coasters are set to do just that.
TraC volunteers and directors tuned up just short of 60 bikes, countless more rode to Earth Day, and many took advantage of the eBike demo and display set up by Spin Cycles and eProdigy. BC Transit joined in the fun too, showing mode-sharers how to place a bike on the front of a bus, a great idea if the return journey is just too much for those tired legs.
Each year, albeit sometimes incrementally, improvements are made to bike infrastructure on the Coast. Bike lanes are added and marked out, trails linking communities are opened up, signage improved, and bike parking and lockers added to public and private facilities.
This year, Bike to Work and School Week is encompassing more school activity. School coordinators are being sought for all elementary and high schools, and separate activities and prizes are in the making.
Organizers are hoping for some great friendly competition between high schools and Gibsons/Sechelt businesses, involvement from local politicians and RCMP, and are planning a fantastic wrap up party.
Bike to Work and School Week is about encouraging as many people as possible to get out on their bikes, to show that cycling for transportation can be a viable, healthy alternative to sitting in a car. As many of the bikeways in Vancouver display, there is also safety in numbers that leads to a greater awareness of cycling.
Great appreciation goes to our generous sponsors, without whom the week-long event would be impossible. Already for 2015 there are too many to name — check the website at www.biketowork.ca to find out who are the players this year.
Volunteers too make up the week, with smiling faces at the celebration stations early each morning.
Sign up for BTWW at www.biketowork.ca/sunshine-coast, and let’s top last year’s 10,000 km total and give Victoria a ride for its money!
