Biking Across Canada

Across Canada, more and more people are using their bicycles for transportation and enjoyment. And cyclists have become a moving force, encouraging others not only to join the two-wheeled crowd but to lobby municipalities to provide dedicated lanes and greater safety for cyclists in major cities.

Official Carfree Days

Now that the good weather has arrived, cyclists and cyclists-to-be are taking out their bikes and heading for roads and trails.

If you think there should be more dedicated lanes for cyclists or you just want enjoy a day when you have control of the road, make note of the Carfree Day in your area.

• Toronto, September 22, Dundas Square, other Toronto locations
• Mississauga, September 22
• Kitchener-Waterloo September 22, Carfree Days/Local Motion Festival
• Winnipeg, September 22
• University of Ottawa, September 22
• Montreal, September 22
• Vancouver Father’s Day, June 21, Kitsilano, Main Street, Commercial Drive, West End

When the Official Day is Done

The real carfree party, says activist group Streets Are For People, is their alternative to the official Carfree Day in Toronto. Last year, activists there held parking meter parties on Queen Street—allowing only streetcars to pass—on Sunday, September 21. The deal is this: People feed coins into a meter and use the spot: kids play hopscotch or jump rope, hairdressers cut hair, and musicians such as The Pairs entertain. At the parade to wind up the day—someone pushed the piano, while people played—and a few hundred revellers took the street back.

Activist group Montréal à Vélo takes over the corner of McGill College and St. Catherine streets after Carfree Day officially ends at 3:30 p.m. for a Die-In. Wrapped in bandages, oozing fake blood or hobbling on crutches, last year about 300 cyclists fell down “dead” in the street for 15 minutes to disrupt traffic.
 

“We haven’t experienced any road rage [from motorists],” says Sean McBride, an organizer with Montréal à Vélo. “People stand around and watch, rather bemused or curious.” Curious enough maybe to get them to swing wide next time they pass a cyclist on a busy road.

Share the Bike

Last year, Time magazine declared Bixi one of the best inventions of 2008.  Bixi—bike plus taxi—is Montreal’s answer to a public bicycle-sharing program. Canada’s first such program, Bixi took just 10 months and about $10 million to launch. It’s based on a pay-and-go parking system Stationement Montréal (the city’s parking authority) had developed over six years.
 

“We went to the city and said, ‘You want a bike sharing program, we can provide you with one, and it will be cost-neutral,’” explain Alain Ayotte, Stationement Montréal’s executive vice-president. Memberships and corporate sponsorships bear the operating costs.
 

As of spring 2009, members can swipe a card at one of the 300 bike stations and grab one of the 2,400 bicycles. Memberships costs $68 plus tax, and the ride for the first half hour is free; beyond that there’s an additional fee. With a credit card, tourists can rent a bike for $5 a day.

Bixi is just the latest incarnation of the idea, first launched successfully on a large-scale with  Vélo’v in Lyon, France in May 2005. Vélo’v had 60,000 subscribers by the end of that year. Two years later Paris created the  Vélib program, and Barcelona the Bicing, and the cascade effect continues.

Toronto hopes for a summer launch of its bike-share program with 1,500 to 3,000 bicycles in the downtown area, says Toronto city councillor Adrian Heaps. “We’re not egotistical. We’ll look at the Vélib program and Montreal’s—we’d like take the best elements in the world and use them here.”

Which is fine by Montreal. They’d love to have other cities buy into their system.

“I’d like to see a Canadian system like the train in the 19th century,” Ayotte says. “[We’d have] a public bike system across the country: a user from Vancouver could use a bike in Edmonton, in Montreal, wherever—you’re a member of a national system. That would be great.”